A year after launching the first Atom 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 and N270 processors, Intel is unveiling its next generation Atom chips: The Z550 which tops out at 2GHz, and the Z515 which normally runs at 800MHz, but which features Intel Burst Performance Technology which boosts the speed up to 1.2GHz when extra power is needed.
We first heard about these processors a few weeks ago, but now Intel’s making them official. There’s just not any release date available yet.
Both processors have the low power draw you would expect from an Intel Atom chip. The Z550 has a power envelope of under 3 watts. While there are no details concerning the Z515’s power consumption, I think it’s safe to assume this slower processor will use even less power than the Z550.
Intel also confirmed that the company is on schedule to deliver chips based on the new Moorestown “system on a chip” platform in 2010. Those chips will include a 45nm Atom CPU, integrated graphics, video, and memory controllers and an I/O hub. The goal is to have a version of the Moblin Linux distribution optimized for Moorestown chips ready to offer a “PC-like Internet experience” on cellphones or Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).
I’m thinking this was the plan all along. Netbooks are great, but cellphones and possibly MIDs(I’m still not sure the market is there for them…)? Those are markets intel really isn’t in yet.
They won’t be canabalizing anything like they do now with Netbooks. It’ll be interesting what an OEM partnership giant like Intel will do for more powerful devices in this market.
At the very least I want to see how open Moblin is on Cellphones.
The big news isn’t really the new clock speed, but the amount of integration. Probably better performance with lower power usage. Is this what Intel is going to use to fight the ARM camp? Looks like fun. Us users all win.