Intel makes mobile push with Atom chip
March 4, 2008
Eyeing an exploding new category for the Intel Atom
Chip maker Intel Corp. is making its play for the mobile Internet device market with the launch of a new processor family with different speeds and varying power.
Previously codenamed Silverthorne and Diamondville, the new Intel Atom is the company’s smallest processor built using the tiniest transistors created for mobile Internet devices and low-cost personal computers. With computing increasingly becoming mobile, there is a new class of devices emerging that Intel will serve, an executive said.
“The first is mobile Internet devices that fit in your pocket – small-form factors, good battery life and what we call the full Internet experience similar to what you’re accustomed to on a standard PC with a broadband connection,” said Bill Calder, spokesman at Intel, Santa Clara, CA.
“The second emerging new category are these very simple and affordable laptops and desktops, which we refer to as netbook, and in the desktops’ version, we think a new category will emerge called nettops,” he said.
“The reason the netbook category name makes sense is that these are simple Internet-centric devices and different from a full-featured notebook in that they are designed more for content consumption, browsing, social media, video viewing, et cetera, than they are for content creation.”
Penny pinching
The Intel Atom will maintain the Intel Core 2 Duo instruction set compatibility. The chip measures less than 25square millimeters – each containing 47 million transistors. It is way smaller than a penny.
Intel is targeting existing customers, original equipment manufacturers and ODMs for the Atom.
Mobile Internet devices with the Intel Atom are expected in the market by the second quarter.
“Mobile Internet devices are typically small Internet-centric devices, but we’re not talking about the Atom processor in what many consumers would consider to be a smartphone – yet,” Mr. Calder said.
“Typically, even though the Atom processor can scale down to 0.6 watts, many of today’s smartphones require even lower power,” he said. “Which means we’re not making any announcements today about future products, but the Atom eventually could power some of these smartphones.”