(Pocket-lint) - Intel's new CEO, Brian Krzanich, announced Quark - not to be confused with the Star Trek character - a new chip with a core one fifth the size of Intel's current Atom. It's teeny tiny, and it could well be the future.
So why should you care? The Quark X1000 also uses one tenth the power of current Atom chips. Yup, one tenth. That's a tick in the longevity box then.
Wearable tech is a buzz phrase, we know, but it's technologies such as this - the geeky "system on chip" (SoC) stuff - that builds the necessary backbone to support such technologies in the future.
We've already got the smartwatches and other fashion-like wearbale tech accessories, but longevity per charge is a key issue, as is size. As Krzanich demoed, when it's possible to "wear" such kit without thinking about it, walls get broken down and possibilities open up.
And with technology pushing forward, it's easy to see how Quark and the Quark X1000 SoC will become a commonplace use. Intel president Renee James had already detailed how wearable tech will "transform every area of our lives", during her address to the crowd at the Intel Developer's Conference 2013, by introducing a silicon-on-skin health concept.
The buzz continues as the wearable tech umbrella broadends. The next five years are going to be an interesting ride and it looks like Intel is up to the challenge - this is no longer just a chips in PCs company.