Reports suggest that Intel is working on next generation Atom processors that will pack as many as 8 cores. That will be a serious jump from the 2 cores found in the current (outdated) Atom processors.
Intel Atom Processors
Intel Atom processors were launched midst much fan fare as low cost, ultra low power consuming x86 architecture based processors to power cheap mini notebooks, namely net tops. The net top revolution followed, pushing demand for Intel's Atom chips higher than they had ever imagined. Every one wanted a cheap $249 net top for themselves with a cute little 10.1" display and an Intel Atom powered processor (no matter how under powered it was, struggling with basic Word sometimes).
Instead of Intel making leaps and strides with the Atom architecture, they did nothing. Literally nothing. In the past 5 years (2008-2012) since Atom was introduced, Intel has only moved from the original 45 nm manufacturing process to a 32 nm one, and integrated many components of the motherboard into the Atom processor (making it more and more of an SOC, System On Chip) while the cost remained the same, or higher for next generation iterations. Atom gained an extra core, with the fastest Atom clocking in at just 1.86 GHz, and packing a dual core with HT (Hyper Threading, showing 4 logical cores).
Avoton, Intel's new Atom SOC
Well then, it is about time Intel push an update and refresh Atom to bring it to current generation level (more so because of increasing competition by ARM based processors, smartphones and tablets). Avoton, Intel's new Atom SOC will incorporate tons of new and exciting features, listed below:
The Avoton SOC is more than just connectivity. It will bring a new, out-of-order execution base architecture to Intel Atom processors. More features include:
While packing all these new changes in hardware (giving in much increased fire power), the Atom SOC will still stay within the 20W power envelope, which is an excellent report. According to CPU World, the upcoming Intel ATOM SOC will pack an even higher performance per watt than Intel's upcoming and next generation Haswell architecture based processors (which can be nothing but good news).
Let's hope all these features are included in[wzslider autoplay="true"] the next generation Atom SOC for real.
Intel Atom Processors
Intel Atom processors were launched midst much fan fare as low cost, ultra low power consuming x86 architecture based processors to power cheap mini notebooks, namely net tops. The net top revolution followed, pushing demand for Intel's Atom chips higher than they had ever imagined. Every one wanted a cheap $249 net top for themselves with a cute little 10.1" display and an Intel Atom powered processor (no matter how under powered it was, struggling with basic Word sometimes).
Instead of Intel making leaps and strides with the Atom architecture, they did nothing. Literally nothing. In the past 5 years (2008-2012) since Atom was introduced, Intel has only moved from the original 45 nm manufacturing process to a 32 nm one, and integrated many components of the motherboard into the Atom processor (making it more and more of an SOC, System On Chip) while the cost remained the same, or higher for next generation iterations. Atom gained an extra core, with the fastest Atom clocking in at just 1.86 GHz, and packing a dual core with HT (Hyper Threading, showing 4 logical cores).
Avoton, Intel's new Atom SOC
Well then, it is about time Intel push an update and refresh Atom to bring it to current generation level (more so because of increasing competition by ARM based processors, smartphones and tablets). Avoton, Intel's new Atom SOC will incorporate tons of new and exciting features, listed below:
- six SATA ports (four 3Gbps and two 6Gbps)
- four USB 2.0 ports
- four Gigabit Ethernet connections
The Avoton SOC is more than just connectivity. It will bring a new, out-of-order execution base architecture to Intel Atom processors. More features include:
- upto 8 cores based on Silvermont architecture
- cores will come in pairs sharing 1 MB of L2 cache
- clock speeds ranging between 2.4 GHz to 2.7 GHz (turbo)
- dual channel memory controller
- support for DDR3 and DDR3L memory upto 1600 Mhz
- TDP of 20W
While packing all these new changes in hardware (giving in much increased fire power), the Atom SOC will still stay within the 20W power envelope, which is an excellent report. According to CPU World, the upcoming Intel ATOM SOC will pack an even higher performance per watt than Intel's upcoming and next generation Haswell architecture based processors (which can be nothing but good news).
Let's hope all these features are included in[wzslider autoplay="true"] the next generation Atom SOC for real.