Monday, September 22, 2008

Dual core Atom on netbook?


I know there are people waiting to to get one...

UPDATED

Continue reading...

... but it will not happend.

Intel has been talking about dual core Atom and always saying it's for nettops.

It has 8w TDP compared to 2.5w on N270 so it gives about 25% less battery life on the current netbooks.

But that's not all:

I just got info that Intel will not let oems to use it on netbooks

More about that later.

... So if you were waiting for one, stop waiting and buy something that is available.


UPDATE: I got my info from a OEM that is making Atom based netbooks. They don't want me to publish who they are.

.. Intel said to them that they don't sell Atom 330 for netbooks.

.. 25% less battery life figure came from them.. Atom 330 uses more power than Atom N270 on any use

.. Atom 330 would need much more cooling -> size/weight and price problems

.. they also say that Intel Atom 330 is not even compatible with the platforms used with N270, as it is made for desktops. ( I didn't get info about the actual difference )

My thoughts: Atom 330 is for desktop use ( nettops ) and Intel doesn't want it on mobile systems , but there could be a Atom N330 with lower TDP .. for netbooks. But as it hasn't been even announced yet, it might take some time.

So.. if you ask me should you wait for dual core Atom netbook, I'd have to say no.






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22 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds like the perfect time for amd or via to step up with a competetive product and take over the market then...

trying to force someone around based on marketshare is never a smart thing. intel should know that...

Anonymous said...

Look like Intel just cares about Wintel strategy. But they(Intel people) risk to enhance VIA's market share with its Nano CPU. As for me Atom is almost enough.

But in this link below guy from MSI says that next Wind U120 netbook seem will get dual-core Atom.
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2008/0917/netbook01.htm

JKK said...

Kola, they didn't say it will have dual core...

they said they are thinking about it and that there would be challenges..

Anonymous said...

Affirmative. :)

Anonymous said...

b'stards.
Everun Note then.

Anonymous said...

It's time for the Nano!

Anonymous said...

I just got info that Intel will not let oems to use it on netbooks???????From an oem, from intel??

Anonymous said...

i always love how Intel is so scared to death of current markets eating up other markets (their profit margins) that they cripple innovation.

but the funny thing is it ALWAYS & i mean ALWAYS fails. Intel just does not have the power in the industry that they think they do, they have even tryed placing restrictions on what a "netbook" is & many OEM's already broke those guidelines.

so once again i take it with a grain of salt, Intel will lose we will win. reminds me alot of DRM, whatever they come up with we always find a way around. our billions of heads are vastly superior to their thousands of heads & always will be.

Anonymous said...

I agree - the nano in the HP Mini would be idea1.

Anonymous said...

JKK you should really know better than this, the consumer always wins in the end. i know you are an industry man & primarily pledge your allegiance to them. but i see way too many statements reflecting what you've heard from them & it is taken as some sorta matter of fact. when we all know eventually they will buckle. Intel & MS have tryed setting up so many "rules" in the past & always fail.

besides Intel couldnt even get all of the OEM's to stay within the original guidelines of what a "netbook" is, neither could MS. they will eventually have to release a DC Atom or OEM's will start moving to other Intel CPU's or even AMD/VIA.

Anonymous said...

lol @ JKK for preaching Intels worthless industry word

lol @ Intel for thinking they can stunt the netbook market


it's always good for a laugh though to watch multi-billion dollar companys not being able to enforce a damn thing. hell if governments worth trillions cant even enforce less than 5% of the laws they make (law school fact) then theres no way a large company can do any better. look at how easily MS (which is bigger than Intel) caved on their XP guidelines for netbooks & in the general market.

companies DONT call the shots, we do. why? because we write their paychecks by buying their products.

Anonymous said...

I think it's a dumb idea that they wouldn't let the dual core version in nettops. They coulda just lower the frequency on both of the cores, or customize it that one running at high while the other one would be in deep sleep mode and jump in when needed or disabled by user preference.

very disappointed hearing the news.

Anonymous said...

The 2core Atom may have a TDP of 8W, and compare to the singlecore Atom it might use upto 25% less battery power.
that'd be under full load.

But on the other hand,

1- Tasks like loading applications will go faster, so jobs will get done quicker, so loadtimes will be reduced, and idle times increased.
2- On idle power the 2Cores use barely more than a single core.
Having the fan on more often is probably the biggest powerdraw.
You'll probably end up with batterylife between +97% idle to +70% under load of the current models, and in real life that would probably translate in about +/-92% batterylife of current singlecore Atom processors.
The pc runs idle most of the time anyways, and the CPU actually uses a very small part of power over the overall parts.
You need to know that in idle the atom uses very little power.

Games optimized for multi-cores will benefit greatly from 2cores.

It would technically be possible to run 1080p. video in XP using an optimized driver to load the data partly in the CPU cores, partly in the GPU cores.. But chances are small that ever becomes a reality.
In Vista that might become a possibility, having about 1,5 cores adressed to the video.

I think the dual core version will work in Vista just like the single core works in XP.

If we're lucky Windows 7 will be lighter on mini notebooks than Vista is, and maybe we'll be able to use the mini notebooks for many more years!

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a mod challenge. I bet JKK will have the first modded dual core Eee 900/901...

Anonymous said...

Why would he mod it? It would destroy his battery life, which would go against any portability he currently wants to maintain...

I guess that 25% worse battery life is using the current POS 945 chipset. If they would just pair it with some serious power management and a low power chipset, I think DC Atom would be a very viable solution. Losses that you get from having higher TDP would be gained back in power management and a lower power IGP (i.e. G45 based).

Anonymous said...

8W is viable for netbooks - that's the TFP of the 1.6 GHz C7 used in the HP MiniNote.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/c7-m_ulv/

(Some confusion over this - lots of sites say 3.5W, which is actually TDP of 1.0 GHz - error probably propagating from this press release: http://www.via.com.tw/en/resources/pressroom/pressrelease.jsp?press_release_no=2087

Anonymous said...

Pin-compatible with the single core, costs $40 as opposed to $29: http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/09/22/intel_ships_dual_core_atom/

I really can't see the netbook makers saluting Intel and walking away from that.

Vali B said...

jkk when the pci-e mini to zif cable will be available???

Anonymous said...

Itel does have a say in this... they can sue companies for using their dual core atoms in netbooks. they decide where they allow them to go. i am actually glad at the news because i wont have the issue of having to wait till they go dual core and just buy the single cores now and not feel any regret by getting a good amount of usage from the ones available now.
i can understand why intel wouldn't allow it, it would affect them negativly and possibly destroy the netbook market.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone have any further info on this? It's been 6 months since this was posted. I'm really close to buying an Asus 1000HE but am tempted to wait a few more months to see about the dual-core...

Anonymous said...

THIS JKK GUY IS SO FULL OF BULLSHIT THAT ITS RUNNING OUT OF HIS EYEBALLS! SAYING "INTEL DOESNT WANT ME TO TELL" WHAT A CROCK OF SHIT...

PEOPLE THE DUAL PROCESSOR 370 ATOM NETBOOKS ARE ACTUALLY AVAILABLE NOW... YES..I DID SAY "DUAL PROCESSOR ATOMS" NETBOOKS.. JUST GO HERE..AND IGNORE THIS IDIOT JJK

http://haleron.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=2&Itemid=27&vmcchk=1&Itemid=27

JKK said...

Thanks Anonymous,

You might wanna look at the date.. this post is over year old...

.. but still 100% accurate as intel still doesn't want oem to do it. Smaller players can get away with this as intel cant hold them as the biggger ones ( intel cuts away their discounts if they dont follow the rules )

.. and battery/thermals suck on these just like i told. ( i have Point Of View model with it and it's one of the hottest / noisiest netbook around and it only gets 2.5 hours with 6 cell battery ) you really want one? Why not just get CULV version??

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