Intel Pine Trail netbooks available after CES

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Jos

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Netbooks based on Intel's next-generation Pine Trail platform are set to launch right after CES 2010, on January 11, according to Digitimes. This doesn't change time frames from what was previously expected, but puts a firm date on when customers will actually be able to buy one of these devices. A soft-launch could take place later this month, with a raft of netbooks featuring the new N450 Atom processor hitting the CES show floor in Las Vegas.

Codenamed Pineview, the new chip will give you roughly the same performance as the 1.66GHz N280 while consuming less power -- around 20% less according to Fudzilla. Bear in mind that these savings refer to the Pine Trail core components, not the entire netbook, so don’t expect a massive increase in battery life.

The new platform integrates a microprocessor core, graphics processor, and north bridge functionality into a single piece of silicon, while a separate Tiger Point chipset will handle I/O operations. Besides drawing less power, the reduced number of chips should also result in a smaller package and overall cheaper platform, which won't necessarily translate into lower-cost netbooks. Prices are expected to remain at around $400 - $500.

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Mmmm with AMD Congo solutions, the change in the chipset "roughly" better kinds of sucks, specially with the end statement "savings refer to the pine trail core components, not the entire nebook, so don't expect a massive increase in battery life.". Also, more expensive netbooks... is Intel heading the right way?

The only thing that could enter into consideration is the posibility for another graphic chipset, but still intel video chipsets suck big time.
 
This seems like a nice little improvement, the CPU is the most power hungry part of the system. Also it does allow for a smaller end product, not like netbooks need to get much smaller at this point but its still nice to see they're doing something.
 
Consolidating the CPU, northbridge, and graphics processor into one chip may seem attractive right now for netbooks, but if just one component on that single piece of silicon fails, you lose all three functionalities, and have to replace all three components at once, thereby increasing cost for repair.
 
Vicenarian said:
Consolidating the CPU, northbridge, and graphics processor into one chip may seem attractive right now for netbooks, but if just one component on that single piece of silicon fails, you lose all three functionalities, and have to replace all three components at once, thereby increasing cost for repair.
And, I also should add...consolidating all three technologies into one chip also necessitates the use of a larger/more efficient, single heatsink, since the northbridge and graphics processors in themselves generally require a heatsink each. So,

Processor Heat + Northbridge Heat + GPU Heat = Lots of extra heat

Which also can equal more stress on components.

And from my experience, most laptops barely keep themselves adequately cool as it is...
 
Vicenarian said:
Consolidating the CPU, northbridge, and graphics processor into one chip may seem attractive right now for netbooks, but if just one component on that single piece of silicon fails, you lose all three functionalities, and have to replace all three components at once, thereby increasing cost for repair.
I doubt you would be able to replace it. Netbooks aren't well known as scalable devices. I'm pretty sure they've tested to see what would happen if one of the three does happen to fail, and to prevent it from happening plus it produce less power consumption maybe not much but this is a step forward for netbooks and I'm quite impressed with whats possible so far and I'm looking forward on seeing it in action.
 
Not particularly impressed by this as it really won't make much of a difference in battery life of the systems. Intel is using this as leverage against any other chipset maker (nVidia) and forcing our use of all of their products. I would rather see same power usage with 25% speed improvement or a non integrated cpu that has 25% less power so that we could get these more easily into other non "traditional" computer applications.
 
Let me rewrite my first comment.

It sure sounds wonderful the idea of a single cpu/gpu/northbridge but... How does this improve the usefulness of netbooks? Smaller ones? Netbooks started at 7" which was way too small, then going up until they reached the 11,6" and next gen to come in 12,1".

So I ask again, what's the win here? More expensive chip, not that different to the N270 in clock nor power consumption. Yes 20% sounds like a big deal but considering this case scenario, a 10w consuming procesor, 20% more efficient would go down to 8w. In the end is not that big of a deal.
 
The integrated northbridge is something new and optimized for low power and temp or is the same i945 crap just more tightly packed?

Also as Kibaruk states, it's weird that the boards are getting smaller when the netbook itself is getting bigger. And 400-500 is too much for an Atom netbook.
 
Many of so call tech savy been fooled into ATOM is new tech, lol
It actually is an old tech redesign repack into new smaller die silicon.
Use much less power because the chip has shrunk 100's fold but speed haven't change much at all compare to the progress VIA CPU over the past few year.
 
Many of so call tech savy been fooled into ATOM is new tech, lol
It actually is an old tech redesign repack into new smaller die silicon.
Use much less power because the chip has shrunk 100's fold but speed haven't change much at all compare to the progress VIA CPU over the past few year.

Well, if it has shrunk and has lower power requirements, IT IS new technology.

If it was old techonology, would have been the same size, with the same power sucking hunger.
 
Kibaruk, yes, it should make it easier to make smaller netbooks and UMPC's. That's one direction Intel wanted to go with this, getting its chips into devices that aren't PC's in the traditional sense.
 
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