Last week, we attended a lot of presentations about Intel's Atom processor designed specifically for embedded applications. We stood in one of the longest lines we saw during IDF (Intel Developer Forum) to hear the “Intro to Embedded Atom” presentation.  

Doris Murphy, Business Development Specialist, and Paul Zyskowski, Technical Marketing Engineer for Embedded Processors were the dynamic duo of presenters who quickly got the attention of the big room's large audience. They started their presentation with an overview of Embedded Atom use for markets like education, audio, email, and Internet browsing. Doris and Paul outlined more about Intel's high volume product consumer sales which will be Atom-powered MID, Nettop, and Netbook computers. Intel is looking to the low-cost Atom processor to help it grow its business and profits in the face of a slowing trend in the PC market.  
 

The shipping Atom mini-ITX motherboard is 17 cm by 17 cm (approximately 6.7” by 6.7”). The Atom processor is soldered in the motherboard, with a die size of just 25 mm², absolutely tiny when compared to a Core 2 Duo at 143 mm². Atom's embedded version is known for its low power consumption and fanless heat sink.

Reviewing briefly, the Atom processor model Z530 runs at 1.6GHz and uses 2.4 watts TDP (Thermal Design Power) while the Z510 churns along at 1.1 GHz with 2.1 TDP. All of the Atom CPUs use 1.05 core voltage which is not adjustable with standard BIOS shipping with the motherboard. The Atom Z5XX series includes a single-chip with integrated graphics called the Intel System Controller Hub.  
 
 
 

Later in the day, Doris and Paul hosted a question-n-answer Chalk Talk about Embedded Atom, which had a standing room only audience. Many in the smaller room were building products other than main stream personal computers in the MIDs and Netbook styles. The audience asked questions about using Embedded Atom for CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) systems, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) telemetric applications, digital signage, and factory process control systems to name just a few of the areas of interest.  
 
A couple of people in the back of the Chalk Talk audience asked questions about extended temperature capabilities for aerospace use. Afterwards we briefly spoke with one person in that group and she said they couldn't explain any further because the project was military related.  
 
Paul talked about the importance of a properly designed application and using the right operating systems to allow powering down to millwatt levels. Paul reminded the audience to always carefully consider Atom's TDP requirements of 2.1 watts to as high as 8 watts depending on the CPU version and software applications they choose. An item Intel always downplays is their GMA 950 integrated graphics cores power consumption, heat, and lower-quality graphics. This chipset always goes along with the Atom configurations.  
 
Many folks asked about features they thought were left out of the Atom design. Doris said that this version of the design is locked, loaded, and shipping as is. Intel has shown their competitors that they know a lot about successful marketing what they have to offer. Doris pointed to Atom's over 700 design wins, with 30 motherboard manufacturers working on their own designs for 8 different operating systems. A specific example mentioned was QNX, a real-time operating system developer, who has written their own firmware stack and all the necessary drivers for their OS to run on Atom.  
 
The dynamic duo said the off-the-shelf operating system which runs on Atom are Microsoft Windows XP and most major flavors of Linux. There are also video drivers for Windows CE to work with IEGD (Intel Embedded Graphics Driver). She said Microsoft's Vista is not supported, we didn't notice anyone who was immediately disappointed about that missing OS.  
 
When more questions about future features were asked of Paul, his engineering knowledge kicked in and he started to let the cat out of the bag. That was when Doris stepped in and said that all anyone needs to do is come see her and sign a NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Only then could she and Paul talk about future Atom based technology enhancements that might improve a customer's product design. We figure that if someone knocks on Doris' office door with a pre-paid order for say 50,000 units, then some of those missing features could easily be added for a new product design.  
 
The question of competitive products from Via and AMD was raised. The dynamic duo politely said they were not knowledgeable about their competitions offerings and they were focused on the Embedded Atom. We have seen tests that show the competition is alive and probably less expensive for comparable performance than the Atom. The competitors do have shipping offerings with higher performance and less cost than Intel's Core 2 Duo, the next step up in product food chain from Atom.
 
Intel Atom appears to have really grabbed the attention of the embedded designer community who attended IDF this week. X