Atom330
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Deceased Sega Saturn donates skin, peripherals to Atom PC
It's mighty trendy around these parts to say how much you lament the day when Sega caved to the PS2 and pulled the plug on the Dreamcast, but which side were you on when the Saturn was getting tag-teamed by the OG PlayStation and N64? That poor thing never come close to the sales of even its failed successor, yet still sits fondly in the hearts of a dedicated few arcade-minded gamers. Perhaps that's why Japanese modders at an Akihabara shop decided to bring one back to life, ripping its 32-bit guts out and replacing them with those required to support a dual-core Atom 330, including 2GB of DDR2-800 RAM and a 160GB HDD. Even the peripherals have been overhauled, the memory cartridge turned into an over-sized USB stick and the four-button Shuttle mouse receiving a laser transplant. If it could still play Virtual On: Cyber Troopers we'd be getting out our passports.[Via lebloggadget]
Intel officially ships 1.6GHz dual-core Atom 330 processor
Wait, what's this? Intel's shipping the dual-core Atom 330? Despite reports that the 1.6GHz chip wouldn't actually leave the dock until Q4, Intel itself has stepped up to ensure everyone that it's getting 'em out in Q3. The brief points out the obvious -- you know, that the 330 was designed with nettops in mind -- while also confirming that it boasts 1MB of L2 cache, an 8-watt TDP and support for DDR2 667. So yeah, let's get these in some systems, shall we?
Intel's dual-core Atom 330 reviewed in desktop guise
Intel's Atom processor and the netbook are the silicon equivalent of Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson; they're inseparable. Naturally we can't wait for the dual-core Atom 330 to cozy up to the next generation of economical portables, but have to wait a bit as it's being soldered exclusively into tiny desktops at the moment, like the one tech site The Guru of 3D just ran through a series of benchmarks. The posted results could have been interesting had they compared its performance to the single-core Atom 230 rather than AMD's (relatively) heavy-hitting Athlon 4850 X2 and Phenom 9850 -- not exactly apples to apples. We'll just have to assume it's roughly twice as fast on the right apps, all that for only twice the power consumption. That's still only a measly 8-watts! [Via The Inquirer]
MSI teases with details on new U91 and U120
While some manufacturers are just now getting in on the netbook craze, others are rolling in the cash from their first generation and are already prepping for the launches of their second and third. Such is the case for MSI, and in an interview with Impress, Notebook Product Manager Neo Lin dropped a few interesting nuggets about the U91, an 8.9-inch successor to the U90; and the U120, a wholly new 10-inch model. Both will offer HSDPA and could receive new keyboard warmers: VIA's Nano was considered but discarded, while Intel's dual-core Atom 330 might just make the cut -- if engineers can figure out how to feed it twice the power of its predecessor without killing battery life. 2GB of memory seems to be the plan on the U120 at least, which might break it out of Microsoft's "ULPC" category, meaning Vista instead of XP Home. Yeah, Lin didn't sound too happy about that prospect either.
Dual-core Atom ready for showtime? Tranquil PC thinks so.
Tranquil PC just announced two new products based around Intel's upcoming Atom 330 dual-core processor, which Tranquil has confusingly dubbed the Atom2 Z330. We'll find out soon enough who's right in their terminology, but cheap-ass speed freaks have more exciting distinctions to worry about. The new processor has dual Atom wafers, for pretty much twice the fun, and Tranquil says that desktop performance is "very very snappy." They're celebrating the new processor with the T7-HSG Home Server, which will start shipping on September 30th in very limited supply for £299 (about $528 US). There's also a DVB-T Media Center in the works, but we're otherwise short on details.
Intel's dual-core Atom 330 processor to ship in Q4 2008
Bad news, Atom fans. That dual-core nugget of netbook-powering goodness that you were so looking forward to seeing in Q3 won't begin shipping until Q4. According to some data picked up by Fudzilla, the Atom 330 will only be debuting in Q3 (September 21st, to be precise), but it isn't scheduled to get a shipping label until a few months later. Also of note, we're told that the chip will sell (at some place in the supply chain) for $43, but don't count on those savings being completely passed onto you.[Thanks, sinai]
Intel Atom 330 coming Q3, more details come to light
If you've been keeping up on the launch of Intel's dual-core Atom 330 processor, we have a couple little extra nubbins for you to chew on this evening. We already know that the Atom 330 will clock in at 1.6GHz, but that 1MB of cache will be split amongst the two processors. Additionally, we're looking at a 533MHz FSB, 64-bit processing (no real surprise there), and a peak TDP of only 8W, which should be just perfect for those mini PC's that rely on passive cooling. Look for a release in Q3 of 2008, most likely packed inside those Wind PCs.
Rumored dual-core Atom details get fleshed out
We'd already heard that Intel planned to trot out some dual-core Atom processors sooner or later, and the Fudzilla website has now turned up a few more details on 'em courtesy of a supposedly legitimate leak. According to it, the first dual-core processor will be dubbed the Atom 330, and will clock in at the same 1.6GHz as the current single-core Atom 230 (no word on that 1.87GHz version we heard about previously). What's more, the processor will supposedly pack 1MB cache memory (twice the amount of the current single-core processor), and boast a TDP rating of just 8W, which is a good deal more than the 2W rating the current Atom 230 has, but still far less than any of Intel's other low-voltage processors. Still no word on a price for it, unfortunately, but it's said to be on track for a release sometime in the third quarter of this year.[Via Electronista]
