With Intel Developers Forum less than two weeks away, it was high time for the controlled leaks to begin. While we would argue the difference between a smartbook and notebook is far greater than its choice of CPU, initial boundaries have largely focused on this. Smartbooks favor ARM-based chips while netbooks traditionally use Intel Atom CPUs. The latter is about to get a significant performance boost.
Fudzilla reports Intel is preparing to add a pair of faster, more efficient CPUs to its Atom N series in Q1 2010. The newly unveiled Atom ‘N450′ and ‘N470′ are likely to be the mainstay of netbooks next year. Each member of the pair will cut its power consumption by integrating graphics and memory controller functions directly onto a single chip. The N470 will also introduce a faster 1.83-GHz clock speed and increased 667-MHz Front Side Bus (FSB). Hyperthreading is also on the menu, which means better performance when multitasking – a notorious weak point of existing Atom processors.
The flipside to all this extra oomph is the N470 will undo the good work of its single chip approach and see a leap in TDP (Thermal Design Power) to 6.5 watts. This is almost three times the power dissipation of the 2.5-W TDP of the current Atom N270. In its favor, however, the separate graphics controller on the N270 should mean that overall, power specs of the N470 should narrowly improve on its predecessor.
Intel already looks to have a strong grasp on its next generation netbook plans, and it will be interesting to see how ARM responds. And respond it will. After all, no matter how much we may argue netbooks and smartbooks are different categories that’s not common public perception yet and no company wants to appear to be left behind…
Gordon
