Intel's Atom — First Benchmarks and a Full PC Review 155
Barence writes "PC Pro has received, benchmarked and discussed the first Intel Atom processor to be seen in the wild. A full analysis of the Atom processor itself is accompanied by a full review of the first PC — yes it's a PC, not a laptop — to use one. The benchmark results are pretty much as expected, but it's the power savings that really excite. And as a rep from the PC maker, Tranquil, joked — they could have left the Atom CPU uncooled if they'd really wanted to prove a point, as it's the old graphics chip that produces 70% of the heat coming from the motherboard. Exciting times ahead for the upcoming Atom-based Eee and friends."
MojoKid was one of several readers, too, to mention the upcoming
Eee Box mini-desktop from Asus (also Atom-based), which is supposed to start from $299, writing "although the actual dimensions are listed,
the image from ASUS' booth really gives a sense of scale. In the picture,
the Eee Box is standing next to a paperback book."
Echoes of the "Sidewinder" (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the main downfall of that endeavor was that 1) the computers weren't Intel compatible, or Mac compatible, so you had to use Linux or BSD on them (and would have needed an Intel emulator on top of that to run any binaries compiled for Intel), I think, in order to keep them small and relatively cheap (they were still, I think, like 600 bucks, so kind of expensive, considering you could get generic PC's for about 400) and 3) the company that produced them was too small and simply lacked the funding necessary to survive in any case.
Still, I've always thought tiny-form factor PCs were nifty. If you could get one that was powerful enough, with decent enough video, you could use them as the basis for your own set-top boxes, routers, and things like that, or even just a small, low-power, inconspicuous server.
Microsoft as Hardware Cop? (Score:5, Interesting)
Anybody have any idea why Microsoft would want to limit the amount of HDD space on a machine?
Me too! (Score:2, Interesting)
From what I understand, the Atom is designed for about 2W of power usage (under load?). This should make these computers have batteries that last forever, which will be really nice.
I like the idea of a solid state drive in laptops (resistant to drops, low power consumption, etc), but I haven't found a minilaptop that meets my needs:
1. ultra low power for a 4-6 hour battery life.
2. solid state drive (I could do this after market, if the thing meets all of my other needs)
3. 3G modem that's not a PCMCIA card (or whatever the equivalent addon bus is now)
4. preferably larger than 8", as I'm a large person myself.
5. linux compatible hardware (wireless card, mostly). I'm totally comfortable installing it myself, though.
Does anyone know of anything like this? I realize the EEE has everything but the 3G modem, and it's at the top of my list of picks right now. I'll probably wait for the Atom model and see how the battery life is with that one. However, I figure someone here knows about something that I've missed.
Re:Small Server (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Me too! (Score:2, Interesting)
I mean, they came out with the P3, then they created the abortion that is the P4 architecture and managed to get it a little faster than the P3 through shrinking process, until finally, they switched back to the superior P3 architecture with a modern fab process and labelled it the Pentium M, then they glued them together in groups of two and four and called it the Pentium Core Whatever, and now they're re-using the same architecture yet again with a smaller fab process and calling it Atom.
So they've been selling us the same architecture for how many years now? Am I the only one who looks at this and thinks this looks like a plan to keep things from progressing any faster than Moores law allows so they can suck another decade or two of money out of the same old shit, because they really don't have any good ideas and haven't in a long time?
Maybe I'm just a cynic...
Re:Microsoft as Hardware Cop? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have no URL to back this up, but I know M$ only allows XP to be preloaded on low-end PCs. This is to keep the Vista numbers up. Maybe that's why?
Some thoughts about the article (Score:2, Interesting)
First, as we all know, power consumption is becoming more and more relevant. A quick google search a low-power server (meant for 24x7) draws 50 Watts, comparable to a light bulb. If we can get decent performance topping at 5 watts (leaving some margins for intel), you can save 90% of a big part of your power bill straight away. That alone predicts success for Intel, at least in the long term if we wait for the next hardware replacement cycle at the big companies.
Also, looking at the prices, you get 1.6 GHz at $95. A quick google says you can get an Intel Pentium E2200 2.2GHz LGA 775 65W Processor for $80 at NewEgg. Doing some math, you can buy 17.6 GHz for $640 (8 timse 65W) or for $1045 (11 times 5W, above figure). That's a $405 difference, and a 465 Watt saving. If you can get 9 kWh per dollar, you've earned back the $405 if you use the processors for a year (24x7).
That's what I call a business case for buying intel. Of course the case gets even better if intel hits 2.5 Watts or power is more expensive at the prospective customer's data center.
However, it seems to be aimed more at mobile use that datacenter use, so let's look at that.
But the promise is not UI, the promise is horsepower. And that's something to be excited about. The first thing that springs to my mind is encrypting phone calls in real time in software without immediately draining the battery. I'm not much of a radio guy, but if Intel could up the speed over the next few years, we could potentially have software radio on our cell phones. That frigging excites me (and potentially scares the living daylight out of the FCC).
So, if I read that right (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Me too! (Score:4, Interesting)
Will someone please think of the thinkpads!? (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyone? Bueller?
Re:Microsoft as Hardware Cop? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Microsoft as Hardware Cop? (Score:4, Interesting)
Presumably Microsoft's idea of a low-spec machine is something with 80GB of hard disk space, which is why they won't sell it to go on machines with more.
Re:So, if I read that right (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, the Atom is 4W TPD while the C7 is 20W. Given that the Atom is a later generation process (45nm vs 65nm), this makes sense. I'd expect Isaiah aka Via Nano is going to do better (although not quite as good as Atom) once they get it into 45nm.
For a desktop machine, that's not as big a deal as it sounds though, because the matching "low power" northbridge and graphics tend to be a TDP of 5-20W by themselves. They mention in the article that 70% of the heat in the test system is generated by the 945G northbridge.
Re:Small Server (Score:3, Interesting)
BTW: VW is claiming they will be making their "1 Liter Car" in 2010... 1 liter per 100km is just over 235 MPG. I plan to buy one. I think they're very cool and if you haven't seen it you should check it out
Transmeta - Crusoe (Score:5, Interesting)
You remember Transmeta. Linus worked there. Stock started out around $20/share. I bought $4000 worth. The darn thing tanked, reverse split, and tanked some more. I have about $35 worth of this company now. Yep, rode it all the way down.
But now that Intel is making a realllllly low power processor, it is big news. I hope Transmeta gets some new orders because of this.
Oh yeah, Transmeta claims about a dozen or patents have been infringed upon by Intel in the production of this chip. So we just might have a new SCO. (At least I never bought any SCO stock.)