This Atom’s running a little faster…
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Intel Introduces Faster Atom N470 at 1.83 GHz
We saw this one coming before the weekend, and just as we expected, Intel today officially took the wraps off of its new Atom N470 processor.
"This new, faster Atom processor for netbooks has integrated graphics built directly into the CPU to help enable improved performance and smaller, more energy-efficient designs or the popular netbook category," Intel said.
No big surprises here, at least not in terms of technical specs. The new single-core chip runs at 1.83GHz and features 512KB of L2 cache and DDR2-667 support. According to Intel, expect to see all the major OEMs introduces systems built around this new chip in the coming months.
What does come as a surprise, however, is that some netbook makers are already looking beyond the N470. According to Liliputing.com, some netbooks on display at CeBIT this week are equipped with even newer Atom parts, including the N455 and N475. There aren't a whole lot of details on these higher-numbered chips, but from what we can tell, they look to add features like DDR3 support and Broadcom rather than faster clockspeeds.
Image Credit: Intel
It’s no secret that Intel’s Atom chips are a bit on the slow side. While we certainly like the battery efficiency, a bit more power would be great. It appears Intel is willing to appease us, and the announcement may come on Monday. Intel is expected to introduce the Pine Trail based Atom N470, which will be nearly the same as the N450, but clocked at 1.83GHz instead of 1.66GHz. We also heard a while back that the N470 netbooks would be allowed double the memory of the N450 units. We'll have to wait until Monday to see if that's still the case. It’s not a lot, but with Atom right at the edge of usability, every little bit helps.
Atom chips have been in high demand ever since netbooks took the PC market by storm. Atom offers lower power consumption than the previous low-power solution, the Core 2 ULV, but lags behind in processing power because of it. The N450 was released late last year, and quickly found its way into consumer products. Intel expects an equally speedy adoption of the N470. No word on if you will pay much of a premium for the new Pine Trail chip.
German website NetbookNews.de discovered something rather interesting about Lenovo's ThinkPad X100e. As it currently stands, the X100e sports an 11.6-inch screen with a 1366 x 768 display, AMD Neo MV-40 single-core CPU, and ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, but an overhaul might be in order.
NetbookNews.de stumbled upon the X100e's support page, which showed a different set of specs next to the above. The alternate specs included a 10.1-inch screen with a 1280 x 720 display and Intel Atom N450 processor. In other words, a smaller version built around Pine Trail.
Adding to the mystery, Lenovo has since revised the support page removing all traces of Pine Trail. Was it an honest-to-goodness mistake or a sneak peek of things to come?
Image Credit: NetbookNews.de
The Highlander battle among chip manufacturers has started anew. This time it’s among the makers of chips that run smartphones. Besides initiating a new round of cutthroat competition, this battle suggests that computing is undergoing a substantive conceptual shift--from units that are all powerful to ones that are strategically powerful.
The objective is to make more powerful chips that consume less energy, and take up less space, with the intent of creating products that are smaller and less functional than their PC brethren, but are more in-tune to the particular needs of their users. The big players include the well known, such as Intel, ARM, Samsung, AMD, and Apple, and the lesser known, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Microelectroincs, and GlobalFoundaries. The money being spent in this competition totals in the tens of billions.
These chips are prevalent in smartphones, and they are working their way into netbooks, tablets and eReaders, where the current PC processor OS restriction doesn’t apply. This means that a whole new world of computing potential will be showcased as this little war plays itself out. It also means there will be some multi-billion dollar casualties along the way.
Suggested by this is the concept of computing shifting to address the particular, rather than the general, needs of users. If this market becomes economically attractive it might lead to a decrease in attention to the higher end, which in turn could mean slower development of the ‘hot’ technology that currently drives the market.
Image Credit: Apple Computer
An ARM-based netbook running Ubuntu could be in your future with the newest version of Ubuntu Netbook Edition. Much like Windows, the popular Linux distro did not previously have support for ARM processors. This meant you’d only see Ubuntu on Atom-based netbooks, a category dominated by Windows. With the anticipated flood of ARM packing “smartbooks” expected to materialize, the devs got to work rewriting Ubuntu.
According to Ubuntu’s Jamie Bennet, the problem was that Ubuntu Netbook Edition required 3D graphics drivers that didn’t exist for ARM chips. They got around this by employing 2D Enlightenment Foundation Libraries to fake a 3D interface. We’re hearing that you won’t be able to tell the difference in the interface. If true, that’s a big win for smartbooks and Ubuntu.
This may be the space that Ubuntu specifically, and Linux in general, can succeed in. Windows is completely locked out of the smartbook game until such time as Redmond gets around to adding ARM support. Don’t expect that to happen anytime soon. Is an Ubuntu smartbook something you’d buy?
It hasn’t been that long since Intel released their updated Pine Trail Atom chips, but already there are some indications they may be refreshing the Atom platform. The word is that Intel’s new core is called “Oak Trail”. These new chips would replace the ailing ultra low-power Atom Z series. These are the Z5xx chips we’ve seen in the likes of the Sony Vaio P and Asus Eee PC T91MT tablet.
Atom N450 and N470 are the most common versions of the Pine Trail chips, most often found in netbooks. The Atom N series chips are higher power and not in danger of being replaced. The Oak Trail chips are said to consume much less power, but still remain capable of running a Windows device. Still no firm details, but it’s probably still safe to buy products running the N series Atom chips.
Netbooks may be crippled laptops, but that doesn’t mean a little more performance can’t be squeezed out of them. Intel’s new Pine Trail Atom processor is a step in that direction. Another step is a Pine Trail that supports faster DDR3 memory. Intel has obliged, not with one, but two new Atoms.
Intel’s two new processors are the 1.6GHz N455 Atom and the 1.83GHz N475 Atom. The N455 will have a TDP of 5.5W, while the N475 will have a TDP of 6.5W, making them comparable to the N450 and N470, respectively.
While DDR3 is faster, Fudzilla doesn’t see it as making all that much of a performance difference in netbooks. However, Fudzilla says, because DDR3 is getting cheaper, the price of notebooks could become cheaper as well.
Netbook Choice is expecting that DDR3 netbooks will start rolling out in the third quarter of this year.
Image Credit: Intel
When you think of graphics, Intel probably isn't the first company that comes to mind, but believe it or not, the CPU maker's graphics market share is higher than both AMD and Nvidia combined. How can that be? It all boils down to integrated graphics, a sector where Intel rules the roost, unlike the discrete graphics market where Nvidia and AMD rule the GPU kingdom.
According to Jon Peddie Research (JPR), Intel increased its overall graphics market share in Q4 2009 to 55.2 percent, up from 53.6 percent one quarter prior and 47.7 percent in the same quarter one year ago. JPR attributes the rise to "Atom sales for netbooks, as well as strong growth in the desktop segment."
Both AMD and Nvidia also increased their market share from one quarter ago, with AMD inching forward from 19.9 percent to 20.1 percent, and Nvidia jumping a percentage point from 24.3 percent to 25.3 percent.
The graphics market as a whole grew year-to-year by 14 percent, which is the largest jump since 2006, and 2003 before that. In 2010, JPR reckons the graphics market will perform even better to the tune of 27.9 percent, before tapering off in 2011 to a 10.3 percent growth rate, which would be the lowest since 2004.
Netbooks might never become full-blown notebook replacements, but they do keep inching towards powerful companions capable of more than just basic Web surfing and emailing. Nvidia's Ion platform is largely to thank, and come April, Asus said it will have an Eee PC ready built around Nvidia's second-gen Ion platform, Ion 2.
The upcoming Eee PC will probably sport an Intel Atom N450 processor, currently the newest Atom on the block. And so will most other netbooks, as Intel's Atom N270 and N280 chips start to disappear from the limelight, with models built around those two chips starting to be phased out of the market place.
Asus will also tap into AMD's Congo platform with 12-inch Eee PCs. These should start shipping next month, though it's unclear if that includes the U.S. market.
