Intel Launches Next-Gen Atom N450 Processor

MojoKid writes "Intel has unveiled its next-generation Atom N450 processor, and a review of the new Asus Eee PC 1005PE netbook that houses it shows decent gains in performance and lower power consumption. The Atom N450 has been re-architected similar to Intel's other notebook processors in that it now has an integrated memory controller and graphics core on the CPU itself. In addition, Intel's serial DMI (Direct Media Interface) now replaces the system bus to the Southbridge IO controller. From a performance standpoint, the Atom N450 single core chip offers a nice performance gain versus previous generation Atom CPUs and it appears Intel has dual-core variants of the chip on the horizon as well."

Finally proper platform

[sznupi]

Now only few other pieces of the puzzle in the quest for ultimate ultraportable.

Pixel Qi screen, for even longer battery life and legibility in sunlight.

With lower temps & power draw of Pinetrail it might be also possible for netbooks to become routinely cooled passively.

Also just for me and other faithful...uhm...clit ;p (plus preferably as close in overall form to original Lenovo S10 as possible, it was actually very nice) Can't help it, playing Diablo2 in a cathedral during organ concert, on a cemetery on 1 XI night (it looks like this here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wszystkich_swietych_cmentarz.jpg [wikimedia.org] ) and in a train while sitting next to some nuns are things I simply must do. And with touchpad that's not really possible.

Intel and Linux

[Enderandrew]

Intel has been tearing apart their Linux graphics stack and rewritting it for the future. For a while, that meant poor performance during the rewrite, but it really is getting better. Intel is really helping push DRI2, GEM, TTM, UXA, etc.

At least Intel does their development in the open. Didn't Intel also contribute code to Moblin to optimize Moblin performance on their hardware? I'd like to see some more general kernel enhancements for these processors. Any speed increase over Windows on the most common netbook processor is a huge win.

Chrome OS is already fast. If Intel can help make it faster when comparing it side-by-side to 7, it only helps Linux adoption on the whole.

I also have a small tangental question. I always hear about huge performance gains that can come from properly writing code to take advantage of SSE2,3,4,etc instruction sets. I also hear that almost no one does write code to take advantage of these instruction sets. If Intel really wants to push their hardware, why not write such optimizations for the Linux kernel?

Re:Midnight Blue?

[anss123]

They get paid for the stickers. What annoy me more are the 1 million and 1 slightly different models; I would have preferred a slightly inferior but well supported (by the community as well as the company) model like the 700 was in the past.

Re:Finally proper platform

[drinkypoo]

Clits have been deprecated because they wear out. They just can't take any abuse whatosever and you're always having to buy replacement covers for them. The glidepad, on the other hand, is only hard on your fingerprint, and those are a liability anyway. :)

I've actually done a bit of point and click gaming with a glidepad, it's not too bad. A FPS, on the other hand, is basically a gigantic fail. If not a mouse, I need a trackball [logitech.com] for that. I had the original marble, whose ergonomics better suited my bear paws, but the trackman wheel is pretty amazing. I've used mine resting on my leg while sitting on the couch, and it's quite workable in that configuration. Don't put it on the seat next to you though, you'll fuck up your wrist.

Re:Midnight Blue?

[badboy_tw2002]

I just bought one of the new HP Envy laptop and was presently surprised at the lack of stickers. Its just an HP logo on the back, similar to apple. In fact, the entire thing pretty much was just ripped off from Apple - keyboard design, body construction, multi-touch mousepad, you name it. Even the packaging was slick and minimalist, just like an apple. (Pricier than a PC, but way more bang for your buck than a similarly priced macbook pro). And no, not a window's certified sticker in sight - oh snap, maybe its not actually windows certified!!!!

(OT: Trackman marble gaming)

[Anonymous Coward]

I had the original marble

I had a Trackman Marble FX... (the one with the rather large ball).
Man I kicked ass in Quake 2 CTF with that thing. Unlike a mouse, it's easy to hold it perfectly still even with huge gain (high mouse speed setting), and then adjust aim with a slight strafe. Makes for good railgunnery. You know you are doing something right when people start calling you a bot. :->

Re:Midnight Blue?

[instantkamera]

I just checked the HP Envy out, it is EXACTLY like a macbook. They didnt even try to hide it.
Still, I applaud the rip-off. It shows, at the very least, that they understand how ugly the rest of their lineup is.
The guy who said "NASCAR" was right on the money. No other term quite embodies the black-hole-of-suck that is PC laptop design.

Linux Back in the Netbooks?

[Stregano]

So do we finally get Linux and Unix distros back in the netbooks instead of XP? Oh God do I hope so.

Re:Intel and Linux

[FreonTrip]

Certainly not. No AMD CPUs prior to the Phenoms support SSE4.x; nor did any Intel chips prior to the 45nm switchover (later Core2 CPUs). MMX, i686, SSE, and SSE2 are the baseline for all AMD64-capable CPUs. Subsequent instruction sets have been added to various architectures in a willy-nilly fashion, and with varying levels of per-clock performance depending upon the chip being discussed. I can't really speak for the utility of putting SIMD code to work in non-multimedia related code, but it seems to be a trend across the board.

Re:Who actually needs this?

[b0bby]

I have read that there's also the possibility of adding a Broadcom decoder chip to offload the work of video decoding, which might allow 1080p video while keeping power consumption low. That's what I'd like to see in my next netbook.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Who actually needs this?

[Kjella]

Sometimes I get the impression you're just trying to find fault, if it's so "abysmal unless you only use Notepad", why do you care about the "stupid restrictions"? The Atom is about two things really, price and battery life. The Atom it's a much smaller, much less handpicked chip than any of Intel's very highly priced ULV editions. And sure you can get better workhorses for your money, but not lower power than the N450 having a 5.5W TDP for CPU+memory controller+GPU with a sub-watt additional chipset.

It's horrible as a gaming machine. It's horrible as a HTPC. But it's a solid improvement over itself on the things it was already doing, by which I mean the two above and not performance. Even more so on the nettop side where the 90nm 945GC GMCH and 130nm ICH7 was a complete joke bringing the total up to a 45W TDP, with the new chip you see a 40% reduction to 25W going from a 330 to a N510. Though I'd still go with a 330 + Ion for that since it'll be a better HTPC, they're at least getting there.

I have a 330 + Ion and it still sucks for gaming, bringing up the frame rate from "frozen" to "pathetic" on lowest settings doesn't change that. What these new processors lack is H.264 decoding, but there is supposed to be a third party chip for that still there'll be no 1080p output so I guess it's pass as a HTPC, but that'll solve it for netbooks that want to see it on the included display. I think this is a solid release that'll dominate the netbook market.

ARM? Yeah, if you don't need Windows, don't need WINE, don't need virtualbox (who cares if it's dog slow on an Atom if it solves your one outstanding must-have, rarely used app?), w32codecs, dual boot or any other application who nobody bothered to test/fix on ARM. For example I don't think there's the nVidia blob that makes my Atom 330 / Ion such a nice HTPC, so one argument you use really kills the other. I see that this one doesn't fit my use case, but I can see it fitting many other people's...

Re:meanwhile, where are the ARMs?

[jabjoe]

Wikipedia is worth more trust than you give it. I've never actually found Wikipedia to be wrong. It's always seams to be the person stating Wikipedia is wrong, that is wrong. Stats seam to bear that out comparing it with other more established encyclopedias. When I have found it to be lacking, I've added to it, but not actually found it wrong, yet.