Intel's Atom D525 to offer 1.8GHz with no bump in consumption?
The solder has barely hardened attaching Intel's Atom D510 to a suite of nettops and the like, but already we're getting word of its successor, the supposed D525. Many have expressed disappointment that the D510 offers no better performance than its predecessor, but the new D525 should do better thanks to both a slight bump in speed (up to 1.8GHz) and compatibility with DDR3 memory. Despite that the new chip is said to have the same 13W TDP rating and, according to Fudzilla, will be shipping sometime in the second quarter -- so not too far off. Netbook Choice is also reporting the existence of the chip in a chart from Intel, but that chart pegs it at the same 'ol 1.6GHz. We're still inclined to think the 1.8GHz rating is correct, but we won't be placing any bets until Intel makes things official. We're just not the betting kind, really.

























Meh.
@SolidSnake 1.6 to 1.8 lol... Don't over do it!!
@n0ne
Intel is living in the fast lane, that's for sure...
@n0ne you seem to make a lot of these types of comments. If you want a faster processor, get one. That isn't in this processor class of low watts, heat, and cheapest available current generation. Also, until we see performance, there isn't a reason to judge anything good or bad about the .2 ghz increase (which is over a 12% increase).
@SolidSnake
I just can't figure out why the Atoms are so underwhelming. I love that they sip power. A power-sipping CPU and an "only on when needed" GPU like the Ion 2 is exactly what I want in my next computer, but not at the expense of non-studdering video.
On top of that, it seems like they haven't even put up a fight in giving dominant marketshare in the handset space away to ARM cores. W T F?
exactly.... 1.6 to 1.8 is hardly a bump. wake me when they break 2.2 with the same battery consumption profile...
The D510 and D525 are nettop, not netbook, processors. The 200MHz bump is a big deal considering they've done so without pushing any extra wattage through the CPU. The biggest bump in performance is that it supports DDR3 now.
Also,. I was pretty sure that while the Pineview netbook CPUs didn't offer much of a performance bump for the N-series netbook CPUs, the D5xx nettop was a performance enhancementt over the Atom 330 (both are 64-bit and dual, two traits which are not present with the netbook series).
@SolidSnake - Atom 330 works really nice overclocked at 2.1GHz while still having a lower TDP than the 510 which fails like mad once u start to overclock it.... all I have to say to intel is a big FAIL !
@crawdad689 They can't exactly just take away marketshare from ARM cores with an x86 Atom. They are two totally different architectures, along with the fact that ARM cores have much lower power consumption than these. Couple that with the fact that any vendor who wanted to place these in a device like a smartphone (*shudders* that would be one gigantic phone!) would have to rewrite the entire OS to use the x86 architecture. ARM is made for embedded devices, x86 isn't.
I'm sure Intel is kicking themselves for selling off their ARM-based embedded devices division given the number of smartphones and other devices that use them.
@aschettler While they need something that sips power, they need something that also performs well without guzzling power. They basically need a 3.2GHz Atom. Sure it won't be quite as power lean as a 1.8GHz atom but it would let you run notepad and copy a file without maxing out your processor.
I have set up the Zony X netbook and while it is fantastically slim and light and pretty good on battery power, it maxes out when you boot it, open an application, copy files from the network or just about anything else. Perhaps a turbo mode for when it is plugged in or you are in a hurry that doubled the processor speed would be good.
@thoth Perhaps you need to research into that more as the late d510 has also got the chipset in the CPU it so of course the Tpd is going to be higher but then you have no chipset tdp so it actually drops the system tdp
...but does it run flas...oh wait, it does.
@fast
not really tho.
@CJisohsocool
Actually, it does - very, very well.
Promises, Promises.
Nvidia could learn a thing or two from Intel.
@FrankTheCrank I think that's a two way road. They both practice things such as:
Naming convention marketing
Ramp up specs without noticeable performance increase
Consumer (OEM & channel partner) flooding
...in addition to many things I probably don't know.
@juanvaldez I should've probably just went with "partner" in place of consumer as it's more accurate and...yeah...
I seem to recall some website getting their hands on this chip and saying the performance wasn't noticeably better except on paper.
@Flaystus
I seem to recall that "until Intel makes things official."
A 200mhz clock speed increase will make barely any difference, and the performance increase of DDR3 over DDR2 is negligible, especially when you are using Integrated/Low end graphics like most Atom Computers.
Fail.
@SarnGate - Compareit with Tegra2 FFS :)))
@SarnGate
DDR3 uses less power, which matters if you are trying to bring down consumption on a low power system. It isn't always about the 111 and !!!'s
ARM
@hated one Trolling.
The Atom CPU is faster than the A4. The A4 is an integrated GPU + CPU, so the comparison isn't even valid anyway.
Atom+Ion > A4
@hated one Did you type that comment with the iPad? It would have auto-corrected your shitty grammar. =]
Bring this darn CPU to netbooks! It will be used in nettops only I guess
Asus managed to cram the Atom 330 CPU (64-bit/dual-core) into netbooks, even though Intel declared the chip to only be used in desktops. However the netbooks that use 330 have average battery life, compared to the "all day computing" of other Atom chip netbooks.
@SarnGate: The Atom has an on-die GPU aswell, at least the Pinetrail chip.
The system-on-a-chip contains the Lincroft CPU, GMA 3150 GPU and a DDR2-soon-to-be-DDR3 memory controller.
I have but one question.
Why do I keep seeing this picture of a cpu on top of a computer case? Is this the only picture we have of this cpu or something?
@hated one
Wake me up when your super-duper iPad joins the 21 Century and allow downloading of content off the web.
@hated one There is no fair way to compare it. You're a moron if you think they are in the same class. x86 vs. ARM? Two totally different things.
-1 for being a dumbass iFanboy.
I like that it uses ddr3, but its still stupid, nvidia should do a x86 proc., tegra 2 with android on a tablet makes more sense than netbooks do, I've never been wowed by a $300 netbook... I have a atom 330 desktop that I wish I could overclock... I agree with the "meh" arguement.
The reasons netbooks hurt so much, Intel. Seriously, intel you probably have some good stuff you guys are holding back from the masses from letting netbooks go nuts on consumers. Please release it.
beat me to death when these hit 9.4ghz