Intel readying "fast transition" to Pine Trail Atoms?
updated 12:35 pm EST, Mon November 9, 2009
Intel may detail Pine Trail December 21
Intel is planning to almost completely overhaul its Atom processors with an early Pine Trail unveiling and a near complete replacement of its most important models, a leak suggests. The company reportedly plans to introduce its next-generation designs on December 21st and have PC makers shipping finished products by January 4th, when many had expected the initial unveiling. On that day, Intel is reported by Xbit-Labs as planning to scrap its long-serving 1.6GHz Atom N270 and 1.86GHz N280 chips almost immediately.
Three of the already-known Pine Trail processors have been given more specific pricing in the rumor. The 1.66GHz N450 for netbooks should cost $63 in large batches, while a dual-core 1.66GHz D510 for nettops will cost a similar amount. A single-core D410, also 1.66GHz, will cost $43.
Pine Trail will be Intel's first major revision of Atom since its introduction and will be made on a denser, cooler manufacturing process, carry its own integrated graphics and memory controllers, and support 64-bit code. It will also often come with a Broadcom video decoder that should give it smooth HD video playback when supported.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2007
Umm
Can someone tell me if there will be increased CPU performance in these chips? Otherwise it seems like the graphics chip was moved on chip and that's it.