Intel Haswell: Coming to a PC near you in 2013

Unveiling details of what will be possible with its upcoming 4th Generation Core processors code named Haswell, Intel on Tuesday demonstrated how effortless it could soon be to interact with our personal computers using voice recognition, gesture tracking and touch. Kicking off the Intel Developer Forum 2012 in San Francisco, Dadi Perlmutter, Intel's Executive Vice President, revealed how Haswell processors will deliver greatly improved compute and graphics performance along with drastically lower power requirements and hence much longer battery life. And physically thinner form factors.

"The great thing about this one is that it was designed with mobility in mind," said Perlmutter during his talk. Haswell processors are slated to start appearing in PCs and laptops in the first quarter of 2013. Tablets and laptops could be the first devices running these new processors in the coming months.

Haswell is a new processor architecture manufactured using the same 22nm process and "3D" tri-gate transistors as the current Ivy Bridge processors. Intel has focused on improving graphics performance and reducing power consumption, improving its optimisation to make it faster than Ivy Bridge even at the same clock speeds.

"There's more innovation coming to the PC in the next 12-18 months than we've seen in the last decade", said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager, at a follow-up demonstration. The low-power processors aim to set a new standard for mobile computing experiences and innovative, leaner and lighter ultrabook, convertibles and tablet designs.

Intel and MasterCard also showcased for the first time MasterCard's PayPass Wallet card that uses NFC technology on an ultrabook laptop to both secure and simplify the online buying experience. Instead of key-entering card details each time and risking malware threats, here the MasterCard PayPass card only needs to be tapped on a laptop embedded with Intel Identity Protection Technology safely share the buyer's information with the merchant and close an online transaction. Intel's Identity Protection Technology enables two-factor authentication and hardware-based display protection to secure users against online card misuse and other threats.

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