The Road Ahead for Intel's Atom

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Roadmap+Shows+NextGen+Atom+in+Q3+2009/article12871.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Road...rticle12871.htm</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"An Intel roadmap that surfaced at the Intel Developers Forum 2008 shows that Intel plans to bring the next generation Atom processor to market in Q3 2009 -- roughly a year from now. PCWatch reports that the new Atom will carry the codename Pineview and will be offered in both dual-core and single-core versions."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1220705594.usr10.jpg" /></p><p>Dual-core was pretty much expected at this point, but what I found interesting was the plan to build the GPU core directly into the chip.&nbsp; We should be seeing the dual-core Atoms soon, but technically we should only be seeing them in non-XP based netbooks unless Microsoft relents on their requirement that XP only continue to be used on single core machines.</p>

[Jason Dunn]

It will be interesting to see how netbooks shape up in 2009...because while the Atom is a great mobile CPU, the core logic and GPU chipsets really weren't designed to be as low-power as the Atom CPU is. So I'm thinking 2009 will be the year when we need radically low-power chipsets, which should mean improved battery life.