Posted 11/09/09 at 10:45:45 AM by Paul Lilly

Expect to see quite a few netbook and nettop deals this holiday shopping season, especially if Intel forges ahead with plans to fast track the introduction of its upcoming Pine Trail platform.

"Intel is planning for a fast transition to Pine Trail. To generate excitement for the platform ahead of launch, Intel is planning a press release in late December publicly disclosing the details of the platform," X-bit Labs claims to have read in an Intel document.

Should Intel aggressively push Pine Trail ahead of its launch, consumers could see a fair number of pre- and post-Christmas day sales on older Atom platform-based netbooks and nettops. And look for plenty of coverage at next year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Intel's Pine Trail platform will include a bunch of next-gen Atom Pineview processors, which will come with an integrated graphics core, a built-in DDR2 memory controller, a new core-logic set, and other goodies.

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Posted 08/28/09 at 05:42:49 PM by Pulkit Chandna

MSI has confirmed it is working on a convertible touchscreen netbook based on Intel’s upcoming Pine Trail platform. The confirmation comes a few days after a report on Digitimes had hinted at such a product. MSI hopes that its touchscreen netbook, called the Wind U150, will be the first to feature the Pine Trail platform, which it believes will debut at CES in January, 2010.

However, the word from the horse’s mouth is that Pine Trail will be shipped to customers before the sun sets on 2009. The U150 will feature a 10-inch touchscreen and run Windows 7. Pine Trail is the codename for the next generation of the Intel Atom.

It will have the CPU, GPU and memory controller on the same die. This chip, codenamed “Pineview”, will be clubbed with a second chipset codenamed “Tiger Point”. Being a two chip solution, it will be more energy efficient than its predecessor.

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Posted 08/03/09 at 05:35:42 PM by Andy Salisbury

Thanks to swirling rumors suggesting that Intel is in the process of killing off its Atom Z CPUs early in favor of focusing on their new Pine Trail platform, Intel has come out to debunk any heresy, stating that they have no such plans.

“Rumors of 'industry sources' stating that Intel is no longer taking Atom Z processors orders for netbooks, or any other products, or ending production by end of year are 100% inaccurate,” stated an Intel spokesperson, regarding the matter.

It should be noted though, that once Pine Trail is introduced the Atom Zs will be eventually phased out. Intel still plans on a later part of this year to do so.

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Posted 07/29/09 at 04:55:57 PM by Andy Salisbury

According to recent reports, it’s not expected that neither Asus or Acer will launch any more netbooks during the second half of 2009, thanks to Intel’s push to launch their new Pine Trail-M platform.

Asus is still planning to go forward with their touchscreen Eee PC T91 and T101, as well as an Android-based netbook during the second half of this year. Acer, on the other hand, doesn’t look to be doing a whole lot until Intel makes their big release.

Pine Trail-M is slated for the first quarter of 2010, so the delay shouldn’t be too long.

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Posted 05/20/09 at 09:03:40 AM by Paul Lilly

Intel's Atom platform has been such a resounding success, one has to wonder what the No. 1 chip maker has planned for a follow-up. You don't have to wonder anymore, as Intel this week officially unveiled 'Pine Trail', the codename for Atom's successor.

The CPU used in Pine Trail, called 'Pineview,' moves the memory controller and GPU onto the same die as the CPU. This means Pine Trail will be a two-chip solution, one less than Intel's current netbook platform. In theory, this should result in cost savings and lower power consumption.

Pineview is being built on a 45nm manufacturing process. Intel hasn't said what type of memory controller it will use, though previous speculation pointed to single-channel DDR2. But what's most interesting is how the war between Intel and Nvidia is shaping up. Like Pine Trail, Nvidia's Ion platform is also a two-chip solution and will have had time to mature by the time Pine Trail debuts later this year. Performance looks to be better on the 9400M-based Ion as well, but Intel's price structure for selling standalone Atoms could put Nvidia at a disadvantage. Moreover, what chips will Nvidia use once Intel makes the move to a CPU+GPU solution?

Stay tuned!

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