Intel to launch Atom N270′s successor in October – Atom N450

Intel is all set to introduce the successor of the very popular N270, the N450. The Intel’s 45nm Atom N450 is codenamed as PineTrail (pineview) and it comes with built-in Northbridge functions. It will also comes with (new) NM10 chipset. Intel will fully phase out the N270 in the Q1 2010.

Although the Intel did release N280 after N270, but it was never meant to be a true successor of N270. The N270 was infact the first CPU that made the netbooks adequately powerful for everyday use.

Here are some features of PineView:

• Better memory support from N270’s DDR2 533 to DDR2 667
• GPU core frequencies increased from 133MHz to 200MHz
• PCB design now uses only 4 layers compared to 6 layers, which was previously used by Intel Atom
• TDP dropped from 8W to 7W

MSI U123, U123T and U123H netbooks launched

MSI U123 is the successor of now aging U100. The U123 comes with 2GB RAM and uses the N280 Intel Atom processor. The MSI has also launched MSI U123H, which is similar to the U123 except for the fact that it comes with built-in 3.5G. The U123T comes with a built-in TV tuner card, which will let you watch (and record) TV programs on your netbook.

However, it is not a huge upgrade. I was looking forward to higher resolution. 1024 x 600 is nice but 1280 x 800 is something I would have really appreciated.

One piece of information that the MSI is repeatedely mentioning in the news release is the massive capacity of U123, which is 160GB. What? We have been using the 160GB HDD in our netbooks from quite sometime. In fact, it is a standard feature in netbooks these days and there is no need to mention it 4 times in the news release.

Nokia to enter Netbook market?

Nokia is in talks with the various Taiwan notebook manufactures for its possible entry to the netbook market. Compal Electronics and Foxconn are top-two potential partners, which are likely to get the order from Nokia for its netbook production. According to Digitimes, Nokia is still yet to choose between the Intel Atom platform and Qualcomm Snapdragon platform for its first netbook.
We would certainly like the Nokia to go for the Intel Atom platform as the it will let them to come out with Windows-based netbooks. Qualcomm Snapdragran is being used on the Toshiba TG01 smartphone and we would like to be a smartphone-only processor. Intel Atom or the VIA Nano are much more suitable for making powerful netbooks. Nokia MIDs (N810 and N800) could never make a big splash in either MID market or netbook market. The core reason was the use of proprietary linux distro and slow processor.

Battle of Netbook processors: VIA Nano vs Intel Atom [Netbooks]

Kai Schmerer at ZDnet has done a thorough comparison of two of the most used processors in netbooks: VIA Nano and Intel Atom. Here are some of the highlights: Intel manufactures the Atom using a 45-nanometre (nm) feature size, while VIA still uses 65nm technology. For this reason, the VIA Nano uses more power than [...]

No Single core Intel Atom processor in 2009 [Netbook]

Although the dual core Pineview is going to be launched in the Q4 this year, the single core version of the Pineview processor won’t be able to hit the markets until the Q1 of 2010. The bad news does not end there. According to Intel, the dual-core Pineview processor will only be allowed in cheap [...]

Intel Atom’s successor = Intel Pineview CPU [Netbook]

Intel is planning to launch Intel Pineview in the second half of 2009 to replace the Intel Atom in netbooks and nettops. Intel still do not plan to introduce dual-core processors in Netbooks in near future. On the other hand, dual-core Pineview processor is in the tunnel. The main advantage that the Intel Pineview processor [...]

NVIDIA Ion Platform = GeForce 9400M + Intel Atom processor = 1080p videos on a Netbook!

It has always been a dream for the Netbook owners to run Hi-definition video on their netbooks. Sadly, due to the limiting processing power of the Intel Atom processors (so far) and absence of GPU in the netbooks, no one ever thought of running 1080p videos on the netbooks. But, it is not a distant [...]

HP wants to use Intel Atom processors in the regular Notebooks. I say, “why not?”

HP is reportedly in negotiations with Intel to use the Intel Atom processor in the regular notebooks. Sadly, it would be difficult to do so as the Intel Atom was made to be run only on the netbooks and due to the restriction that they are allowed to be used only in the devices with [...]

Intel Atom powered OQO coming soon – The OQO model 2+

Looks like the CES is going to more goodies than I personally expected. GBM has received an email from the Digital Experience people, which says that at CES, the OQO is going to unveil an Intel Atom processor version of the OQO. It will also have 2GB RAM and an OLED display! Here is the [...]

A little peek of what is going to be there at CES at Intel’s Ultra Mobility group

The Uday from Intel’s Ultra Mobility group shows a wide array of devices that are running the very successful Intel’s Atom Processor, which is now 8 months old. Intel Atom processor proved to the world that power and good battery life can live together in a single device.