The Intel Atom Pine Trail chips that are due out in early 2010 will combine processor, graphics, and memory functions onto a single chip. This is designed to help save power while offering perhaps a slight performance boost. But Pine Trail chips aren’t supposed to be speed demons, and they won’t be that much more powerful than today’s Intel Atom Diamondville chips. But in another year or so, Intel is set to launch the next, next generation platform code-named Cedar Trail. And at that point, Fudzilla reports you can expect a performance boost.

Intel will use a 32nm process for the Cedar Trail chips, instead of the 45nm process using in the upcoming Pine Trail platform. Intel also plans to boost the graphics performance, so that Cedar Trail chips will get about twice the graphics performance of Pineview processors.

That should give the next-generation platform enough oomph to handle 1080p HD video playback. Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to help you play GPU-intensive 3D video games. Right now computers with Atom processors and integrated GMA 950 graphics score pathetically low on 3D graphics tests such as 3DMark06. Doubling a score of 100 still won’t be enough for Intel’s integrated graphics to compete with dedicated solutions such as NVIDIA ION, which provides more than 10x more powerful graphics.

via Netbook Choice

Over the past few decades, people have gotten used to computer chips getting faster and faster. And so it’s not surprising that some folks expect the next generation of Intel’s Atom processor to be faster than the version available today, and for the model coming after that to be even faster. But that’s kind of not the point of the Atom line. And so I’m not surprised to see that Fudzilla is reporting that the Intel Atom Cedar Trail platform which is due to hit the streets in 2011 won’t be much faster than the Atom Pine Trail platform due out early next year. Which is to say, you shouldn’t expect much of a performance boost over what you see in Intel Atom powered netbooks today.

In fact, according to Fudzilla, Intel reps are saying the Cedarview chipset will only be about 5-10% faster than the upcoming Intel Atom Pineview chipset. They will, however, use less power. The goal for the Cedar Trail platform is to produce a chipset that uses less than 10W for the whole platform including the CPU, graphics, and memory controller.

And that’s really the whole point of the Atom platform: To provide decent performance with a low power draw. If you want a faster computer, you can certainly get one. It just won’t have an Atom chip and it will probably cost more than a typical netbook.

Let’s go ahead and file this squarely in the rumor category for now, because Intel doesn’t like to talk about unreleased products and because 2011 is an eternity away when it comes to the tech world. But hot on the heels of yesterday’s rumor that the successor to the upcoming Intel Atom Pine Trail platform would be called Cedar Trail, Fudzilla has a few more details:

• The platform could be based on a 32nm process and support DDR3 1066 RAM.
• Cedar Trail chips could support HD video and DirectX 10.1.
• Cedar Trail will launch in 2011, and the following generation of Atom processors won’t be available until 2013.

Probably the most exciting news is that Cedar Trail chips should get a significant performance bump at least in terms of HD video playback. The upcoming Pine Trail platform is expected to use less power than existing Intel Atom processors, but we’ve been cautioned not to expect a major change in performance.

via Netbook Choice

Intel is getting ready to release the next generation of Intel Atom processors on the world. These low power chips will integrate graphics, memory, and processor components onto a single chip to help reduce power consumption while providing performance that’s on par or better than the Atom N270/N280 chips available today. The new chips are part of what Intel calls the Atom Pine Trail platform and they’ll probably start hitting the streets in shiny new netbooks in early 2010.

But like any big corporation, Intel doesn’t do just one thing at a time. The company is already looking ahead to 2011. And according to Fudzilla, that’s when Intel will launch another update to its Atom series of processors. The 2011 platform is reportedly named “Cedar Trail.”

That’s pretty much all we have to go on right now. A codename. But at least we know someone at Intel likes trees.