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AMD Wants to be a Netbook Contender with 'Conesus' Chip

Paul Lilly — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:22:46 -0600

While Intel's Atom chip has been finding its way into nearly every netbook release, AMD has been playing it conservative by taking a wait-and-see approach. At this point, it's not hard to see that netbooks are here to stay, and AMD finally looks ready to capatilize on one of the hottest tech fads of the year.

According to AMD's updated processor roadmap, the chip maker is primed to target mini-notebooks and netbooks with a pair of new processors called Caspian and Conesus. Both are 45nm parts and built using the same architecture as the company's just-released Shanghai chip and both will be dual-core parts with an integrated DDR2 memory controller.

Caspian, which will find its way into ultraportables, will come with 2MB of cache compared to 1MB on Conesus. The latter will also utilize a BGA package so that it can fit into the limited space netbooks afford. Even still, AMD chief executive Dirk Meyer contends that netbooks aren't going to be the company's focus.

"First order, we're ignoring the netbook phenomenon," Meyer said, "concentrating on PC notebooks above that form factor.

Huh? Randy Allen, the senior VP of AMD's Computation Solutions Group, clarified Meyer's curious statement by saying AMD will cede part of the netbook market to Intel, particularly Mobile Internet Devices. "We won't be going to the bottom where Atom is going," Allen said. Allen further stated that customers of the Yukon netbook market don't want a "compromised PC exeprience."

Rumor: Acer Moving Up to Non-Atom Nettops in Early 2009

Paul Lilly — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:00:36 -0600

Intel's Atom processor has become almost synonymous with low power netbooks and nettops, but there are other players eager to make their presence known. Chief among them is VIA, whose Nano processor might even be faster than Intel's Atom, clock for clock. Obtaining vendor support has been a problem for VIA, but that could change as Acer gears up to launch a low-cost and low-power nettop in early 2009.

Acer says it will likely surpass its goal of 12-13 million Aspire one netbooks shipped in 2009. The high demand has the company thinking about alternatives to Intel's Atom processor for its upcoming nettop so as not to eat into its Atom processor supply. Both VIA and AMD are being considered, says DigiTimes, though the company also hasn't ruled out sticking with Intel's Atom chip.

Acer's indecision doesn't stop at the processor. The company is also mulling which manufacturer it wants to produce the nettop. The three possible options include Quanta Computer, Wistron, and MSI.

Intel's Atom Largely Responsible for Worldwide Processor Market Growth

Paul Lilly — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:41:36 -0600

Netbook manufacturers like Asus, MSI, Acer, and all the rest aren't the only ones benefiting from the recent craze in low power, ultraportable notebooks. Underneath the vast majority of netbooks and low-cost desktops sits an Intel Atom processor, demand for which has contributed to record growth in the processor market in Q3 2008.

According to a new report by the IDC, overall CPU shipments for PCs and servers jumped nearly 16 percent in the third quarter compared to one year ago, just over half of which is directly attributable to Intel Atom processor shipments. Without the demand for Intel's Atom processor, IDC says the market would have only grown 7.5 percent.

Whether or not the numbers present a wake-up call to AMD remains to be seen. Intel's rival chip maker has previously stated it would take a wait-and-see approach to the low-cost netbook market, saying "we are watching that segment rather than playing in it, but as it matures we'll see where it goes." But AMD might not want to wait too long. Helped in part by demand for the Atom processor, Intel increased its market share in processor vendor shares by 1.1 percent earning 80.8 percent of the market, while AMD finished with 18.5 percent, representing a loss of 1.2 percent.

Hit the jump and tell us if you think AMD should be paying more attention to the netbook market, or continuing to focus on being competitive on the desktop front.

Packard Bell Steps in to Join the Netbook Crowd

Paul Lilly — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:53:46 -0500

If you were raised on Far Cry, Athlon 64s, and Britney Spears, you probably never heard of Packard Bell. But for the slightly more ripened generation, we can remember PB as a prominent OEM up until it packed its bags and skipped out of the U.S. market nearly a decade ago.

But the company didn't disappear, and instead has maintained a presence in Europe. And like everyone else that manufacturers PCs, Packard Bell is prepping a jump onto the increasingly crowded netbook bandwagon. PB's calling its entry the "dot," which will be an 8.9-inch ultraportable with a full install of XP.

At its core, the dot comes built around an Intel Atom processor. Storage duties will be handled by a 160GB hard drive and 1GB of memory. Optional add-ons include a 6-cell battery, webcam, and a 3G module. After plugging in the exchange rate, the dot looks to sell for $584 USD in Europe this November.

Any guesses as to who will be next to offer up a netbook?

Intel Starts Shipping Dual-Core Atom CPUs

Paul Lilly — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:24:22 -0500

Back in June, we reported Intel's dual-core Atom processor had been postponed until September, and since that time, the company's single-core variant has enjoyed widespread success in the nettop world. Demand has been so high that there was speculation of an Atom chip shortage, ultimately prompting a response from Intel.

September has arrived, and as predicted, Intel has now officially begun shipping its 45nm dual-core Atom processor. Intel says the Atom 330 has been designed specifically for nettops. The new chip cranks out 1.6GHz per core supplemented by a very modest 1MB of L2 cache. The 8W TDP chip supports DDR2-667 and is being made available as an integrated package validated with Intel's 945GC Express Chipset.

Is this the chip you've been waiting for before picking up an ultraportable?

Leaked Intel Roadmap Shows Next-Gen Atom Plans

Paul Lilly — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:31:24 -0500

Intel's already popular Atom chip may get a whole lot more interesting next year if a leaked slide turns out to be accurate. The slide comes courtesy of Japanese technology news site PCWatch, and it shows that Intel plans on bringing a next-generation Atom chip to market in Q3 2009. Code named Pineview, the CPU will come in both dual- and single-core versions, according to the report.

But the biggest news with the new Atom is its Lincroft microarchitecture. Lincroft differs from the current Silverthorne microarchitecture by integrating both a GPU core and a memory controller into the chip package. How exactly Intel plans to mesh a GPU core remains a mystery, but such a feat would spark an already booming Netbook market, assuming it would even be made available for Netbook systems.

Making things even more interesting, AMD is reportedly readying its own Atom competitor code named Bobcat, which is expected to be a single-core 1GHz AMD64 processorwith 256kb of L2 cache with an 8W power draw.

Intel Plans on Delivering New Atom Chip in September

Paul Lilly — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:17:36 -0500

Atom

The ultraportable craze has been nothing short of ultra popular, and it might get even better next month. While Intel senior VP Pat Gelsinger was delivering his keynote during IDF on Monday, Cnet claims an Intel employee spilled the beans on the company's plans to offer up a dual-core Atom in September, a move that would make the Nettop market even more popular than it already is. Specifics weren't disclosed, but if earlier reports hold true, look for the new hyperthreading-capable chip to come clocked at 1.6GHz per core on a 533MHz front-side bus with 1MB of L2 cache.

Dunnington and Nehalem

On a more official note, Intel revealed plans to also offer its six-core Dunnington server processor in September, which will be the last member of Intel's 45nm Penryn family. And while on the topic of cores, Intel also showed the first eight-core Nehalem chip. Gelsinger said the new chip will be a monolithic design with all eight cores crammed onto a single piece of silicon. Tasty!

Intel's Atom Sales Exceeding All Expectations

Paul Lilly — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:28:59 -0500

Forget any talk of shortages or competitive pressure from VIA, Intel's Atom processors are thriving amid the recent Netbook and Mobile Internet Device (MID) movement. "Atom is off to a very, very rapid start, far exceeding our expectations when we started the year," CFO Stacy Smith said in an interview Tuesday. "It's the perfect recession product to have in the marketplace."

The success of its Atom processor has helped Intel achieve a 25 percent rise in quarterly profit despite a weak global economy, with Smith maintaining an overall revenue forecast in the third quarter between $10.0 and $10.6 billion.

Yields are good too. According to Smith, Intel gets about 2,500 Atom processors per silicon wafer, and while that's not quite as good as on a Core or Xeon chip, it's enough to ensure strong profitability on Atom CPUs. Still, Intel remains cautiously optimistic.

"We'll know kind of in six months how much of this demand (for Atom) is real and how much is customers thinking they're going to win in the market place and double-ordering," Smith said. "It seems to be growing the market rather than cannibalizing existing PC sales."

Will Intel's Atom chips continue to exceed expectations now that Centrino 2 platforms are starting to trickle out?