Atom power consumption

kookai9

Hi Guys ;does anybody know what is going to replace the ,Atom processor within Ultrabooks ,like Acer revo.
What has Intel coming out , Or is Arm or Athlon ,even Apple got anything in the near future ? ?
Haswell I know is replacing Ivybridge ,Im looking for Power consumption mainly, in next generation and with Atom been around for so many years now ,cant find much on the net ,keep coming back to haswell ?

almillar

Atom is a brand name, not a specific processor - loads of different processors will have the Atom brand name which as you will know concentrates on low power consumption for small or portable devices. There will be new ones all the time, tomshardware.com are usually good at keeping up with Intel's roadmaps.
Apple use Intel chips for their computers.
ARM chips aren't used in computers (well not x86 computers) but they seem to be able to make more efficient chips than Intel.
I take it you're looking to buy an Ultrabook - these generally have i3, i5 or i7 processors don't they?
If you're planning to wait for something better in the world of computers I've got bad news, there's always something better coming along next, so you could have a long wait!

Elliott_Fox

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Atom/

Johnmcl7

As above, Atom is just the brand name so the processor that replaces the Atom processor will also be called Atom, the core name of the new Atom processor will be Bay Trail (the current one is Clover Trail) which will be up to quad core on the 22nm manufacturing process.

For ARM the next big thing is Armv8 which is new instruction set (the Cortex A8, A9 and A5 are all Armv7 based designs as are the Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms and the Apple A6), Arm have announced the Cortex A57 and Cortex A53 which can either be used independently or mixed together to offer both high performance and low power consumption the same as Samsung currently do with their Exnoys 5 Octa platform which has four high performance Cortex A15's and four low performance (but fully compatible) Cortex A7's.

Apple have gone from standard ARM designs to using a customised version of an ARM core, the Apple A6 is an ARMv7 based processor which I would expect in the near future you'll see a higher clocked one although I've no idea what plans they have beyond that.

AMD's low power line is currently the Jaguar, the latest version of the Bobcat core which Sony are using eight of in the PS4. Generally fairly quiet from AMD at the moment as they're not doing well in the processor market.

John

Mr_Toad

I'm out of touch with what's happening on the CPU front but I have a Netbook with an Atom CPU. It's fine for what I use it for but wouldn't be any good for a main computer.

I'd be looking for a CPU that's got all the power you need when plugged in to the mains but runs in low power mode on battery to extend life.

I'm sure Lum will be along soon she usually knows about this stuff.

Johnmcl7

It largely depends on the form factor you're interested in, the Ivybridge ULV processors (Core i5 3xxxU, Core i7 3xxxU, normally used in Ultrabooks and other slim machines) offer decent performance in normal use but are still power efficient and should be another step better on their next release. The ARM and Atom processors use quite a bit less power but are also a good bit slower.

John

kookai9

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

As above, Atom is just the brand name so the processor that replaces the Atom processor will also be called Atom, the core name of the new Atom processor will be Bay Trail (the current one is Clover Trail) which will be up to quad core on the 22nm manufacturing process.

For ARM the next big thing is Armv8 which is new instruction set (the Cortex A8, A9 and A5 are all Armv7 based designs as are the Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms and the Apple A6), Arm have announced the Cortex A57 and Cortex A53 which can either be used independently or mixed together to offer both high performance and low power consumption the same as Samsung currently do with their Exnoys 5 Octa platform which has four high performance Cortex A15's and four low performance (but fully compatible) Cortex A7's.

Apple have gone from standard ARM designs to using a customised version of an ARM core, the Apple A6 is an ARMv7 based processor which I would expect in the near future you'll see a higher clocked one although I've no idea what plans they have beyond that.

AMD's low power line is currently the Jaguar, the latest version of the Bobcat core which Sony are using eight of in the PS4. Generally fairly quiet from AMD at the moment as they're not doing well in the processor market.

John

Thanks for all you folks knowledge .
Is there much of an improvement in Atoms offering so ,since it came out in 2008 ?
Which would be the best of the bunch suggested with a bit of future proofing ? Arm, Intel Amd ?
Didnt even know Samsung made their own ;Samsung do Ultrabook(Nettop's) or Netbook please ?

Johnmcl7

The Atom architecture has changed very little since the original version although performance and power consumption have been improved which combined with Windows 8 being much better optimised for low power systems (whereas when Atom launched Vista was on the go and ran poorly on low power systems) makes it a reasonable choice now. It's good for low end Windows 8 tablets as its power consumption is low, it's relatively cheap and the performance is good compared to other low power processors. The main advantage of the platform compared to ARM is the X86 compatibility, it can run the full version of Windows 8 with support for legacy Windows applications whereas Windows RT which runs on ARM processors can only run specific applications from the MS Store.

The next Atom processor will be the biggest single change in the Atom's history, it's a new architecture which will be paired with the Ivybridge GPU so combined with a die shrink and more cores it should offer a decent performance boost over the existing Atoms. Intel are now going to be taking Atom more seriously so there should be more development of Atom going forward.

As for the best of the bunch, there isn't one really as it depends on many different factors as to which is the most suitable for your use. You need to decide which operating system you want to use, what form factor you're looking for, how you want to balance batterylife/performance and how much you want to pay.

My choice for my tablet system is an Ivybridge ULV processor as it offers a good mix of performance and batterylife. However they're not cheap and ARM/Atom systems are lighter and have around double the batterylife although performance is much lower. Although competition is fierce between the different companies and processors, the balance each one offers is likely to remain similar.

Samsung definitely produce Ultrabooks and Netbooks, I'm not sure if they produce much in the way Nettops. I'm not sure what you mean by putting Nettop in brackets beside Ultrabooks but they're not in any way related, a Nettop is basically a desktop version of a nettop so no display, keyboard, mouse or battery integrated.

John

Johnmcl7

Funnily enough, just after my last response in this thread Intel released the details of their new Atom platform:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6936/intels-silvermont-architecture-revealed-getting-serious-about-mobile

John

luci

I have a 3 year old Toshiba netbook with an Intel Atom N280 processor. I am finding it very sluggish with several tabs open in Opera.

I keep the software up to date and run CCleaner reguarly

Is it possible to replace the processor in a netbook?

I like the long battery life of the Toshiba, but would consider replacing it with something faster it it had an equally long battery life so open to suggestions.

Johnmcl7

luci wrote: »

I have a 3 year old Toshiba netbook with an Intel Atom N280 processor. I am finding it very sluggish with several tabs open in Opera.

I keep the software up to date and run CCleaner reguarly

Is it possible to replace the processor in a netbook?

I like the long battery life of the Toshiba, but would consider replacing it with something faster it it had an equally long battery life so open to suggestions.

I would say no for various reasons, I have never tried upgrading an atom processor but believe they are soldered onto the motherboard but even if it isn't, the platform has changed quite a bit so a newer processor wouldn't be compatible anyway.

John