Saturday, March 21 2009
Intel's Atom series of processors gets credit for reinvigorating the ULPC and SFF PC segments that had been niche markets run by smaller players such as VIA, Freescale, and ARM. The Atom Z500 series single-core chips operate at speeds ranging from 1.1 to 1.86 GHz, with phenomenally low energy footprints - under 2.2 Watts.

One of the company's newest additions to the range, the Z550, could hit the 2.00 GHz mark, while consuming less than 2.4 Watts. Another chip in the making, Z515, will have dynamic clock-speed between 800 MHz and 1.33 GHz depending on the processing load. The Z515 could end up being an MID maker's favourite, not that Z550 won't be used in devices that small. Sony just might pack the 2.00 GHz chip on an upcoming variant of the VAIO P.



Sources: Engadget, Pocketables
posted by btarunr - 1:00 PM |  Related News

User comments
by FreedomEclipse (March 21st - 1:28 PM) - Reply
now this would be cool if the could come up with a dual core atom which runs at the same speed or maybe a bit lower on the same voltage. that would beef up a few of them netbooks & palmtops out there.

not that you'd really need it of course since you wont be doing anything back breaking on a 12/13.3" netbook. but any performance gain is always a welcome edition to anything which is small & compact.
by moto666 (March 21st - 2:14 PM) - Reply  | Edit
The Atom chips from 1,5Ghz is more then enough for a nettop.
They need to make a better gpu pair to it like Nvidia with the Ion platform!

For a nettop the priorities are long battery life smale size and a lot lot connectivity (bluetooth, Wifi, hsdpa, wimax, LTE)
So it's good if it is faster in CPU but not necessary for a nettop to be 2x2Ghz with HT tech...
by FreedomEclipse (March 21st - 2:48 PM) - Reply
by: moto666
The Atom chips from 1,5Ghz is more then enough for a nettop.
They need to make a better gpu pair to it like Nvidia with the Ion platform!

For a nettop the priorities are long battery life smale size and a lot lot connectivity (bluetooth, Wifi, hsdpa, wimax, LTE)
So it's good if it is faster in CPU but not necessary for a nettop to be 2x2Ghz with HT tech...
sorry its my OCD talking ;);)
by KieranD (March 21st - 3:33 PM) - Reply
ocd man i have aspergers syndrome and thats a bitch thats like ocd x10

id like to see a nice dual core atom 2ghz is a lot but its not like its a big jump from 1.8ghz is it?

what we need is low power desktop cpus, for offices and regular users like i said office maybe internet and multimedia, those nettops but more like with a proper cpu and desktop

an atom with a low power gpu would be good! dosnt have to be a 8600gt could be a 8200 or a 8400

EDIT: functionality, portability and usage time! we need to get laptops that last long times, like more then 4hrs
by AltecV1 (March 21st - 4:57 PM) - Reply
i never did understand the race do low power cpus!!most of the time laptops are in the powergrid anyway:rolleyes:
by Roph (March 21st - 5:15 PM) - Reply
Finally able to play back 1080p perhaps?
by FreedomEclipse (March 21st - 6:20 PM) - Reply
by: Roph
Finally able to play back 1080p perhaps?
haha your gonna be waiting a looonnng time for something like that. especially for a nettop. Its probably possible but what would be the point of a 1080p 13.3" (or even smaller) screen?

Unless their gonna be making atom's mainstream so that everyone can buy it then possibly as you can get the atom & shove in a HD card with it to drive the 1080p in a small mediacenter build off.

1080p is a waste of time in this case unless its on a mediacenter based rig.
by DrPepper (March 21st - 7:45 PM) - Reply
by: Roph
Finally able to play back 1080p perhaps?
No point because the displays are too small anywas.
by moto666 (March 21st - 8:13 PM) - Reply  | Edit
Disagree with You!
Just need to connect to a large TV or monitor and the HD Experience is there!
Beside of that it is good that You don't need to convert an HD film and watch it on the go!
by DrPepper (March 21st - 8:17 PM) - Reply
by: moto666
Disagree with You!
Just need to connect to a large TV or monitor and the HD Experience is there!
Beside of that it is good that You don't need to convert an HD film and watch it on the go!
:wtf: goddamn.
by swaaye (March 21st - 10:50 PM) - Reply
They need to get that little mosquito CPU flapping its wings at 3.0GHz and then things would be interesting. When you take away the need for extreme low power, Atom sucks. At 2 GHz it's probably slower than a 5 year old 1.5 GHz Pentium M.

Frankly I wish they had a 1 watt CPU for netbooks. And a 1 watt IGP too. My EeePC900 with its 5W Celeron M ULV and 10W GMA 900 IGP gets very hot when playing old 3D games. Very uncomfortable.
by FreedomEclipse (March 21st - 11:21 PM) - Reply
by: moto666
Disagree with You!
Just need to connect to a large TV or monitor and the HD Experience is there!
Beside of that it is good that You don't need to convert an HD film and watch it on the go!
in that case i suppose youre gonna need to beef up the souncard & add a HDMI slot or something ot that 13" nettop
by IcrushitI (March 21st - 11:41 PM) - Reply
I knew it, as soon as Via decided to come into the market with a 1.7, Intel the woosies, would finally show their beef. Thanks Via for forcing Intel into a speed improvement. They have been holding back. I wish someone would leak out the fastest the atom can go,so I can make an informed decision of what and when to buy my netbook. Competition is good, goes to show Intel is worried about the Via chip.
by lemonadesoda (March 22nd - 12:01 AM) - Reply
Bah!

Atom 330 is good: dual core AND hyperthreading AND max 2GB

Atom 500 series is single core and NO hyperthreading AND the lower Z editions can do only 1GB.
by PCpraiser100 (March 22nd - 2:38 AM) - Reply
Nice speeds, MOAR speed!!!!
by IcrushitI (March 22nd - 3:24 AM) - Reply
by: lemonadesoda
Bah!

Atom 330 is good: dual core AND hyperthreading AND max 2GB

Atom 500 series is single core and NO hyperthreading AND the lower Z editions can do only 1GB.
Because Intel uses throttling for their cpu, when they base their wattage numbers, is that when the cpu is at maximum or minimum speed. It would give me a better idea of Battery life.
by craigo (March 22nd - 9:20 AM) - Reply
Nice to see this cpu mature....althouth i think the largest performance increase for this platform would come from dual channel memory support...so the via solution still has my vote for netbook/nettop applications....oh and nvidia ION is just plain STUPID the whole idea is redundant.
by crazy pyro (March 22nd - 11:45 PM) - Reply
Intel just need to allow ion into netbooks and bam you've got a nice little portable gaming machine there (I play Dialbo II and guild wars on my netbook with no problems.
The N270's a pretty fast processor in terms of opening up word etc, I notice hardly any difference between my main rig and netbook so it doesn't even need a speed increase.
by morpha (March 24th - 1:05 AM) - Reply
What I want to know is if they have fixed/ created a better chipset to run these things....

do anyone know?
by crazy pyro (March 24th - 9:37 AM) - Reply
NVIDIA has just Intel's blocking it from being integrated into hardware for some reason I think, the chipset on them's not really that bad though, I can run older games (granted they're 5 or so years old at least) on it but it's not entirely incapable.
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