Intel is down with tablets and razor thin netbooks, yo
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 12th 2010 7:27AM
posted May 12th 2010 7:27AM
Gauntlet, thrown. Mooly also took the opportunity to show off a razor thin netbook reference design that he expects to see on the market "sooner or later" sporting a hard working dual-core Pineview-class Atom CPU to support heavy-duty multi-tasking OSes -- the same chips that are apparently at the heart of Intel's tablet ambitions. See the incredibly thin netbook prototype after the break along with a few choice grabs of Mooly raising the roof."People ask me, are you serious about trying to participate in the tablet market? The answer is yes, we are going to have tablets... stay tuned for Computex. We are going to design silicon for this category and we are going to actively participate in this category."
Developers developers developers developers.
"dual-core (...) CPU to enable multi-tasking"
I'm not a developer.... but when did this myth start that you need more than one core to multi-task? I wonder what I was doing with these single core Pentiums and Athlons all these years.
@SeeKo you really cut that quote the exact way you wanted it huh, add one more word to keep context:
"to enable multi-tasking OSes"...it's the software that allows multi-tasking threads to run while you are single tasking.
@SeeKo
Well certain programs do benefit more from Multiple cores as compared to just one. But on a netbook/tablet I still don't see why you'd need a dual core. You're only surfing the interwebz/checking email/using word anyhow.
@juanvaldez
As I said, I'm not an expert. It was not my attention to cut the quote to make it fit. But here is another one from the source page:
"(People) want it to multitask. So, we deliver dual-core to be able to do several things in parallel" - Intel VP
Does that underline my point better? How were we not able to multitask before the invention of multi-cores?
@SeeKo
Your computer was just switching tasks very quickly. A single core cpu can only do one task a cycle.
@dwendel
Ok thanks. Now I get it. But this is still a pretty far-fetched marketing phrase of him when he makes it sound like we weren't able to to things parallel before.
@Slygathor
White people, White people, White people, White people!!!!
Totally thought this guy was Baghdad Bob.
@Slygathor
Like Nvidia said, adding more cores to a CPU to make it faster is like putting wings on a train.
@aubreyq Looks like Christof from The Truman Show
@dwendel 2 with Hyperthreading.
@SeeKo
When we have a single core processor, it is not true multitasking. It is multi-threaded multitasking, ie even though there are multiple threads active, only one thread can access the CPU at a time.
This might cause race condition as a worst case scenario, where a one thread using IOP might be waiting to rush onto the CPU, and the thread using CPU might be waiting for IOP to be freed, and this causes system to hang due to a "single core multi-threaded multitasking".
However, on Dual cores we have two threads being processed at the same time, which means we have true multitasking. Rather than a priority based round robin algorithm.
@SeeKo The only thing I can confirm is that you are indeed not an expert. Using a single core nowadays is just plain stupid.
@rhomaion
Thanks for clearing that up in such a frankly manner. ;-)
But to be fair, I use question marks most of the time, instead of exclamation marks what many guys do around here, although they are as clueless as I am. lol
@TheSmartGuy SeeKo's taking a lot of heat for a perfectly valid point. Multi-tasking is not the same thing as parallel processing -- the former does not require multiple cores while the latter does. Multi-tasking (as defined on Wikipedia) is "the apparent simultaneous performance of two or more tasks". OSs that support CPU time slicing have long been accepted as having true multitasking even with a single processing core.
Wiggity-wag, what's in the bag?
@Peter Moore
Love the kangol. :D
As long as it can run Windows, I am happy!
@Marko
Are you going to eat it?
@Marko
Somebody get me a tablet that runs Windows 7!!! GOTTA HAVE IT!!!
....
what are you on crack, it would blow with a desktop OS.
@Wesscoast - Depends what you intend to do with in. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I am tied to Windows if I want to do any of my actual work!
@Wesscoast
I keep seeing you in these threads trying to convince as many as possible that thats the case... its not. Lots of us arent interested in carrying around a big phone that cant makes calls. Ill take a Win7 Tablet any day of the week. Whats the point in carrying multiple devices... the goal is to carry as less as possible. I want a device that does it all, plays every file and format and gives me freedom to do things the way I want to, not one that cant play PC games, very little files and formats and must do things one way only to get things done.
Please run meego on it. I am tired of windows.
I second that, MeeGo pls.
"Dual core atom" in a tablet running Win7 is a guaranteed buy for me.
@eminisp win7 uses more battery, I prefer xp
@htd XP? A 9-year-old OS, that's for pussies. Windows 95 is where it's at!
/s
@saposmak
I'll put win 95 on it but then you can't complain when it doesn't include usb ports!
Dual-core Atom in this tiny thing? What about heat?
@Atkins
That's probably the main problem they put all their efforts in. When they get that right they will be ahead of Apple/ARM.
@SeeKo We'll see I guess. I am surprised, because the iPad has some overheating issues with its modified ARM. So it'll be impressive if Intel pulls this off. I hope they do.
@Atkins at the same time, running two cores is more efficient, heat-wise than one, right? I'm not exactly sure, but that's why when they kept running the Ghz war a while back heat and power draw quickly spiraled out of control.
They, almost, definitely have some work still to be done but I think I'd prefer the thought of 2 cores than one if I'm going to have a full OS on there. Again, that's if I'd even consider the device to begin with. I'm not convinced if I'd need a full OS or not on a tablet, but I'm open to the idea, in any case, I'll need to read reviews before jumping in heads first.
@juanvaldez "at the same time, running two cores is more efficient, heat-wise than one"
Hmmm... no idea :) Even if it's a single Atom, it will still be interesting. About the full OS, depends on what you need, but something like Jolicloud can be very nice for casual use. Did you see the numbers about the iPad eating on the netbooks sales? Opinion? :)
@Atkins I don't think I saw the numbers, send a link and I'll look at the analysis. I think it is hard for it to eat into the numbers when hovering around 1M in sales and it being in a different class, but depending on the exact numbers and forecasts I could see it being so (for one reason I can't is because it is a different class of product.)
But still, I am interested. I'll look myself if I don't hear back, sorry for the delayed reply.
@juanvaldez Oh, I disagree pretty much with the first graph:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/05/06/how-the-ipad-gobbles-up-netbook-sales/
Also you will like this:
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2010/05/iphone_affidavit.pdf
@Atkins While the conclusion can be accurate, I think the analysis is miserable.
Firstly, to cut into sales you need to have a projection (expected sales compared to actual sales).
Secondly, the graph clearly shows that sales are growing, they are just growing slower than before. Add to that, that they've been shrinking for months, and as the article points out even at an alarming rate before any tablet announcement.
Thirdly, regardless on one's position of if a iPad can/can't replace a netbook, an iPad won't really kill a budget for a netbook. At 500-830 a netbook starts at half of the lower end of that range.
Fourthly, just looking at the netbook stories and comments that Engadget posts it is apparent that netbooks are getting less exciting and higher priced (slightly, but not really contradicting point #3). These, IMHO opinion are bigger problems to the growth of netbooks than an Apple tablet.
Fifth, without new developments that don't just increase the cost without actually tempting new customers and upgrades then "who is going to buy?"
Sixth and lastly, I think the ultra-portable are the real killers of netbooks. If you can make thin-and-lights within start at $600 and outperform a $400 netbook I think that's a very compelling value proposition.
*a note* I'm not sure how netbook like and hybrids affect the numbers. I'll assume something like the Alienware m11x is in there, but I can't really be sure or know how many devices of these sorts sell and how they are categorized.
In conclusion, again, I think the analysis is very spotty, as the article kind of points out. Also, I could definitely make a similar, but perhaps more compelling case than the original analyst from the story tried to however they seem to have used or known little information about all of the things affecting the growth (as a point, they didn't even bother to mention market-saturation - though the graph did have a line with market penetration but I couldn't actually pinpoint the meaning I assume it meant % of the laptops/thin-and-lights/tablets sold but it wasn't actually mentioned. Assuming that is correct, it's somewhat absurd to suggest that netbooks should continuously capture more than 10-20% of the market in the period of 1-3 years when there isn't a compelling reason for a person to own 2 and anyone who was in the market should've bought one in that time frame.) I honestly think that Katy from Morgan Stanley just wanted to put together some work that could sound good at first glance to get some news, but I can't be sure, she could've actually believed her conclusion even if I find it patently misleading.
I do think some combination of smartphones/iPads/thin-and-lights have been cutting into the netbook growth. I just think if that were the case, sales of the iPad would've hit the more optimistic sales forecasts from Wall Street, rather than the middle ones. The numbers are impressive, and actually, I will be looking at the prices of the iPad and Samsung's S-pad when they launch in Korea (nearly simulatenously, if I were to guess) for teaching purposes. If Samsung can get a Super AMOLED and good teaching applications I would give it a good shot at getting my money, short of that I know iPad will have so much more educational apps that I might actually become a customer (sigh, at least I still have good competition/choice when it comes to smartphones).
Any thoughts? You already said you didn't agree with the first graph, perhaps for similar reasons I stated? Sorry for the continuously long replies and I know you said sometimes it takes a while to read through, but I did try to separate my original points into clear, concise statements. Now it's only my intro/conlusions I have to work on :D.
@Atkins Ha, the warrant was a little interesting, I skimmed parts but really liked the affidavits and the items to be seized. They wanted to seize, IIRC, floppy disks (lol), input devices not limited to keyboards, mice, etc. I'm not sure what that would accomplish except I guess stop the guy from actually doing work until he could buy new gear. But it was a funny way to go about things.
Wow, at first glance I saw that one Iraqi military guy in the first picture.
@hq I agree! I was like, "is that Baghdad Bob?"
Ubuntuuuuuuuu!
Slap MeeGo on it and give it to me yesterday pls.
in the last pic.. he's like.. hey yow, mahn, peace brothah!
I have yet to see a tablet/slate that I would buy, but here's to hoping that between Intel and Google an actually usable tablet/slate will appear sometime in the near future.
Expect a sick ass Nokia Tablet with Meego... Every other Os blows... Meego is da itch!!! Peace...
The 90's called - they want their hat back. Anywho - I'm eager to see how this does.
webcast here: http://intelstudios.edgesuite.net/im/2010_me/msh.htm
So this guy thinks that he can steal Samuel L. Jackson's whole look and get away with it???? I'm calling you out!
Epic article title..
I would love to see what HTC can do in this arena.