Meet Moorestown: Intel's Atom Platform For The Next 10 Billion Devices

[Onus]

This is huge. I see a "phone" that snaps into a larger notebook-sized case containing screen, keyboard, and other peripherals; or into a docking station connecting a 1080p monitor, keyboard, and peripherals. Put Open Office on it, and you can take your [current] files and work on them wherever you are, docked or not. Just connect to {hard drives | the cloud} for access to the rest of your files. The iPad was just rendered obsolete. Best of all, this thing could carry a low price too. Damn, I need a bib...

 

[tpi2007]

I bet Microsoft is developing Windows Mobile 7 on two code bases: ARM and x86.

They won'te tell you that, but it's the only logical thing.

And if they encounter the same inspiration as with Windows 7, ARM and all OSes made for that architecture can kiss their marketshare goodbye. It's actually quite simple.

Remember netbooks ? People returned Linux based netbooks and now Netbooks are dominated by Windows XP and 7.

If people have a product that runs well, and synchs with your desktop as easy as 1-2-3, because the code base is the same - and remember this is a major benefit for developers, they only have to work with x86, then is is a victory.

By December 2011 (in a year and a half), Intel/Microsoft will be as famous in the smartphone market as Apple currently is.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Definitely nice if the N280->N450 performance boosts can be realized going from Z520->Z6xx .

I like the Z520 in my Asus eePC Tablet, but it needs a few more features (like 64bit support which isn't confirmed in this article on the Z6xx, but I would hope is coming) and a little more speed (prefer 1.7+ Ghz vs 1.3 now), plus more RAM, but I'm disappointed to read that the video output support may still be limited to 1366x768 due to display technologies (especially after the recent DP to LVDS announcement), as I would hope for a 10" tablet to move in the direction of 1280x800, but allow for output to an external monitor of 1080p resolution. I hope that there is support for higher resolutions via add-in ICs, but considering it's focus is the benefits of SoC it is unlikely that many Mfrs would support that, so having an HDMI or DP 1080p output doesn't seem to be on their radar (VGA on the N450 and Z520 is limited to 1400 x 1050 which is an odd resolution but fits perfectly the one old LCOS projector we have). I love being able to take my tablet and still show full-screen presentations, but if it's not supported in the display portion of the chip it won't likely be there, and will be seen as something "consumers don't want" not that engineers didn't consider when positioning it as a tablet solution.

Looks like Pinetrail may be the way to stay if the I/O situation on Moorestown isn't more impressive than what this article conveys. It seems to have take the Z split away from it past where it was superior to the N lineup until Pinetrail. Just wish more ODMs/OEMs put the D510 in their netbooks/tablets than the N450.

I don't need a Corei7 in a 12" convertible tablet like the Lenovos, but I would like a little more than just a smartphone processor as well, just wish intel were thinking that gap too, especially since I have lots of enterprise level customers thinking the same thing for mobile computing.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

or, even worse, "flash SSD drives." You ever see a non-flash SSD?

Uhhh, Yeah, in person too at our old data centre. They were the first ones and were non-flash RAM based.

Financial institutions also payed hundreds of thousands of dollars for their ATM servers to have RAM-drives, which would be the first SSDs. Now we're getting good speed from Flash-SSDs that they are more common. Now consumer flash-SSD might be redundant, but it's not exclusive since the Gigabyte iRAM drive would still be an SSD.

 

[f96johe]

Interesting article. Atom never was much of a threat against the ARM processors used to power 95% of all mobile internet devices. It's difficult to say how this new platform will compare against ARM-processors but I'd love if Tom's Hardware did a comparison of the two. Please remember that Intel is new to this business segment and that their previous attempts to enter have failed completely. This spring ARM displayed the performance of an over clocked high-end core and it felt like they wanted to send a message to Intel, "stay out of our market segment or we will enter yours". There might be a large difference in size between the two companies but ARM is a very healthy company making lots of money. There have also been rumors about Apple showing an interest in buying ARM, which could be very interesting...

 

[williamvw]

[citation][nom]TheGreatGrapeApe[/nom]Uhhh, Yeah, in person too at our old data centre. They were the first ones and were non-flash RAM based. Financial institutions also payed hundreds of thousands of dollars for their ATM servers to have RAM-drives, which would be the first SSDs.[/citation]
Excellent point. I stand corrected. And while I've never used a RAM drive, I dealt with the companies that sold them long ago. So I'll amend my original point and say that, yes, saying "flash SSD" in a consumer/small business context is redundant. But in the enterprise world, I see your point. Clarification might help sometimes.

 

[tiga2001]

I guess this will finally kill off the Via Nano.

 

[mlopinto2k1]

[citation][nom]TA152H[/nom]Do we really need x86 plaguing phones now? Good God, why didn't they use a more efficient instruction set for this? Compatibility isn't very important with the PC, since all the software will be new anyway.I like the Atom, but not in this role. x86 adds inefficiencies that aren't balanced by a need for compatibility in this market.[/citation]Did you even read the article?

 

[WheelsOfConfusion]

[citation][nom]f96johe[/nom]There have also been rumors about Apple showing an interest in buying ARM, which could be very interesting...[/citation]
There have been rumors of Apple buying any company, but Apple won't buy ARM for a variety of reasons. Honestly the biggest is that it's just easier for them to license a design and have someone build it for them than make the actual design themselves, plus there are tons of existing ARM contracts that they can't exactly cancel if Apple did buy them out. ARM's not even looking to be bought; as you say, they aren't hurting for money or licensees.

 

[tntom]

AMD showcasing computing solutions to Apple but AMD has not even released it to the public yet. Intel is obviously already past that stage, showing proof of concept prototypes to the public. This makes me think AMD is a step ahead of Moorestown otherwise Apple would not even have met with them. Also the author keenly observed Intel's concerns with Moorestown being compared to the upcoming TI chip. Intel is smart in showcasing Moorestown now before it stops looking so revolutionary in the next few months.

 

[quadibloc]

Of course, if people can use a very inexpensive device for their computing needs, this might impact the dollar volume of Intel's sales... and charging a high price for an operating system might be less likely to be accepted. So one expects Intel and Microsoft to both make efforts to promote new things that one can use a desktop computer for which this chip won't be able to do.

 

[fwupow]

Dogwood, Fruitville, Fartland, Brierpatch... Good Lord! Who can keep up with this ? The main lesson to be learned here is that, regardless of what you buy, the next-gen product which totally smokes will be hitting the shelves before you even get it unboxed and charged up.

 

[cyber_jockey]

Geez i just bought a blackberry and now this

 

[shurcooL]

Take a phone that needs to be charged once a week.

Reduce its battery in size and weight until it needs to be charged every night (i.e. average/semi-heavy use for 1 day = 65% battery used up).

Give me the new slimmer, lighter phone and I will gladly prefer it over the original heavy/bulky one.

 

[xyzionz]

Isn't that doom 3?

 

[xyzionz]

Ops... is quake 3

 

[Guest]

Forget the phone part. I want to run XP or Windows 7 on this. With wifi and skype on a skype subscription you can make unlimited calls for $3 a month. Docking station to hookup to a full size monitor, keyboard,mouse, and network connection you can kick the desktop to the curb. Forget all the silly app stores every thing you need can be run on XP or Windows 7.
People want their desktop on their phone. Forget droid and all the other os's put a desktop os like xp or windows 7 on this and it will kill apple right out of the gate.

 

[misha87]

i was thinking that they didn't do any more atoms

 

[liveonc]

They should forget about phones & concentrate on ultra-ultra cheap portables. Going intentionally for low power, high performance, & cheap price. Piecing together a Pixel Qi, Intel Moorestown, NVIDIA ION (with optimus), mini-pcie 4GB flash SSD, & green HDD. If they want to regain some of that terrain they lost to the iPad. Mifi bundles can be an external option. If they want to sell tablets, Pixel Qi also makes those. As for higher end products, they should think about mobile docking stations like the Lenovo x200, if there was a way to add an eSATA SSD or 10000RPM HDD, ExpressCard GPU, & extra battery in that mobile docking station (so it makes sense to have one).

 

[liveonc]

Of course if moorestown was meant to be even smaller & crappier then the Atom. Just to run XP in slow motion, they could fit a solar charger on the back of the monitor & if you've got 8-12 hours, to charge your battery so you can use that ultra slow 2 Cell Netbook for 4 hours ;-) Maybe if they use Puppy Linux, they can use a micro SD card for OS & storage running in purely in RAM. If a Pixel Qi screen is used, it'll be the most expensive thing in that Netbook or iPad wannabe, (but then you've got much better battery time).