PineTrail and the ASUS PC1005PE; Better, Faster, Sorta, Kinda

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://hothardware.com/Articles/Asus-Eee-PC1005PE-Atom-N450-Pinetrail-Platform-Launch/' target='_blank'>http://hothardware.com/Articles/Asu...latform-Launch/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The Atom N450 processor has been launched today and it's comprised of a single core Atom chip with on-die graphics and memory controller. This level of integration, as we've shown you recently, is also coming to Intel's notebook platforms, but today Atom gets it first for netbooks.&nbsp; In the pages ahead we'll take a closer look at a new Eee PC from Asus with this new low-power Atom technology under its hood, as well as a view of the chip itself and its capabilities."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1261415235.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>With the exception of ION, netbooks have been rather boring lately.&nbsp; All of them have a 8.9 inch to <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">10</span> <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">11</span> 12 inch screen, single core Atom CPU, HDD, webcam, WiFi and a base OS.&nbsp; While PineTrail will not revolutionize anything, it will raise the minimum bar a little with slightly better CPU and GPU performance.&nbsp; You still will not be able to handle HD video, or play any current generation game, but it does run faster overall, and manages to do so while not really changing the power requirements, which means the netbooks of tomorrow will still be able to run for most of the day.&nbsp; Overall, I think its nice that Intel has updated the platform, but it is much ado about nothing, and NVidia's ION and ION2 stand to make much more of a difference in the netbook market.</p>

[Jason Dunn]

Really? This is the best Intel could do? :(

[ptyork]

I don't know. It really all depends on what "excites" you. If 10-14 hours between charges floats your boat, then these new processors with on-die everything are as exciting as it gets. If you read towards the end, the entire laptop draws only between 8 and 15 watts. You get an entire Pentium-class computer and monitor running with less power draw than a 40W equivalent CF lightbulb. Doubtless, this will make many people very happy.

That said, it doesn't float MY boat. I'd like to see an HD decoder integrated as part of the chipset at the very least, if no on-die. It doesn't need to be a power-hungry, full-on 3D dedicated chip like the ION platform, as it is doubtful these are going to be used for much hardcore 3D gaming. But video consumption is no doubt going to be a major use case for this type of device. Intel is somehow missing the boat here. Not enough "ding"---too much "buh-buh-buh-bummm". ;)

[Jason Dunn]

I don't know. It really all depends on what "excites" you. If 10-14 hours between charges floats your boat, then these new processors with on-die everything are as exciting as it gets...But video consumption is no doubt going to be a major use case for this type of device.

That's a good point. The reduced power consumption is indeed quite interesting, but I think the lack of HD video support is a problem - especially since I'd bet the #1 use of HD video is YouTube HD. Maybe the Intel GPU has enough oomph to work with the forthcoming Flash beta that uses GPU offload for Flash video. If it can, I'd be much more excited about this chipset.

[ptyork]

Maybe the Intel GPU has enough oomph to work with the forthcoming Flash beta that uses GPU offload for Flash video. If it can, I'd be much more excited about this chipset.

Nope, the integrated 3150 doesn't have any HD decoding circuitry and thus won't benefit at all from Flash 10.1. Sad.

Funny, why does it take a mobile phone chipset manufacturer to "get it"?!?

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/broadcoms-next-crystal-hd-tech-to-liven-up-hd-capabilities-of-n/

Should have been really easy to integrate similar HD decoding capabilities into the Pine Trail die without significantly affecting the power capabilities. It is completely bypassed unless needed, which should mean no difference for standard computing usage and much better battery life when watching video. Oh well. At least there'll be options...more expensive options, but options.