Intel this week touted the graphics and media processing improvements it has built into its next-generation Ivy Bridge chips and in the process appeared to make a pitch for Apple to use them in future mobile devices like the iPad.
Speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in China on Wednesday, Intel executive Kirk Skaugen noted that the company's upcoming chips are "Retina display capable," a reference to the Apple-branded, high-resolution display on the new iPad.
Oddly enough, the general manager of Intel's PC Client Group also pointed out that previous generations of Intel Core processors have been similarly capable of running Retina. That's something the chipmaker may have said at some point in the past, but it's tough to recall anybody from Intel making a big deal out of it.
The full statement from Skaugen is in originally spotted by 9to5Mac in this video starting at around the 14:05 mark.
"So, media and graphics. We are planning to deliver more than 70 percent higher graphic performance versus the second-generation Core processor. We'll have new support for three screens, DirectX 11, OpenCL version 1.1, and OpenGL version 3.1," he said. "These are new disclosures today on the amazing performance that we're going to be delivering around this, with 2560-by-1600 resolution, and just like we had with second-generation Core and now with third-generation Core, all of this is Retina Display capable if our OEMs choose to deliver on that."
It's not exactly shocking that the big, honking x86 chips in Intel's forthcoming Ivy Bridge lineup could support a consumer tablet's display—even the super-duper high-res one on the new iPad. After all, if a low-power ARM chip like the A5X in Apple's latest tablet can support Retina display without straining itself too much, it's pretty obvious that the quad-core, hyperthreaded 3.5-Ghz Core i7-3770K with 8MB of L3 cache and next-gen Intel HD Graphics will be able to do it, too (just to name one of the Ivy Bridge chips Intel will reportedly unveil towards the end of April).
What's a little weird is that Skaugen, who also made headlines this week when he predicted that ultrabook prices would drop as low as $699 by summer, would talk about Retina display at all. Saying Ivy Bridge chips are capable of running the new iPad's display strikes us as a bit like saying a jet engine is fully capable of making a moped accelerate down the road—maybe so, but what's the point? That Core i7-3770K could obviously run an iPad, but with a 77-watt power draw, your battery sure wouldn't last very long.
SlashGear's Rue Liu seems to think that Skaugen's comments refer to Apple's next lineup of MacBook laptops and possibly upcoming new iMacs, which scuttlebutt has it will sport Ivy Bridge chips and arrive in June.
That's possible, but the problem is that so far Apple has only used the term Retina display in reference to its iOS-based mobile devices with ARM processors, like the new iPad and couple generations of its iPhones.
Still, as Liu points out, there are plenty of rumors that Apple's next refresh of its MacBook Pro lineup will be the company's first OS X computing products to get super high-res 2,880-by-1,800 resolution displays, which will be dubbed "Retina" just like Apple does with its iOS devices.
Did Skaugen's remarks let the cat out of the bag with regards to Apple porting over its iPad and iPhone branding conventions to its more traditional lineup of computing products? We'll have to wait and see.
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