Intel introduces Quark, a tiny chip for the internet of things and wearable computing

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Intel just announced its smallest silicon yet. It's called Quark, and it's one-fifth the size of the company's existing Atom cores, and uses one-tenth the power. Intel CEO Bryan Krzanich just pulled out the tiny Quark X1000 chip at the 2013 Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, and explained that it's for the internet of things: Intel will provide equally miniature reference boards and software to help developers put tiny communicating computers in just about everything — including smartwatches, if developers are interested, an Intel rep clarified that it's the Quark core — not the Quark chip — whose size and power consumption were being compared to Atom. In other words, the actual CPU core inside a Quark chip is one-fifth the size and consumes one-tenth the power of an Atom CPU core. Performance is another matter. Quark is aimed at markets where power consumption and form factor take priority, according to an Intel representative.

source theverge.com