Asked if Intel might produce its own ARM-based processors, Otellini said Intel has a license to produce ARM chips but that it wouldn't be in its interest to do so. That would eat into Intel's profits, since it would have to pay a royalty to ARM on each chip it sold, he said.

The company thinks it is better off improving its own Intel Architecture-based processors, which Otellini and other Intel executives contended can be as power-efficient as ARM-based processors.

While ARM chips may use less power in standby mode, Intel's processors are more efficient when performing tasks such as playing videos, according to Dadi Perlmutter, joint head of the Intel Architecture Group.

One analyst at the event noted that the first Medfield processor will have only a single core, while some ARM chip vendors are already promising quad-core processors next year.

Intel will release an updated, dual-core Medfield chip later next year, also made on a 32-nanometer manufacturing process, Perlmutter said. But he argued that more cores don't necessarily make a better chip.