As we roll through 2009 Intel’s tiny, super-low power consumption chips have been around for a while, but they still aren’t everywhere. There is a good chance they will be next year. Intel is currently having trouble keeping up with demand for them so they are ramping up production.
Perfect for the growing number of sub-notebook netbooks, Eee PCs, and variously named devices that aren’t quite as big or expensive as a laptop but do a lot of the things a laptop can do, there is certainly a market for the high-end Atom processors. The lower end Atoms will find homes in things like smart phones, electronic readers and other portable media devices.
A device using an Atom CPU, teamed with an Intel chipset (including graphics) and wireless network, wins the Atom Centrino designation. The Centrino laptop brand was, and continues to be, as Centrino 2, a huge marketing success. Intel would love to see people think of Atom Centrino every time they think of smart phones, mini-notebooks, or anything else that has to be small, have a long battery life, and get online (collectively called MIDs for Mobile Internet Devices).
The new CPU architecture from Intel is codenamed Nehelem. The first CPUs to use it (codenamed Bloomfield) will be for the desktop and available before year end. Nehelem CPUs will replace the Core CPUs in the Centrino 2 specification from 2008 (codenamed Montevina) in Q3 2009 as part of next year’s Centrino 2 spec; Calpella.
The Nehalem uses a new motherboard socket called LGA1366. The first chipset to offer the new socket will be the X58 (codenamed Tylersburg)
There is a lot to say about Nehalem, and not a lot of room here. Stay tuned for a series that will put together everything we could find out about the new chip.