Intel teams up with Google (Take that, Apple)

Intel on Tuesday announced that it has teamed with Google to tailor chips to get top performance out of smartphones powered by the Internet giant's Android software.

"Our collaboration with Google will bring a powerful new capability to market that helps accelerate industry innovation, adoption and choice," Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said at the opening of the US chip maker's developers conference in San Francisco.

"I'm excited by the possibilities of this collaboration," he continued. "It will enable our customers to bring exciting new products and user experiences to market that harness the combined potential of Intel architecture and the Android platform."

The alliance with the world's largest computer chip maker came as Google ramped up its push into the hot smartphone market with a deal to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Illinois-based Motorola Mobility makes mobile phones, tablet computers and TV set-top boxes -- areas where the Silicon Valley-based Google has no experience other than writing the software to power the devices.

Smartphones powered by Google's free Android mobile software have been soaring in popularity and become targets of patent lawsuits by iPhone maker Apple.

The joint effort by Google and Intel is aimed at quickly bringing to market a family of Atom processors that will drive Android smartphones, according to Otellini.

"Combining Android with Intel's low power smartphone roadmap opens up more opportunity for innovation and choice," said Google Mobile senior vice president Andy Rubin. "This collaboration will drive the Android ecosystem forward."

The two northern California technology titans have a history of working together to harmonize chips and software on projects including Google TV and Chrome notebook computers.