Intel rolls 32-nm Atom, preps 22-nm Ivy Bridge
Rick Merritt, EE Times -- EDN, December 29, 2011
SAN JOSE, CA—Intel Corp rolled out Cedar Trail, its 32-nm Atom chips for netbooks and embedded systems as a Taiwan newspaper claimed it had uncovered details about the company's plans to release its 22-nm Ivy Bridge notebook and desktop CPUs.
In early April Intel plans to release 25 Ivy Bridge processors made in its 22-nm technology, according to a report in Digitimes. It said seventeen desktop chips will range in price from $184 to $332, and eight notebook CPUs will range in cost from $40 to $1,096—a range that is not likely accurate.
Since about 2008, Intel rolled out its next-generation desktop and notebook CPUs at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. This year is an exception to the trend, sparking one analyst to suggest the Ivy Bridge chips were delayed by at least a quarter, something an Intel spokesman denied.
An Intel spokesman declined to comment on the report. However, Intel did formally unveil its latest Atom chip set called Cedar Trail.
Cedar Trail includes two new dual-core Atom processors for netbooks—the 1.6-GHz N2600 with 400 MHz embedded graphics dissipating about 3.5W and the 1.86-GHz N2800 with 640 MHz graphics consuming 6.5W. The chips support faster graphics cores and DRAM interfaces-up to 1,066 MHz DDR3—and consume less power than Intel's previous generation Oak Trail parts.
An Intel executive described Cedar Trail as single-chip integrated processors in a talk in April. However, the chips now in production are paired with the NM10, an I/O hub that supports PCI Express, USB, Ethernet, serial ATA and audio.
Intel said Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba will ship netbooks using the chips as early as January. The company said the systems could sport battery life of up to ten hours and start at prices as low as $199.
In addition, Intel rolled out D2500 and D2700 Atom processors for entry-level desktops and embedded systems. The chips support data rates up to 2.1 GHz and consume up to 10W.
This story was originally posted by EE Times.
