These little netbooks that we hear about day in and day out are about to get a little zippier, thanks to Intel’s dual-core Atom chip – the 330 – shipping out to vendors. The September launch seems to coincide with what we’d heard earlier, so that’s good. The 45-nanometer Atom 330 chip will feature the same 1.6GHz bus speed as the single core model, will have 1MB of level 2 cache, and will support DDR2 667 memory. → Read More
Intel’s got a dual-core Atom chip on the way, likely in September to dovetail with the release of a new motherboard that’s compatible with the CPU. The processor is called the 330 and, although the clock speed hasn’t yet been revealed, it does have a 533MHz frontside bus. The motherboard is called the D945GCLF2 and is a mini-ITX 945GC-based system with Intel’s integrated 950 graphics. The board is due in September, so it’d stand to reason that we’d see the new dual-core Atom then too. [via Register Hardware] → Read More
We’re all hearing a lot about Intel’s Atom range of processors these days, likely because of the tiny laptop revolution (or whatever you want to call it). While VIA’s Nano is not competing directly with Atom as, say, GeForce does with Radeon, they are in the same ballpark and when it comes to low-power, general-purpose setups for things like tiny laptops or tablets, people are going to talk about Nano and Atom as competitors. HardOCP took a look at the two to see how they’d do in various situations. With a bare bones setup (just a compatible mini motherboard and a gig of RAM) they compared the two in both synthetic and real-world applications. Intel’s been ruling the CPU roost these days so it came as a surprise to me when their touted Atom platform got its ass handed to it by pretty much every measure. Pure number crunching, desktop environment, video encoding, it got whupped pretty much all over town. These were essentially desktop setups and it’s difficult to extend the testing to the market, where demands on the systems are so varied. But it’s fun to know that Intel is getting schooled somewhere. → Read More
The micro-laptop revolution is a really cool thing, to be sure, but not all of us were born with slender, precision-tip hands. I do all right but some of these baby keyboards make me feel like I have ten thumbs. Well, Asus must have heard the cries of the lumpy and misshapen, because the new iterations of the Eee, the 904 and 905, will have more comfortably-sized keyboards. Of course, they’ll also have Atom processors, but who cares about that? Actually, that’s kind of a legitimate question because the Atoms will almost certainly be replaced with multi-core Atoms in a couple months. I’d wait for those if possible. → Read More
About a month ago, we reported that Intel would begin production on a dual-core Atom chip in July. I said “Might as well just wait for the quad-core Atoms to come out in August, huh?” Nobody laughed at the joke and we all moved on. Now DigiTimes is reporting that production on these dual-core Atoms has been pushed back to September due to shortages of the single-core Atom chips. “Finally, Intel was originally planning to mass produce its dual-core Atom 330 processor in July, however, due to shortages of the single-core Atom 230, the company has postponed the launch to at least September this year, will release further planning in August, the sources said.” So that’s at least September. If you’d been holding out until July for a dual-core Atom device, it looks like you can run out and buy a single-core device today or wait patiently for the dual-core chips to roll off the lines in another few months. via Reg Hardware → Read More
Not content to let Intel steal all the glory with its new low-power Atom chip, AMD appears to be developing a similar chip of its own. It’s currently only known as “BGA” but will hopefully get a much cooler-sounding name when it’s ready to go. AMD’s current low-power Geode processor has served as the company’s netbook CPU of choice, but it tops out at 500MHz and has been around for more than five years now. It’s been speculated that this new BGA chip could actually be AMD’s “Bobcat” chip that the company announced last year. As you can see from the above slide, this new CPU will clock in at 1GHz and will use eight watts of power, making it ideal for netbooks but a little too greedy for smaller mobile devices, as CNET’s Tom Krazit points out. No word on when we’ll start to see devices using this new chipset, but it’d better be soon for AMD’s sake since Intel, NVIDIA, and VIA seem to have a good head start. via Electronista → Read More
The impending Eee 901 has been spotted at the WiMax Expo in Taipei and is expected to be formally announced and launched tomorrow. We saw some early details a couple of weeks ago, but here’s some more information. IDG News is reporting that the Eee PC 901 will have a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and will ship with a 12GB SSD and Windows XP or with a 20GB SSD and Linux, depending which option you choose. The 901 will feature Bluetooth and future versions will contain a WiMAX chipset once the technology becomes more ubiquitous. The 901 will come in black or white (see black version here) and apparently battery life is pretty solid at four to six hours. IDG says that pricing wasn’t disclosed, but earlier reports pegged the machine at “under $650,” which sounds reasonable. → Read More
TGDaily reports that the Atom-based Eee PC will be coming next week, but they seem rightly skeptical of the little guy. After all, at $650 it’s no longer that cheap (you could get a used MacBook for that price), and not only is the performance not really up to par but it’s a certainty that dual-core Atoms are forthcoming in just a few months so your investment in the chipset would be unwise at this point. As much as I like the Eee PC, this doesn’t seem like a winning flavor. → Read More
DigiTimes is reporting that “Intel is planning to start the mass production of dual-core versions of its Atom processors in the second week of July, according to sources at PC makers.” The current Atom platform will be able to support the new chips via a simple BIOS upgrade, too, which is good news for manufacturers. Bad news for manufacturers, though, is that few people are going to buy single core Atom-equipped devices with the dual-core ones right around the corner; PC makers are concerned the short gap between the launch of single-core and dual-core models could dampen the introduction of single-core Atoms and well as impact sales of traditional entry-level PC CPU platforms meaning PC makers will need to rethink their product lineups for the later half of the year. Might as well just wait for the quad-core Atoms to come out in August, huh? → Read More
The spec-bumped 901 from Asus that we heard about last week will also be available in black, according to some leaked photos on Blogee.net (the site is currently down). Early reports indicate that the 901 series will launch in Taiwan on June 3rd with the rest of us likely seeing it available within a month or so afterward. Again, specs will be similar to the Eee PC 900, except for the new Atom chipset and you’ll be able to add a Bluetooth module. Pricing should start at under $650. via The Register → Read More
DigiTimes is reporting that Asus will release an Intel Atom version of its new 8.9-inch screen Eee PC (it’ll be called the 901) on June 3rd for “below $650″. Aside from the Atom chipset, it’ll have some other upgrades too; Bluetooth, “metal alloy parts to the keyboard and hinge” and the touchpad will have a metallic border. Mmmm, metal-y. Aside from those differences, everything else should pretty much be the same as what you’d find on the currently-available Eee PC 900, except that “the Eee PC 901 will replace the Asustek logo with an Eee logo at the bottom of the display and on the top of the lid, while the Linux version of the Eee PC 901 will have more software applications added to it.” → Read More
Remember the original promise of the UMPC? We were told they’d be affordable, like in the $500 range. Then Intel’s Atom chipset was announced and we were told that it, too, would be affordable. Well, here comes one from Fujitsu for just shy of $1,300, available in Taiwan this July. It’s called the U2010. You’ll get a 5.6-inch rotating screen (I’d guess it’ll be a touchscreen, too), six-row QWERTY keyboard, and Intel’s new — ahem — affordable Atom processor. It’ll also have a built-in 3.5G data connection and a GPS chip. via DigiTimes → Read More
My German is a bit rusty, but apparently this is someone’s interpretation of what the iPhone 2 will look like. It also claims that it will run Intel’s Atom processor, which is logical. What’s really neat is a claim that the iPhone will have a larger screen, with resolution up to full 480p. While not much in the home theater world, it’s pretty badass for a PMP. How much of this is truth? I’m not sure, and Babelfish isn’t helping, but if any of our readers can speak German and help out some more, you’re welcome to the comments. → Read More
