It's IT Blogwatch: in which Intel launches seven sorts of new stuff at Intel Developer Forum in China. Not to mention a new spin on Smash Bros...
Sharon Gaudin reports:
Intel Corp. officially unveiled its low-power, newly architected Atom processor line at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai today. The chips, aimed at the embedded and mobile Internet device markets, are designed for low power consumption and long battery life ... The company introduced five new Atom processors and said that they began shipping some to resellers last month. The architecture, which was reportedly redesigned from the ground up, includes the 45-nanometer "high-k" transistor formula released with the Penryn family of chips late last year ... Intel noted that Fujitsu, Samsung, Toshiba, Hitachi and Lenovo all plan to bring sell Internet devices based on the Atom processor, which was previously code-named Silverthorne. more
Nick Aziz adds:
Intel ... [uncovered] both the full launch lineup as well as detailing the Controller Hub that forms the backbone of the Centrino Atom platform. The company had initially revealed just its standard 1.6GHz processor but now explains that there will be four additional processors; in the same power class ... These new processors will consume either 2W or 2.4W of energy in peak use and will cost $65 and $160 in batches of 1000 ... Two very low-power processors will be part of the introduction, Intel says. Clocked at 800MHz and 1.1GHz, the new processors will run on a slower 400MHz system bus and drop Hyperthreading, but will consume as little as 0.65W in the case of the lower-clocked version; the reduced power will allow handheld devices such as ultra-mobile PCs and simpler, smaller Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). more
Brooke Crothers has more speeds and feeds:
Intel Ultra Mobile guru, Uday Keshavdas, cracked open the back of a mobile Internet device (MID) to show where the Atom processor fits in--literally. (No teardown here. Cracking open the back of the device doesn't qualify.) The low-cost Atom processor is a technology centerpiece at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai ... five new Atom processors and Intel Centrino Atom processor technology for MIDs and embedded computing solutions. The Z500, Z510, Z520, Z530, and Z540 chips draw between 0.65 and 2.4 watts (compared to notebook chips that typically draw between 20 with 35 watts). Speeds range from 800MHz to 1.86GHz, with list prices ranging from $45 to $160. All Atom chips come with 512K of L2 cache memory and have die sizes of 7.8mm x 3.1mm. Atom technology includes a single-chip with integrated graphics called the Intel System Controller Hub. more
Rupert Goodwins talks schedules:
The new chips, described by the company as entirely Core 2 Duo-compatible but with a tenth of the power requirements, will first reach the market in a fleet of partner mobile internet devices (MIDs) in late May or early June ... The MIDs, coming from companies such as Lenovo, Asus and Panasonic, will run Windows or Linux and are being promoted as the functional equivalent of a wireless-connected PC in pocket format. The Atom is also behind two new product niches: netbooks and nettops. These are cost-reduced designs for more conventional notebook and desktop uses; Intel says a nettop motherboard should cost between 20 and 25 percent less than a standard desktop equivalent. more
Nilay Patel is more interested in the mainstream:
Intel's Nehalem chips were just officially announced a couple weeks ago, but the company's already showing off early samples at the Intel Developer Forum in China this week. Performance numbers are being closely guarded, but quad-core samples are clocked at 3.2GHz, and it's expected that Nehalem chips will offer up to a 30 percent performance increase at the same clock speeds over Core 2 processors. Of course, the name still sounds like a particularly violent sneeze, but you know Intel's running some hard-core focus groups right now to fix that problem. more
And Charlie Demerjian looks to the high-end Itanium:
INTEL'S Tukwila blew up on its first public showing. Sorry, No pics. Pat 'Monkey King' Gelsinger was giving Tukwila, the latest Itanic, a grand first public showing. It crashed hard. No, really. The 4S, 16C 32-thread machine was running some CFD app and blammo. It went something like, "The performance you get from the new...... uh.... nice weather in here. And speaking of the next topic.....". Irony, thy name is Itanic. more
And finally...
- Smash Bros. Lyrics Interpretation [other content on site may be objectionable]
Buffer overflow:
- Michael Santo: Microsofts Surface to Emerge First at AT&T Stores
- FastCompany.TV: The Mentor of Tim Berners-Lee at CERN
- Om Malik: There *Really* Is a Coast-to-Coast iPhone Shortage
- Schneier on Security: Outsourcing Passports
- Brian Solis: Web 2.0 is
- Kristen Nicole: Firefox 3 Beta 5 Now Available
- Mike Masnick: eBay Bans Auctions Of Digital Goods
- we CAN help IT: Is there critical mass for a Microsoft shop?
Other Computerworld bloggers:
- Heather Havenstein: Confounded by Twitter? New Wall Tweet Journal to guide users
- Martin MC Brown: Asterisk in trouble
- Preston Gralla: Feds lie about link between software piracy and terrorism
- Mark Hall: Be a project management Genius
- Douglas Schweitzer: Are you searching in vain?
- Seth Weintraub: 5 reasons to ditch the Mac and return to PCs: Debunked!
- Shark Tank: But you just know he'll find his way
- Shark Bait: But everything is plugged in!
Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.
Previously in IT Blogwatch:
- Microsoft still wants Yahoo, still for $31/share (and Error'd)
- WTF FTW LOL@ITBW!!1! (and Flash Portal)
- OOXML probably passes at ISO (and Error'd)