At its developer forum in Beijing, Intel has unveiled two more chips in its popular Atom range, which is now just a year old. The Z550 takes the clock speed up to 2GHz with Hyperthreading (HT) support, which compares with the 1.6GHz of the N270 version most commonly used in today's netbooks. Average power consumption is 220mW, with 100mW idle power.
The Z515 is an 800MHz-to-1.2GHz chip that delivers "performance on demand" using Intel's Burst Performance Technology (Intel BPT). Average power consumption is 160mW, with 80mW idle power.
Atom performance is mediocre in comparison to Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad designs. However, the low power requirements can provide long battery life in netbooks, and get Intel into areas of the market previously dominated by devices running ARM-based processors.
Anand Chandrasekher, general manager of Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, said Atom chips would support Windows 7 Starter and Basic editions in the second half of this year, as well as XP Home and Vista Basic. He also said Intel's next-generation MID (mobile internet device) platform, codenamed Moorestown, was scheduled to appear "by 2010". Intel says:
Moorestown consists of a System on Chip (codenamed "Lincroft") that integrates a 45nm Intel® Atom processor core, graphics, video and memory controller. The MID platform also includes an input/output (I/O) hub, codenamed "Langwell," that includes a range of I/O blocks and supports various wireless solutions.
The System on Chip approach should reduce manufacturing costs for netbooks and MIDs, while allowing designers to create smaller systems.
A typical MID should have a 4 inch to 7 inch screen and no keyboard, which is the area between smart phones and netbooks. It's an area Microsoft targeted with its Origami UMPC (ultramobile PC) project early in 2006. It is an understatement to say this was not a success.
