Intel Announces Dual-Core HyperThreaded Atom for Phones

[exfileme]

During MWC 2012, Intel revealed a new dual-core Atom chip with 4 hyperthreads that will appear in smartphones next year.

Intel Announces Dual-Core HyperThreaded Atom for Phones : Read more

 

[-Fran-]

This is what I like about competition... If there were no competition on the smartphones, I bet Intel would give us a single core Atom at the low end and this with a holy-cow-price premium on top; if at all they'd care about smartphones, lol.

Hope ARM and friends don't hold back on Intel and keep the lead.

Cheers!

 

[omega21xx]

The 1ghz single core model won't be released until 2013 in products? That's a little too late as there are plenty of budget dual core phones out now and will only be more by then.

 

[LuckyDucky7]

Yes, but can it run Crysis Mobile?

Anyways. It's good to see some x86 development come for smartphones; now that Android runs on x86 and Windows 8 soon to be released- I don't want an ARM version of Windows that can't run the programs I want, but the x86 version of it running on a tablet? That's certainly a better investment than anything ARM technology has to offer right now.

 

[killerchickens]

Isn't it 2 threads and 2 hyperthreads not 4 hyperthreads?

 

[burnley14]

I wouldn't doubt that this is the beginning of the end of of ARM's reign on the mobile space. Intel is simply too advanced, already producing 14nm chips and 3D transistors that will so drastically reduce power consumption. Once they gain a foothold they are going to plow over the competition. It may be several years from now, but that's what I foresee.

 

[kyuuketsuki]

Why don't they hyperthread the single-core model? A cheap SoC with a single physical thread but two logical threads would seem a good solution to the low-end smartphone market.

 

[omega21xx]

Turns out dual core (4 thread) chip will have the PowerVR 544 which is a step up from the GPU in the iPhone (almost double the performance from what I've heard). When this comes out I'll finally stop hearing "the iPhone has the best GPU! IT'S TEH BEST FONE EVA!!!!1111"

 

[vilenjan]

I love Intel, thier cpu cant compete with ARM in terms power draw, but they have the manufacturing tech in the world, the new 22nm tri-gate process will make up for a lot of power differential vs TCMS's 28nm.
Where windows goes, intel follows, welcome to the WINTEL dominion.

 

[Unolocogringo]

That is what some people dont get. Intels Reaserch and Developement budget is probably as much as AMDs or ARM'swhole operating budgets.
Intel has some of the brightest minds the world has to offer in its research labs not including funding for college research projects in which they benefit also.
I have AMD and INTEL machines. They serve their intended purposes well. So no flaming.

 

[__-_-_-__]

5seconds battery time. atoms are really efficient (not.)

 

[Guest]

Atoms have excellent efficiency. Not sure what you are talking about. Even the netbook Atoms run 8 to 12 hours if you don't use the nVidia ION chipset. The ION chipset is the battery guzzler. My netbook consistently runs all day on 1 charge (12 hours). These are ATOM SoCs so they are a great deal more efficient. They are probably not quite as efficient as ARM which is why they have to perform better in benchmarks. I'll bet they are pretty close though in terms of efficiency.

 

[A Bad Day]

What architecture does the Medfield has?

 

[omega21xx]

[citation][nom]A Bad Day[/nom]What architecture does the Medfield has?[/citation]
x86, it's just a tweaked atom from a netbook to be blunt.

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]Papa Buster[/nom]Atoms have excellent efficiency. Not sure what you are talking about. Even the netbook Atoms run 8 to 12 hours if you don't use the nVidia ION chipset. The ION chipset is the battery guzzler. My netbook consistently runs all day on 1 charge (12 hours). These are ATOM SoCs so they are a great deal more efficient. They are probably not quite as efficient as ARM which is why they have to perform better in benchmarks. I'll bet they are pretty close though in terms of efficiency.[/citation]
But in a phone, standards change. Atom is fast by those standards, but you also need lots of battery life to go with it (and the battery is smaller).

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]livebriand[/nom]But in a phone, standards change. Atom is fast by those standards, but you also need lots of battery life to go with it (and the battery is smaller).[/citation]

With the latest atom already fitting the power budget of phones - then a 22 shrink with 3gate it will be a heavy player. Its not without reason the Arm ceo continuously try to downplay Intels achievements, he is running scared of the giant that now have awoken with a focus. I would not be surprised if Arm goes down in history much like Amd have, both had superior products but then got outpaced by the insanely huge r&d and manufacturing capability of Intel.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]omega21xx[/nom]Turns out dual core (4 thread) chip will have the PowerVR 544 which is a step up from the GPU in the iPhone [/citation]
The SGX544 is pretty much identical to the SGX543...

 

[omega21xx]

It's got twice the shader performance according to anandtech. Didn't look into it too much as gpu for phone gaming is... Well pointless to me. :/ can't stand not having legitimate controls (using wiimote VIA Bluetooth doesn't cut it)

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]Omega21XX[/nom]It's got twice the shader performance according to anandtech.[/citation]
Umm, no it doesn't. The specs are the same, and at comparable core counts and clock speeds the SGX544/543 perform identically. The only difference is the SGX544 supports DX9.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4413/ti-announces-omap-4470-and-specs-powervr-sgx544-18-ghz-dual-core-cortexa9

"As an aside, the difference between SGX543 and SGX544 is purely that full DirectX 9 compliance is offered in the latter, making it a possible shoe-in for future Windows 8 platforms."

 

[omega21xx]

"The CPU isn't the only part of the SoC to get an upgrade: Intel equipped the Z2580 with a PowerVR SGX 544MP2 GPU running at 533MHz. The SGX 544 is similar to the 543 used in Apple's A5, however it adds support for Direct3D 9_3. At 533MHz you can expect roughly twice the shader/compute performance of the 543MP2 that's in the A5. Granted by early next year we'll likely see competitive, if not faster GPUs implemented in SoCs (quite possibly long before then)."

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5592/intel-atom-z2580-z2000

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]Omega21XX[/nom]"The CPU isn't the only part of the SoC to get an upgrade: Intel equipped the Z2580 with a PowerVR SGX 544MP2 GPU running at 533MHz. The SGX 544 is similar to the 543 used in Apple's A5, however it adds support for Direct3D 9_3. At 533MHz you can expect roughly twice the shader/compute performance of the 543MP2 that's in the A5. Granted by early next year we'll likely see competitive, if not faster GPUs implemented in SoCs (quite possibly long before then)."http://www.anandtech.com/show/5592 [...] 2580-z2000[/citation]
... "The specs are the same, and at comparable core counts and clock speeds the SGX544/543 perform identically."

Ya, it's clocked significantly higher in that implementation. The SGX 544 is not inherently any faster then the 543. It'll definitely perform better if you clock it higher then the SGX543 you're comparing it to, but it's about as profound as saying an SGX543 clocked twice as high as another SGX543 will provide roughly twice the performance.

 

[omega21xx]

Either way it comes stock like that. And its not like you're paying extra for the overclock so all around its still a plus. Not to mention gpu OC on phones is a pain since it requires you to mess with the kernel. Like i said though, I just glanced through, not a big deal. It's info that this article lacked and I figured I'd share at the least.

 

[tului]

Regardless of who wins, Intel or ARM, or some crazy come from behind MIPS cpu...We the consumers will be the ultimate winners in the forseeable future. All this new tech makes me drool.

 

[amstech]

Intel can't compete with ARM in power draw?
Its your dream make it as big as you want.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]Omega21XX[/nom]Either way it comes stock like that. And its not like you're paying extra for the overclock so all around its still a plus. Not to mention gpu OC on phones is a pain since it requires you to mess with the kernel. Like i said though, I just glanced through, not a big deal. It's info that this article lacked and I figured I'd share at the least.[/citation]
True. Sorry, from your original comment I thought you were trying to suggest that the SGX544 was some sort of next gen GPU, or at least an architectural "step up" from the SGX543. No big deal.