Intel Bets on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with 2012 Release

Intel is awaiting the arrival of Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich mobile operating system before the first smartphone running the new mobile OS and Intel’s Atom x86 architecture gets released sometime in the first half of 2012. The company, which had previously banked on its MeeGo OS with Nokia, has shifted focus in recent months to concentrate on Android.

Android, which was initially released for the ARM architecture, is seeing favor by Google. Though Google is working with a variety of chip-makers and hardware partners for the ecosystem, it has chosen Texas Instruments to provide the processing power and Samsung to make the Nexus Prime, which is expected to be released by the end of this year with Ice Cream Sandwich on-board.

In the meantime, Intel and a third chip platform, called MIPS, are both working with Google to ensure that Android 4.0 runs on their chipsets. According to Intel, Ice Cream Sandwich ‘includes OS optimization for x86,’ meaning that Android 4.0 can run on devices with Intel’s Atom processors.

MIPS, the third platform, believes that it can get up and running to support Android 4.0 and be production-ready within 90 days of Google making the source code available for the platform.

Intel recently this past summer demonstrated a Honeycomb port on its Atom processor at the IDF 2011 conference.

Via: Computer World