Intel slide shows Atom N280 with 945GSE and GN40 chipsets

by Darren Murph posted Feb 9th 2009 at 9:23AM

It may be hard for you monogamists to understand, but in the world of CPUs, it's perfectly acceptable to play friends with multiple chipsets. To that end, the leaked Intel slide above sure explains a lot about what's going on with the newfangled 1.66GHz Atom N280. First spotted in the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE with Intel's older 945GSE chipset, many wondered why the supposed match-made-in-heaven GN40 chipset (and its 720p hardware-based video decoder) was left out. Apparently, it's all part of the plan. Both the N280 + 945GSE and N280 + GN40 are considered "off-roadmap" solutions meant to give companies a subtle differentiating factor until the "real" N270 successor hits the scene. So yeah, that 1000HE you've got on the brain isn't actually a hodgepodge of components, but a real, certifiably okay combination of CPU and chipset -- though it'd be so much more bodacious with that GN40. Confused yet?

[Via Fudzilla]

Filed under: Laptops

Tags: 720p, 945GSE, atom, chipset, Diamondville, GL40, GM45, GN40, h.264, hd playback, HdPlayback, intel, n280, Tigerpoint

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Conceyted @ Feb 9th 2009 9:29AM

Here's to hoping that Nvidia gets the ball rolling on the Ion setup sooner than they have currently projected. I would LOVE a netbook I can game on.

Neutral

sockatume @ Feb 9th 2009 9:52AM

Why would you game on a Netbook? Its screen and controls are tiny, and the portability you get in return doesn't seem worthwhile. I mean, will you be trying to play CoD4 on the train? Half-Life 2 on the bus? Why not just spend $500 on a regular old gaming laptop?

Neutral

Conceyted @ Feb 9th 2009 10:00AM

It's all about portability. I understand that netbooks are less than ideal for gaming, but does that mean they shouldn't be considered to game on? I have a VERY nice desktop setup that I have build and overclocked for my gaming needs at home. However, sometimes I find myself outside of my house, believe it or not, and the ability to load up a game and check in on things or even play lightly while I am away appeals to me greatly. Shrink all of this into a tiny little package that I have little or no problem carrying around with me (read a non-bulky laptop) and we have a winner in my eyes.

Sorry, but your argument is the same argument people bring up about netbooks in general. "Why not just get a laptop." These people have obviously never tried to carry around a 15.4" gaming laptop to be able to make this sort of statement. Even at 13" a laptop is slightly difficult to carry around, but a netbook is nothing larger (and many times, smaller) than a standard business organizer and is much less of a burden to carry around with you.

Neutral

Fanfoot @ Feb 9th 2009 4:24PM

I presume there's a group of people who want this. Whether its a large group is the question. Presumably *somebody* will introduce a netbook with the Atom/Ion combo by summer, and we'll get to see how big that group is, given the likely battery hit and the price premium this thing will command. I doubt *all* netbooks will go this way, so you won't have as much choice in vendors and other features as the other netbooks, but there's not that much variability anyway... so other than having to live with a slightly wonky keyboard, or a less than perfect trackpad, you should be fine...

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Peter R. @ Feb 9th 2009 9:40AM

Buy a netbook, with a N280?! I knows nothin bout no N280! I'm so gonna wait for that next generation netbook platform coming later this year. Yea for Pineview...no ah...I mean Pine Trail-M... -_- who the hell comes up with these codenames, a monkey with a map fetish?!

Neutral

The GN40 is NOT used in Asus 1000HE:

http://www.slashgear.com/intel-netbook-leak-n280-not-necessarily-paired-with-gd40-graphics-0933456/

From the article above which stated that the GN40 might just be a rebadge of the currently available GL40 with features disabled (and, IMO, probably a lower graphics clock speed to cut down on power consumption), this will probably be the benchmark to give an idea of what the GN40 will do, but with even _lower_ specs:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-4500MHD-GMA-X4500MHD.9883.0.html

NOT good for gaming. My target has now changed to an N280/Ion combo as my entry point, preferably in tablet form with a capacitive LCD, but a tablet version of that CPU/chipset combo may be too far away for me to wait.

Neutral