It seems Moore's Law doesn't apply to the next generation of Intel Corp.'s Atom chips. The low-cost, power-sipping chips, codenamed "Pineview," will greatly improve upon both of those traits, but at the expense of any significant speed boost usually entailed by newer, presumably more transistor-dense chips, according to authentic-looking specs leaked this month.
The trio of processors is expected to come in single and dual-core versions running at 1.66 GHz. For users, that would be an imperceptible increase over the 1.6 GHz speed of most of today's Atom chips.
[ ECS showed off nettops with Intel Pineview chips at the recent Computex show. | Keep up on the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: First Look newsletter and InfoWorld Daily podcast. ]
Similarly, the graphics chip Intel is said to be planning to pair with the upcoming Atom CPUs will only be slightly faster than its existing one.
Publicly, Intel has all but conceded the lack of speed boost, saying that that the biggest change in Pineview is that the Atom CPU will be integrated with a single chipset that holds both the graphics processor and the memory controller.
This architecture change will bring these components closer together and nearer the CPU, enabling netbooks and net-top PCs running Pineview -- or "Pine Trail," as the integrated platform will be called -- to be a little faster than today's generation, says Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight64.
Beside the longer battery life that comes with more efficient chips, lower heat also means some netbooks with the new Atom chips will not require a fan.
But more important to Intel, the chief benefit of Pineview is that it will be able to make tinier Atom chipsets for lower cost -- a benefit it should be able to pass on to netbook makers.
Chips cool, competition heats up
Analysts say the strategy shows Intel is focused on countering the threat posed by ARM chips, which are cheaper and more energy-efficient than today's Atom processors, and are just starting to make their way into netbooks.
But by mostly ignoring performance, Intel could leave an opening for Nvidia to make inroads with its multimedia-savvy Ion platform.
"Intel wants to serve the broadest market it can, but I think that will leave room for a smaller player like Nvidia to find a niche it can serve very well," said Dean McCarron, an analyst with Mercury Research.
Nvidia's Ion platform bundles an Atom N270 processor with Nvidia's 9400M graphics chip, used in Apple's powerful MacBook Pro.
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