Intel Goes Atom – Introduces Low Cost Chips
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Intel has unveiled, what it terms as low-cost, high-volume chips, named Atom. Intel’s chips have always been competing on performance, and, in a more notorious past, on frequency. So, AMD may have won the 1-GHz race, but Intel slogged hard enough to stay ahead in all the later products. Churning out chips, each one faster, cooler and eating lesser voltage than the earlier ones.
But as the performance soared, so did the overall priced of owning a computer system. In a largely rural population dominated country like India, the very strategy of winning the megahertz-race became questionable. Thus began the developments on low cost, alternatives that can run for hours, in adverse conditions on low battery powers. Initiatives like the One Laptop Per Child project (which Intel was a part of, earlier), Asus EEE PC and Intel’s very own, Classroom PC.
All these initiative needed a new kind of chip. AMD had its Geode CPU Via too had C7-M chips. Intel’s entry into this segment can pose a threat to the markets of these existing players. If Intel can keep the price right, the brand name can strongly play in its favour.
Intel has unveiled two cores under Atom. Silverthorne is based on 45-nm architecture and integrates 47 million transistors on a 25 mm square. The mobile version of chips will be based on the Silverthorne core. Diamondville core is a derivative of the Silverthorne, optimized to run desktop applications. This core will be used to low cost PC products.
In a recent interview with WATBlog, Leighton Phillips, Intel World Ahead Program Manager for Asia Pacific touched upon topics like Intel’s exit from One Laptop Per Child program, and Intel’s low cost initiatives like the Classroom PC.
With Atom, Intel is serious about tapping the low-margin, high-volume PC market. Bottom of the Pyramid, did anyone say?
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Hii.. Ankit..
A little technical dude..make it easy to digest