Intel seeks Android-on-Atom MID deal with Google?

Daft not to

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

10th July 2009 09:19 GMT

Intel is wooing Google to port the Android operating system to Atom, according to noises coming out of Taiwan.

The claim comes from Taiwanese makers of handheld internet tablets - what Intel calls Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Atom is Intel's smallest and lowest processor family, designed for MIDs.

Intel has long been keen to persuade OS developers to support its processors. In part it wants to stop being seen as solely interested in Microsoft Windows - as it once was, when 'Wintel' was a common way to describe PCs.

Intel has cosied up to Linux developers for a long time, and recently began pushing Moblin, its own open source OS optimised for MIDs and netbooks. Moblin development continues apace, but Intel has never said the distro commands all its Linux loyalties.

This is one reason for the recent news that it is working with Nokia to align Moblin with the Finnish phone firm's Maemo, the Linux distro that ships with Nokia's internet tablets.

And hence Intel interest in Android and - no doubt - Google's upcoming Chrome OS too. Google says Chrome is for netbooks, Android for smartphones, but we imagine Intel wants to get both running on Atom chips, no matter what devices those processors end up in. ®