Intel pushes back next-gen Atom release
Cedar Trail trials
Intel has allegedly knocked back the release of its next-gen netbook and nettop chippery, from September to November.
Codenamed 'Cedar Trail', the platform comprises chipsets and 32nm Atoms, the 1.6GHz N2600 and 1.86GHz N2800, along with comparable desktop parts D2500 and D2700.
The CPUs contain a new graphics core capable of DirectX 10.1 support, and it's this that lies behind the delay, moles told DigiTimes.
They claim there have been issues with the graphics drives that Intel has yet to solve.
Intel can take the delay on the chin. Today, Netbooks are not the must-have gadgets they were just a few short years ago, though the claimed new schedule, if accurate, puts the release of Cedar Trail machines in time for Christmas in doubt.
Expect Intel to say more about Cedar Trail at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), its regularly held announcement-fest next month. ®
COMMENTS
AMD Fusion and Liano have destroyed the Intel Atom; Intel blew their lead.
The Atom was a good stop gap using a shrunk P4, but Intel hasn't built on it's lead, especially for SoC, memory support, bus speed and better featured chipsets; so the Atom is obsolete now.
I have an Atom netbook and used it heavily, so know how limited it is, especially for video. Even current Atom chipsets are pathetically slow due to the crippled bus speed, memory support, and poor or no support for HDMI, SATA and USB3. Yes USB3 matters now, because USB3 Flash is cheap and very fast!
I won't consider an Atom based computer for anything now, I will expect at least an AMD Fusion or Liano for any system I buy in future; I definitely can't take the idea of Atom NAS seriously.
This is why I built a low power, fast FreeNAS 8.0 RAIDZ2 box with an AMD Fusion Micro ATX mobo, an XFX 450W PSU, 8GB RAM, 5 x 2TB WD Green and an 8GB USB3 Flash stick, rather than any of the Atom mobos, because even high-end Atom mobos are crippled and more expensive! I did look at Intel i3, but decided was too expensive and power hungry for a NAS.
Old
Their GPU's and pathetic and way behind what is available elsewhere and yet they still continue to force them upon the consumer. Intel just needs to let go and focus on what they do best. They killed/sold off all of their products lines except for x86 and Itanium and then they get into the GPU business and years later still fail at it. Their ARM chips were decent, their GPU's not even close.
This is a good news day!!
If they are anything like the previous generation maybe it's best not to bother at all.
Intel hobbling netbook market
I've seen netbook AMD APUs being put in machines with 15.6" screen, 4gb of RAM and 320gb HDD. If Intel wouldn't insist on hobbling the spec of machine atoms can be put in they might sell more (at the expense of more expensive chips it has to be said).
I don't know
From what I've read (no direct personal experience) from the usual suspects (Anandtech, et al), Llano has it all over Atom in its present incarnation, and this next round from Intel isn't likely to make a difference, particularly with graphics capabilities. Any opinions out there, as if I didn't know?
