The Intel Atom Thread

[Titonus]

These combo CPUs (Atom X3,X5) Win8.1 w/Bing could kill low-entry Android tablets.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Not completely. Core i7 for example has 2 cores for U and M branded CPU's, and 4 cores for MQ, etc. Far as I know there's no difference in core configuration between i7 and i5 U family CPU's.

Core i3/i5/i7 branding is basically for Intel to lure customers in the direction "they" want you to go.

While it makes sense to based the branding on core or thread count, not so much financially. If Intel made 2 cores + HT Core i3, 4 cores Core i5, and 4 cores + HT Core i7, that means most of Laptop chips and ALL Ultrabook-oriented parts would have been labeled Core i3s.

By labelling it they way they do now they instill same psychological effect of the high end 4/6 core Core i7s in the dual core U parts. And that worked very well because the year they put out that branding their sales jumped.

Core i7 merely means "highest performing part in that form factor/wattage" category.

 

[ninaholic37]

Core i3/i5/i7 branding is basically for Intel to lure customers in the direction "they" want you to go.

While it makes sense to based the branding on core or thread count, not so much financially. If Intel made 2 cores + HT Core i3, 4 cores Core i5, and 4 cores + HT Core i7, that means most of Laptop chips and ALL Ultrabook-oriented parts would have been labeled Core i3s.

By labelling it they way they do now they instill same psychological effect of the high end 4/6 core Core i7s in the dual core U parts. And that worked very well because the year they put out that branding their sales jumped.

Core i7 merely means "highest performing part in that form factor/wattage" category.

Maybe. I dunno, I feel kinda ripped off when I see i7 laptops that should be labelled i3. The only real i7 equivalents for laptops are the fat i7-4930MX and i7-4900MQ laptops, in my opinion. Maybe calling all the others i3 would get people to buy more desktops, and be more satisfied with the performance.

 

[mikk]

Atom x5-Z8300
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/1989750

 

[liahos1]

Atom x5-Z8300
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/1989750

seems inline with a z3740

hopefully we get a big graphics boost.

 

[Shivansps]

The memory score seems to be in line with the single channel atoms.

 

[Vesku]

z8300, kind of annoying model number change. Should be z4xxx. All because some studies showed somewhat confused customers spend more money.

 

[III-V]

z8300, kind of annoying model number change. Should be z4xxx. All because some studies showed somewhat confused customers spend more money.

Yeah, now they're going to have to come up with another nomenclature a year or two from now. Usually, such naming has just gotten worse over time...

Maybe. I dunno, I feel kinda ripped off when I see i7 laptops that should be labelled i3. The only real i7 equivalents for laptops are the fat i7-4930MX and i7-4900MQ laptops, in my opinion. Maybe calling all the others i3 would get people to buy more desktops, and be more satisfied with the performance.

For the most part, mobile i3/i5/i7 duals have a logical progression.

i3s have no turbo boost, i5s have turbo boost, i7s have higher clocks and more cache.

 

[Roland00Address]

Core i3/i5/i7 branding is basically for Intel to lure customers in the direction "they" want you to go.

Core i7 merely means "highest performing part in that form factor/wattage" category.

Yep, this exactly. And this is what most customers actually want, and this is what makes intel the most money. It sucks for the technical or informed customer but that is why you have intel ark.com if you do not know just use your cell phone.

Most customers do not choose devices based off absolute speed, they instead want "the best" in a certain form factor (the i7s), the medium for they do not want shit but they do not know what to look for (the i5s), and the cheapest which are the intels celeron, pentiums, and i3s where the person is buying based off price not based off speed.

People honestly care more about form factor, they do not care about cinebench scores they care if the computer is a desktop, laptop that is heavy but fine on a table or lap, an ultra portable computer, tablet, cell phone, etc. The "form factor" is the framing of why they buy a computer, the details inside that frame such as speed and price come secondly.

---

As long as there are serious enough performance differences between the x3, x5, and x7 then this make sense for consumers that intel is going this route. If x7 can play games but x3 can not and is limited to internet browsing and angry birds than I am glad they made this segmentation and brought information to the market. If all the cpus perform within 10 or even 20% of each other I am pissed at intel for they created noise in the market and then they profit off the noise.

I also get pissed at oems that put 5w or 15w cpus in chasis that can handle 20 extra watts. Why do I have a computer case that can handle 20 or 35 watts of power and I get a crappy cpu. Why do I have a desktop replacement 17" that weights 6+ lbs and I do not have a real quad core when I buy an i7.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Maybe. I dunno, I feel kinda ripped off when I see i7 laptops that should be labelled i3. The only real i7 equivalents for laptops are the fat i7-4930MX and i7-4900MQ laptops, in my opinion. Maybe calling all the others i3 would get people to buy more desktops, and be more satisfied with the performance.

It's good that you do. But people like you and me count for maybe 1% of the population. And that makes perfect sense. Because there are other areas where we are as clueless as most people are to computers. Plus its busy enough living life without worrying about these things.

I've seen plenty of people that fall under the notion of "i7 is the best". It's really clever actually.

Usually, such naming has just gotten worse over time...

Say you are at crossroads. Which way should you go? At this point if someone comes up to you and and points in either direction, you'd likely follow it.

 

[dahorns]

It's good that you do. But people like you and me count for maybe 1% of the population. And that makes perfect sense. Because there are other areas where we are as clueless as most people are to computers. Plus its busy enough living life without worrying about these things.

I've seen plenty of people that fall under the notion of "i7 is the best". It's really clever actually.

You have to balance different concerns in product naming/segmentation. I think the direction Intel has gone is very logical. An i3-->i5-->-i7 for any given form factor will tell you where the processor stands in comparison to what is available.

Also, renaming the y series to Core-M removed additional confusion because in the Ultrabook form factor you'd see both y and u series processors, which upset the progression system above.

Now that they are going the same route with their atom processors, I think everything will be much cleaner and easier for the average consumer. Yes, the more informed consumer will be aware of nuances that average consumer is not. I don't think that makes the naming system misleading. It is certainly a hell of lot easier to understand than the prior naming system for atom processors, which as far as I can tell was a random number generator.

 

[witeken]

It is certainly a hell of lot easier to understand than the prior naming system for atom processors, which as far as I can tell was a random number generator.

The only thing you've got to know is the boost frequency, because you ideally want 2.4GHz, which are the SKUs with Z37xx.

 

[SAAA]

seems inline with a z3740

hopefully we get a big graphics boost.

They better do that, give a fat graphic boost or competition will crush them.
This is even an x5 class but the bench puts it in line with S800 chips... Intel is really 1-2 years late with this mobile roadmap.

Maybe it's just early results that are low but if the Airmont architecture isn't that much more than Silvermont then they only have speed to go with. The max 2.7GHz turbo of leaked slides doesn't promise well here, the only great thing may be low power consumption...

 

[mikk]

https://intel.lanyonevents.com/sz15/connect/sessionDetail.ww?SESSION_ID=2142

There will be a Cherry Trail session at IDF next month.

 

[Sweepr]

Cherry Trail-T @ MWC 2015

Products in H1/2015. Up to 2x GFXBench T-Rex score compared to previous gen, 16 Gen 8 EUs running at 500-600MHz.

www.anandtech.com/show/9026/intel-a...rated-lte-atom-renaming-and-14nm-cherry-trail
www.computerbase.de/2015-03/intel-cherry-trail-vier-airmont-kerne-mit-broadwell-grafik-in-14-nm

Interesting choice of graphics for SoFIA. I bet Mali T720 is not only cost effective but very power-efficient.

 

[Ruiner1]

So, what do I need to look for if I want a high performance quad core laptop? i5 or i7? I've got a 1st gen mobile i7 and to be honest its been a complete dog since day one. Hot, not that fast and holy hell does it like to shut down if you use the discrete GPU. I wish I'd never bought it. PoS.

 

[Enigmoid]

So, what do I need to look for if I want a high performance quad core laptop? i5 or i7? I've got a 1st gen mobile i7 and to be honest its been a complete dog since day one. Hot, not that fast and holy hell does it like to shut down if you use the discrete GPU. I wish I'd never bought it. PoS.

i7 45W is the only place you will get quads. Though there are 35W versions. Amazing strides have been made since the first gen mobile i7s. Roughly twice the performance and a decent igp.

 

[Roland00Address]

So, what do I need to look for if I want a high performance quad core laptop? i5 or i7? I've got a 1st gen mobile i7 and to be honest its been a complete dog since day one. Hot, not that fast and holy hell does it like to shut down if you use the discrete GPU. I wish I'd never bought it. PoS.

Cpu performance is more than double with the i7 4700 series quads either the 35w or the 45w compared to the 1st gen i7 720qm (45w). More than double for both single and multithreaded performance, as well as better battery life and an IGP that the 1st gen lacked.

Hell AMD with their 15w skus such as the a8-6410 is getting very close to the performance of an i7 720qm. This is with AMD's crappy, cheap cats core. And this even has an IGP.

It is that big of a difference todays tech vs 4 generations ago.

 

[Ruiner1]

Thanks! I haven't been able to really follow Intel's laptop parts since you knew core 2 duo was what you wanted

Hang on though, you mention 35w and 45w versions of the same parts - is it just that the 35w version is 30% slower, or is it binned silicon?

 

[Enigmoid]

Thanks! I haven't been able to really follow Intel's laptop parts since you knew core 2 duo was what you wanted

Hang on though, you mention 35w and 45w versions of the same parts - is it just that the 35w version is 30% slower, or is it binned silicon?

45W version gets a couple hundred Mhz. Maybe 10% faster.

 

[erunion]

Intel graphics isn't ported to TSMC so licensing is the obvious route.

 

[shady28]

Didn't see this already posted but below image is the breakdown for the 3 Cherry Trail Atoms.

The x5 from the earlier in the thread is the low end model. High end model has 33% higher clocks and looks like 2x the memory bandwidth (I am assuming the 2x LPDDR3 means dual channel vs the 1x on the x5). Also 20% higher GPU clock and 33% more EUs.

 

[Shivansps]

good thing its 12EU and not 8...

 

[North01]

Video of an Intel reference tablet using an Atom x5 Z8500 - Link

 

[Sweepr]

Fortunately for us they ditched the 8 EUs version. I wish more OEMs pick the fastest 16 EUs SKU for their mobile devices this time.