Intel’s Atom N450 processor launches on January 3rd?

The next-generation Pineview processor used in netbooks, the Atom N450, will launch on 3rd January according to Fudzilla. It will also be the day that Intel will announce other new chipsets too. The 1.66Ghz N450 will sell for $64 at launch, around $20 more expensive than the popular 1.6Ghz N270 Atom.

The new Pineview processors are built around a two-chip platform. The Pineview processor features a CPU, GPU and memory controller on a single die. Combining this with Intel’s Tiger Pint I/O is what makes up the Pine Trail platform. The benefits of moving from 3 chips to 2 chips are power efficiency, lower costs that enable more fanless netbook designs.

Intel sells $1 billion worth of Intel Atom chipsets year-to-date

Intel has done well riding on the back of the netbook boom. It presented its third quarter financial results yesterday and revealed that so far this year it has sold $1 billion of Intel Atom chipsets. An astonishing number given that this the chip didn’t exist two years ago.

“[Sales of] Atom and the associated chipsets were a bit above $400 million, it was $415 million. Year-to-date, we have sold over, or right at, $1 billion worth of Atom and associated chipsets,” said Stacy Smith, chief financial officer of Intel. Read more

Asus Eee PC T101H debuting with N450 Atom in January?

There has been little word regarding the 10.2-inch big brother to the 8.9-inch Asus Eee PC T91 convertible netbook. The Asus Eee PC T101H seems to have been in a state of limbo, whilst the company decides whether it worth green lighting the netbook or not. However, according to NetbookNews.de, it is on its way, expecting to make a formal appearance at CES in January 2010 and sporting a 1.66GHz N450 Atom Pineview processor.

The T101H is expected to come with a 10.2-inch resistive touchscreen display (mo multi-touch here) along with Windows 7. It will come with 1GB RAM, 16GB SSD, Wi-Fi (Draft-N), an accelerometer and a battery life good for 8 hours.

Options will include 3G and DVB-T digital TV. Pricing is expected to be between €650-€700. Not cheap considering that there is likely to be devices with multi-touch displays probably launching in the same time frame.

Swordfish Net 102 Dual netbook features twin Atom CPUs

Now this is a first. A company called Haleron has announced a new netbook on the market that features two Atom CPUs. The Swordfish Net 102 Dual netbook somehow manages to squeeze in two 1.6Ghz N270 Atom processors into its chassis (note we’re not talking about dual-core processors here).

The netbook has a 10.2-inch (1024 x 600) display, 2GB RAM and a 160GB HDD. I can’t think how long the 3-cell battery would last considering it’s powering two CPUs. Other features include a 1.3MP webcam and Windows XP.

It even has “Dual Bluetooth” to enable tethering to a smartphone as well as 3G access. Certainly sounds like an unusual offering, but it does come at a reasonable price-point of $450. I still am trying to work out whether we should actually expect improved performance from this bizarre setup…

Via Wired.

Intel Pineview chips to hit netbooks in Q4

There has been much speculation when Intel will release its next-generation Atom processors, dubbed Pineview, to OEMs. However, Jeff DeMuth, Intel’s platform marketing executive, has confirmed that they will launch these chips during the last quarter of this year. When Pineview-powered netbooks will reach consumers is another matter though. It is believed that this could happen during Q1 2010.

Pine Trail is a two-chip platform. The Pineview processor features a CPU, GPU and memory controller on a single die. Combining this with Intel’s Tiger Pint I/O is what makes up the Pine Trail platform. The benefits of moving from 3 chips to 2 chips is power efficiency, lower costs that enable more fanless netbook designs.

Via PC World.

Moblin v2.0 moves out of Beta; Moblin Garage (online app store) introduced

Moblin v2.0 has finally moved out of beta and is available to download now for those of you with Intel Atom-based netbooks (probably most of you). This version will be used by OEMs when shipping Moblin on netbooks. You can download Moblin v2.0 here.

The Linux Foundation has also announced Moblin Garage that appears to be an online application store containing free/open source software The Moblin Garage works in conjunction with the Moblin Application Installer to easily install new applications. The Moblin Application Installer is launched from the myzone panel and provides a list of applications from the Moblin Garage to install. You can find more detail on Moblin garage here.

The guys must have been busy, as Moblin v2.1 has also been announced. It is expected to be released during Q4 2009 and will include myzone improvements, IM improvements, better language support, updated kernel, Moblin Garage, Moblin Application Installer, 3G data support, and Bluetooth. It is still at the very early stages but can be downloaded here for those wanting an early preview.

Next-gen Intel Pineview processors won’t come cheap

Intel is set to launch official details on its next-generation Pineview Atom processors at the Intel Developer Forum on September 22nd. This should include the full family of chips targeted for netbook/mobile devices as well as pricing.

Fudzilla has pre-empted the pricing announcement, claiming to have details on the price of both the 1.66GHz N450 Atom and 1.83GHz N470 Atom processor. Whilst, it’s not surprising to learn that the faster N470 will cost $75, I did expect the N450 to a bit cheaper than the quoted price of $64.

This compares to the current most popular CPU for netbooks, the 1.6GHz N270 Atom, costing just $44. This means that newer netbooks will be tangibly more expensive than current netbooks based on the inclusion of Windows 7 and the newer Intel Pine Trail chips.

Intel’s N470 Pineview Atom CPU has 1.83GHz clock speed

Up until now, only one next-gen Pineview processor has been revealed – the 1.66GHz N450 Atom. However, Fudzilla is reporting that this will be accompanied with a faster N470 processor that has a 1.83GHz clock speed. The N470 Atom is expected to hit select netbooks during the first quarter of next year.

As with the N450, the N470 is a single core processor that supports hyper-threading. The Pine Trail chipset has a TDP of 6.5W, whilst this is more than double that of the N270, you have to remember that Pine Trail includes an integrated IGP on the same silicon. Hopefully, we’ll have more details at Intel’s Developer Forum (IDF) from 22-24 September.

MSI to launch Pineview-powered touchscreen netbooks in December

MSI will launch netbooks using Intel’s next-generation Atom Pineview processors in December 2009 according to Digitimes. The Intel Pine Trail platform launch has been pushed back from October 2009 to Q1 2010, but the report says that MSI is planning to launch their netbooks ahead of schedule to avoid competition. This means the company would not need to compete on price.

The new netbooks will use the Windows 7 operating system and also come with touchscreen displays. MSI’s peers, such as Asus and Asustek, will be sticking with Intel’s schedule according to the report.

HP & MSI planning Pineview-powered tablet netbooks for H1 2010?

Both Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Micro-Star International (MSI) are planning to launch convertible netbooks during the first half of 2010, according to Digitimes. MSI will be launching a 10-inch tablet netbook at the start of 2010, whilst HP plans a similar release for April/May 2010 manufactured by OEM Inventec.

The report says that both convertible netbooks will use Intel’s next-gen Pineview N450 Atom processor. It’s therefore very likely that they will be powered by Windows 7, taking advantage of the operating system’s touch features. It also says that Asus will be launching its 10-inch Eee PC T101 tablet netbook with Windows 7. The report goes on to say that Apple may be launching its tablet device as early as November 2009.

Via Electronista.

Atom N450 Pineview CPU pricing unveiled

Pricing for Intel’s next-generation Pineview Atom processor has been revealed by Fudzilla. The 1.66GHz N450 Atom will cost $64 at launch, placing it $20 ahead of the popular 1.60GHz N270 CPU. This also puts it in line with the energy-efficient 1.60GHz Z530 at $65, which is rumoured to be axed for netbooks by the end of the year.

The N450’s price also sits unfavourably with the nettop dual-core 330 processor, which costs only $43. However, it is still cheaper than the CULV chipsets that costs $106. The report claims that the Atom N450 will launch in January 2010.

Looking at the pricing I can see, why some manufacturers may be hesitant to be moving over to new hardware. This price hike, along with the extra cost of Windows 7, means that these netbooks are likely to come at a tangible premium over current N270 XP-based models.

Jolicloud Alpha 2c out now; ‘Atom super-optimized kernel’ for next release

Jolicloud has released the latest version (Alpha 2c) of its operating system. Improvements to this version include the latest stable version of the Linux kernel, which should result in faster operation and system boots. It also includes quite a number of bug fixes for various netbooks that you can find here.

The new release also includes a new applet that allows you to manage battery life along with CPU performance (pictured above). A Firefox patch is also included to improve browser performance.

The next major release from the Jolicloud team will be the “Atom super optimized Linux kernel”. As the name suggests the release will look to optimise performance for netbooks powered by Intel Atom processors (i.e. the majority of netbooks out there). This means better battery life, faster boot times and better graphic support.

Intel denies axing Z Atom processors for netbooks

Intel has responded to last week’s rumours that it would stop supplying the energy efficient Z-series of processors (mainly 1.33GHz Z520 and 1.60Ghz Z530) to netbook manufactures. The company flatly denies that this is the case.

“Rumours of ‘industry sources’ stating that Intel is no longer taking orders for Atom Z processors or ending production by end of year are 100% inaccurate,” a spokesperson told Reg Hardware.

So there you go, current netbooks using these chips such as the Asus Eee PC T91 &1101HA, Dell Mini 10 and the Sony Vaio P are safe for now. We still can’t see any new netbooks using this CPU once Pineview is out though. The N450 (1.66GHz) will be marginally faster than the Z530 Atom and should be more power efficient. The decision over which to use will mainly come down to cost, (If Intel are still supplying them by then).

The ‘netbook’ gets ever bigger – now above 12-inches

Since the netbook was conceived around two years ago, the size of these devices has got larger and larger. Some of the very latest netbook models to be released from the big guys include 11.6-inch and 12.1-inches. I’m sure this trend won’t go away, despite Microsoft and Intel’s best efforts to crack down on netbooks larger than 10-inches.

However, in China, white-box vendors are now looking to produce ‘netbooks’ that are even larger than 12-inches. To get around the restrictions that Intel places on netbook display sizes, it plans to use processors from AMD and VIA instead. The advantage is that VIA’s platform costs nearly half as much as the Intel Atom.

Now what defines this as a netbook? Not much in all honesty, but there is rising demand for these larger netbooks and therefore these products are being marketed as such rather than the laptops that they really are. Let’s just hope this doesn’t catch on.

Via Digitimes.

No more netbooks with Intel Z Atom processors?

Netbooks will stop featuring the energy efficient Intel Z Atom processors, like the 1.33GHz Z520 and 1.6GHz Z530, according to a report from Digitimes. Apparently, Intel has informed all of its customers that it will no longer be accepting orders for these processors if they are to be used in netbooks. The company will still fulfil orders already made by netbook heavyweights such as Asustek, Acer and Micro-Star International (MSI).

Intel wants to completely end the supply of the Z Atom CPUs before the end of 2009. It wants to clearly define the netbook and MID segments and wants these chips to be used in MIDs only. Intel has made the move before completely running down its inventory levels. Read more

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