SINGAPORE — Intel today (June 25) officially launched its fourth generation Intel Core, formerly code named Haswell, processor family.

The processors were seen in new products launched at the Computex exhibition held in Taipei earlier this month.

According to Country Manager of Intel Malaysia and Singapore Prakash Mallya, the new chips enable 50-per-cent improvement in battery life — the biggest gain in the company’s history — and delivers double the 3D performance over today’s fastest mobile Intel HD Graphics solutions.

Designed and built from the ground up, power usage on the new processor is reduced to six watts, which in turn, allows the flexibility of attaching the Central Processing Unit (CPU) behind the display instead of under the keyboard — the traditional placement in notebooks. This frees up manufacturers to dramatically redesign their products, said Mr Mallya. This will also lead to a rethink of the 2-in-1 devices, which combines the best of a notebook with a tablet.

However, the 2-in-1 devices are not the only devices to benefit from Intel’s new chip, added Mr Mallya. The desktop will also enjoy a resurgence.

Mr Mallya said: “People say the desktop is dead. As a category, it’s just not growing hard enough. And it may just be taken over.

“But the fourth generation core is going to bring about a massive change in how we interact with desktops, especially with all-in-one (PC)s. The bigger all-in-one PCs with massive screens can be used as entertainment devices, family devices as well as function as computers. It’s going to redefine our home.

“It is 21 times better on 3D gaming, video processing is close to 10 times faster, add gesture, voice, four-point touch, 10-point touch — four people interacting and playing Monopoly on a flat screen. How cool is that? In the end, the desktop absolutely is set for redefinition,” added Mr Mallya.

However, users should not take Intel’s battery life enhancement at face value. Mr Clifford Tan, Channel Platform Manager, Intel Malaysia, said the battery performance of a product is still dependent on energy required to run the display, or the number of applications running in the background (or the kind of applications — playing videos or games will use up more battery).

The different processors in the family, marked as the U, Y and M series are also powered differently to effectively manage the devices. For example, the U and Y are more suited for tablets and clamshell devices while the M series is better suited for desktops.