Intel ‘Haswell’ chips are 4th-gen CPUs primed for mobile computing

We almost, almost missed this story and ironically, it’s one of the most important tech innovations to emerge this year. Intel’s revealed it’s fourth-gen CPU, called “Haswell”, and it’s specifically aimed at making mobile computing faster, better and more hardcore.

Perpetual computing

At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Haswell has been revealed to have 20 times more power than the 2nd-gen Intel CPUs of yore. Additionally, and by 2013, Intel plans to add CPUs with even lower power requirements then the just-announced Haswell chips.

According to Intel vice president David Perlmutter, the new CPU heralds an era of “unprecedented innovation”:

The 4th generation Intel Core processor family and our new line of low-power processors will usher in an era of unprecedented innovation in mobile computing,” Perlmutter said. “Our focus to deliver even lower power with the great performance that our processors are known for is as fundamentally significant as when we shifted our development focus beyond sheer processor speed in 2001. As a result, you’ll see our customers delivering sleek and cool convertible designs, as well as radical breakthrough experiences across a growing spectrum of mobile devices.

Here’s what the new 22-nanometer chips should deliver: Intel HD GPU support, new “hardware based security features” and significantly improved battery life.

Tablets and mobile devices receive the lion’s share of Haswell-related goodies. Windows 8 devices with Atom and Core CPUs gain new features and applications specifically created for the Haswell chips. We love it when hardware and software join forces like this.

Developers get first knock at the Haswell CPUs. The Perceptual Computing Software Development Kit (SDK) beta is being released early next quarter. Dev’s will be able to “bring gesture interaction, facial and voice recognition, and augmented reality to life.” So in other words, the power of Kinect will be shoehorned into the next set of ultrabooks and mobile devices, hopefully. For those hungry for more on Haswell, read the full press release here.