Atom vs. ARM

Under a backdrop of sluggish PC sales and a rise of tablets and smartphones, Perlmutter also talked about Intel's "Medfield SoCo" Atom processor used in smartphones and tablets. Intel is noticeably absent from that market. As desktop and notebook sales slump, Intel is pinning its hopes on Medfield. Perlmutter says its mobile chip will be an alternative to the competing ARM architecture processors found in devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and most Android smartphones and tablets.

On stage, Perlmutter showed off a number of Atom-based tablets and claimed several "design wins" based on its Clover Trail Atom-based platform.

Intel in the Cloud

On the power front, Perlmutter discussed Intel's Xeon Phi coprocessor used for high performance computing. The digitization of data coupled with the boom of social media has created a goldmine for Intel processors to be the brains and brawn behind number crunching and data centers.