Intel Corporation today announced it has entered into a strategic agreement with Rockchip to expand the breadth of and accelerate the rate at which it brings its Intel® architecture and communications-based solutions to market for a range of entry-level Android* tablets worldwide.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will deliver an Intel-branded mobile SoC platform. The quad-core platform will be based on an Intel® Atom™ processor core integrated with Intel's 3G modem technology.

Rockchip is one of a handful of fabless semiconductor manufacturers based in China, presently specializing in the development of ARM based mobile SoCs. Under today's announcement however, Intel will be leveraging Rockchip to bring a low cost (entry/value) Intel branded SoC platform for tablets (read: sub-$150 Android tablets with connectivity).

Intel first started talking to Rockchip about this agreement a "couple quarters" ago. There are two primary motivations behind the agreement: it gives Intel additional resources to bring products to the market, and it allows Intel to scale IA based Android tablets pretty quickly.

By the middle of 2015 Intel and Rockchip will launch a new SoFIA SoC, featuring four Intel Atom cores and an Intel 3G modem. From the text of the announcement, it sounds like Intel will be providing the IP for the SoC while Rockchip will handle the integration of the design itself

• http://www.anandtech.com/show/8061/this-is-huge-intel-enters-strategic-agreement-with-chinese-soc-maker-rockchip
• http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2014/05/27/intel-enters-into-strategic-agreement-with-rockchip-to-accelerate-expand-portfolio-of-intel-based-solutions-for-tablets

It is very significant thing, as Rockchip is good in entry segment.