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 full-sized PC market. Earlier this month, Stacy Smith, Intel's Chief Financial Officer, was reported to have said that Intel is able to get 2,500 Atom processors per silicon wafer, mainly because there is a low transistor count with the Atom CPU. That high number of processors per wafer should mean Intel makes a healthy profit on them.

During IDF, we attended six different presentations about the Atom processor for use in embedded systems: MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices); Nettops - a term introduced by Intel to describe "low-cost" desktop computers; Netbooks – another Intel term for smaller sized notebooks. Intel didn't want to use the industry's earlier terminology like UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC). All these product category name changes were because the old ones included competitors to Intel's CPU and architecture.

 Good marketing says you have to have a unique brand designation. Intel is excellent at taking over a category and making it their own. Their competitors have not yet been able to repeat on nearly every product cycle, as Intel seems to successfully do.

 Small form factor desktop and notebook information was encapsulated at IDF by a few hours with Chris Tulle, Product Marketing; Katrik Ananth, Senior Platform Engineer; Jeff Clark, Product Marketing Manager; H.Y. Tay, Technical Marketing; and K.L. Lee, Product Marketing. They all talked about various aspects of the Nettop and Netbook system design.

 Each of them discussed the Atom mobile platform architecture and how it related to their product lines. All the Nettops are based around the Atom A330 dual core CPU and the Intel Desktop Board D945GCLF2. Nettop's target entry-level computer users are in the emerging markets. Their next market is second or basic home PCs for mature users, or customized for unique vertical usage models such as Internet kiosks, thin clients or POS (point-of-sale) systems.

The D945GCLF2 motherboard is an enhanced version of Intel's D945GCLF ("Little Falls"). Like the Atom 230, the Atom 330 uses 45nm technology, features a 533MHz frontside bus, and is designed to work with Intel's 945GC chipset (the 82945GC northbridge and 82801GB southbridge). Unlike the Atom 230, however, the Atom 330 features dual cores, plus second-level cache that has been doubled from 512MB to 1GB.
The presenters admitted that the Atom 330 dual core will be a relatively minor contributor to motherboard TDP as a whole. This is because Intel's 945GC chipset (the 82945GC northbridge and 82801GB southbridge) consume up to 25 watts on its own, according to a previously published Intel road map. Reviewers have measured the D945GCLF's power consumption under load as falling between 50 and 60 watts, so cooling design will be an important part of the total design of a Nettop.

The Intel presenters were stressing the Nettop's advantages for email, Internet browsing, Skype, and YouTube experiences. They also spent time talking about ” target=_blank”>WiMAX being a part of the new and mature users experiences.http://www.itexaminer.com/india-to-take-wimax-lead.aspx

In the past, the mini-ITX motherboard has not had a lot of choices when it comes to desktop chassis designs. Most of them look like an escapee from an engineering department's R&D lab. We were impressed with the fit and finish of the one show below. One of the presenters said this chassis will be in volume production when the Atom dual-core motherboard starts shipping next month.

The above photo reminded this writer of the "Humidor PC" from 2003. That was a highly crafted wooden box with a mini-ITX motherboard installed. Obviously the chassis pictured above is a production item rather than a hand-built one-off. Heat was a problem with the Humidor PC because it had six fans in that box. Part of that was the higher TDP of the then available processor.

The presenters projected a BOM (Bill of Materials) cost in the low $300 (USD) without a display device. The retail cost would be in the $300 to $450 range depending on the additional cost of a hard drive, a SSD (solid-state disk), DVD or Blue Ray Drive, and WiMAX communications.

Intel's Netbook product line is aimed towards a ” target-blank”>mobile user similar to the Nettop desktop users. They will have a less than 10-inch display screen, a 4 to 10 GB solid state memory drive. They will probably not have an optical drive, and WiMAX will be optional. Netbook designs will stick with Atom 230 single processor designs because of battery power requirements (See.http://www.itexaminer.com/intel-aims-for-bullseye-with-cheap-wimax-laptops.aspx)

Tom Rampone, Vice President of Intel’s Sales and Marketing Group, has said in the past that Nettops represent a fundamental shift in system design and PC consumption. He added that over the next 20 years we will see Nettops emerge as a powerful and significant force in computing.

 Intel has clearly made an impressive commitment to smaller form factor products. Now the big question is, will the public buy them at the rate Intel is projecting? X