Intel details next-generation Atom platform, say hello to Pine Trail
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 20th 2009 1:58PM
posted May 20th 2009 1:58PM
Intel has been doing a lot of talking about big new processors and platforms as of late, and it's now gotten official with one that's soon to be ever-present: its next-generation Atom platform, codenamed Pine Trail. In case you haven't been tracking the rumors, the big news here is that the processor part of the equation, dubbed Pineview, will incorporate both the memory controller and the GPU, which reduces the number of chips in the platform to two, and should result in some significant size and power savings. As Ars Technica points out, the platform is also the one that'll be going head to head with NVIDIA's Ion, which is likely to remain more powerful but not as affordable or efficient, especially considering that NVIDIA can't match Intel's on-die GPU. Either way, things should only get more interesting once Pine Trail launches in the last quarter of this year.
I suppose there are always a hundred reasons not to upgrade / buy something new but I think this is a pretty good one. I'd like to see the Pine Trail and Ion netbooks fight it out a bit and then pick up a netbook/tablet convertible machine based on the better platform.
I bet a build-in GPU will be slower or similar to Intel's "normal" build-in GPUs. Time will tell.
Aren't new Atoms going to be available in products no sooner than 2010?
If Intel keeps on making crappy GPUs, pretty soon PC vendors will come up with "GMA NOT INSIDE" stickers.
Smells like the woods
Yeah, it will be a shitty GPU but this is for *netbooks*, you aren't going to play games on the things. If it lets them make a dramatic reduction in the power consumption of their current also-shitty GPUs (which eat a ludicrous amount of power) then this is a big step forward.
(And assuming the CPU part is faster it might be able to play flash video at least... heh.)
I sure hope the GPU performance is better. Intel has been making piss-poor netbook chips for long enough.
Don't spare Intel any of the truth: they have been making shitty graphics processing units in general for a VERY long time. The fact that they try to get into GPU manufacturers faces and try to 'challenge' them is a joke. Unless this chip is capable of shooting out 1080P its a failure in my book. The extra energy consumption for the Ion is more than warranted when it actually allows you to 'use' your netbook.
Whee! More low performance chips for fad products!
Bah humbug.
That's the same school of thought that says that the Wii is a fad, despite its high sales and continued performance. Is it possible that perhaps Netbooks are doing so well because most people only need their computer to play music, type documents, and surf the internet? Not everyone needs or wants a thousand dollar laptop, especially in a world with cloud computing.
do you face the same impediments when you type as when you talk, by having a penis in your mouth ?
People still play their Wiis?
I call BS.
say hello to more absurd names for chips!
say hello to my littel friend!
Has it occur to you that integrating all those in one chip will make things like the Ion platform ... not really competitive.
What I am saying is that splitting the CPU from that thing will make it very expensive and given Intel a great advantage over those who will want just the CPU.
Has it occurred to You (Blacky) that moving a cancerous cell near another can spread the cancer?
Moving a shitty graphics platform into the processor doesn't exactly mean the death for Ion, as it actually has a little bit of power under the hood. I really wish I had a good analogy to compare Ion to GMA, but I hope you get the idea.
Also note that by putting the GPU and northbridge into the same package as the CPU, they're possibly preventing nVidia from shipping their own platform for this CPU... or at the very least making it cost prohibitive.
That's exactly what I was trying to say.
Yep, but nobody will realize that what they are doing is borderline illegal...
Even if they do. It's still on the borderline so there isn't much you can do about.
If the die is CPU+GPU+memory controller, there is no "chipset" nVidia can supply that would amount to more than a southbridge. Discrete graphics through the PCIe lane should be possible though I guess... but this is hardly viable on a netbook unless a) the external GPU is incredibly thrifty, and b) the on die GPU is incredibly crappy.
Oh, man, I'm lovin' that name!
Not.
And Nvidia's eventual rebuttal will be to release their own processor/gpu combo.
Finally!
Ever since the Atom debuted, I've been hearing about its Achilles's heel being that dusty old chipset it's using... you know, the one that uses three times the power of the power-saving CPU?
It sure seems like the Atom was a bit of a stop-gap to make sure it owned the netbook market until it had a proper solution, like the one described here.
Slow? Of course it will be. But at least this once shouldn't use more power than an older, faster AMD. Remember this?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Atom-Athlon-Efficient,1997.html
Still based on the turdstain 945 chipset. Fail.
Seriously, 945 sucks for media and something like this is meant for media applications. I guess that's why Intel has to play shenanigans with bundling/pricing in an attempt to keep Ion down: Ion makes Intel look bad.
turdstain. Awesome. I want a turdstain Duo. When is that coming out?
Intel or Adobe or SOMEBODY needs to resolve the issues playing Hulu (flash) fullscreen on Atom netbooks. Sounds like Ion doesn't do it, given that GPU offload isn't supported in flash (FAIL), while putting an expensive SSD in your netbook DOES, but of course that's not a good solution for a cheap netbook. Unless this thing significantly outperforms Atom N-series chips, which I assume it will NOT, it seem unlikely it will resolve the issue either...
Adobe, we're all looking at YOU.
well the only reason flash is used for video is because everyone has flash there's nothing else that everybody has that can do video in this way. a failed monopoly.
The death of GMA is always welcome.
Your probably gonna have to wait a little longer for GMA's funeral. Cause if other rumors about the Atom Pineview hold true, the GPU incorporated into Pineview will be a GMA950 with a little faster clock speed ( up to 200MHz from the old 133MHz).
I myself have never bought a computer with a GMA in it, but a lot of people I know have suffered...
Further integration of Intel Graphics... just what we need.
Nice, I hope a company puts out a netbook with this before college starts. I don't mind the integrated graphics, it just has to be better than the old GMA stuff, even if it's just a bit better. The most I'd play on a netbook is SNES emulators and such.
From a technical standpoint, this makes me quiver with indifference.
everyone talking sht about a product they keep buying time and time again.