The Intel Atom Thread

[Roland00Address]

So if I understand correctly this is what Intel is trying to do.

Please understand I am going to use words that may sound pejorative, but I am purposefully using language that someone who is not technology minded will use in going computer shopping.

If it has a built in keyboard, or is detachable Intel wants this (up to 6 watts tdp)
Celeron (14nm Intel Braswell Atom)
Pentium (14nm Intel Braswell Atom)
Core M low skus
Core M high skus

High End Convertibles Tablets like the Surface Pro 3, Ultrabooks and Normal Laptops (15 watts tdp)
Celeron (14nm Intel Broadwell Big Core), 1.5 to 1.7 ghz
Pentium (14nm Intel Broadwell Big Core) 1.9 ghz
Core i3 U, 2.0 to 2.5 ghz
Core i5 U, multiple speeds, max turbo on best sku is 3.3 ghz
Core i7 U, multiple speeds, max turbo on besk sku is 3.4 ghz


Anything that is a real tablet like the iPad and not a convertible will get the Atom Branding
Atom x3 I have not really seen much on this, but it looks like the best sku is 1.4 ghz with lte
Atom x5 best sku is 2.24 ghz turbo burst
Atom x7 best sku is 2.40 ghz turbo burst, better graphics than x5




In addition it appears intel is trying to get OEMs not to use broadwell celerons and pentiums but instead use atom based braswells to get people to be upsold to i3s. I based this off only seeing intel 5th gen pentiums and celerons in chromebooks but please correct me if you find other skus. So it appears your junk 15" computers (I do not mean junk, I mean low price budget tops) is going to be atoms.


It appears that Intel purposefully wants to segment the market into if you want a computer you get celeron to i7 which is effectively old intel with old intel branding (though new intel silicon inside.)

If you get a tablet, your choices are x3, x5, x7, or core m, aka the hip and young Intel even if many of those skus use the same silicon technology as "old intel." Hip and young intel gets new naming conventions to purposefully steer customers into buying better silicon by being upsold based off the name.


Anyone disagree?

 

[bullzz]

surface 3 reviews are up

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/04/surface-3-review-smaller-slower-cheaper-better/

http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/14/8409591/microsoft-surface-3-tablet-review

 

[Sweepr]

First Cherry Trail benchmarks after a long wait.

More than twice Bay Trail's graphics performance @ GFXBench. Lots of Windows games will now be playable at lower settings. Great battery life too.

 

[witeken]

Intel sold >7M tablets. Up 44% from a year ago (but down -50% from Q4).

Contra-revenue will drop in H2 as SoFIA kicks in.

 

[Sweepr]

Next Generation Dell Venue Pro 11 specifications: Atom X5 / X7, Windows 10 and USB-C port

Dell Venue Pro 11 is going to be first Windows device to be equipped with USB Type-C port, which is the same one that was made its debut in the Macbook 12 inch 2015 model and Chromebook Pixel. The new USB replaces a wide range of interfaces acting as power connector, HDMI and Display Port. However you must buy a adapter for each if your current peripheral does not uses USB-C port. Using this new USB port, you will be able to charge your device, connect it to a monitor, storage or other external devices.

The new model will be released in September and will come pre loaded with Windows 10 operating system, Cherry Trail Intel Atom X5 / Atom X7 processor, 3D real sense room and reversible USB-C port.

https://translate.google.com.br/tra...tel-atom-x5-x7-prozessoren-geplant&edit-text=

The Core M version will hopefully be updated with Skylake-Y and Windows 10 later this year too.

Lenovo shows off Cherry Trail Android tablet prototype

The tablet, which is powered by an Intel Atom X5-8300 processor appears to be manufactured by BYD, but it has the Lenovo name on it.

It’s not clear if Lenovo will sell this specific tablet, but the prototype/reference design gives us an idea of what to expect from Android tablets with mid-range Cherry Trail processors.

The tablet features an 8 inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and Android 5.0 Lollipop software. It has front and rear cameras, WIFi, Bluetooth, and optional support for 3G or 4G networks. [...]

http://liliputing.com/2015/04/lenovo-shows-off-cherry-trail-android-tablet-prototype.html

New dual-boot TV boxes run Android + Ubuntu or Windows

Like the idea of a TV box that runs Android and has access to thousands of apps including Netflix, Hulu Plus, and XBMC, but don’t want to buy one unless it can also handle desktop apps like Office or LibreOffice? No problem: there are a handful of dual-boot devices on the market that let you run Android and another operating system.

The Wintel W8 is a $127 dual-boot PC with Windows and Android.

The Wintel W8 features an Intel Atom Z3735F processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, HDMI and 10/100 Ethernet jacks, a micro USB port, two full-sized USB ports, and a microSD card slot. It supports 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 and ships with Windows 8.1 with Bing and Android 4.4 software.

http://liliputing.com/2015/04/new-dual-boot-tv-boxes-run-android-ubuntu-or-windows.html

 

[IntelUser2000]

First Cherry Trail benchmarks after a long wait.

Hardly class-leading performance.

I think they had to cap CT to 2.4GHz otherwise it would have looked too good against the horridly executed so-called "super-chip" Core M. This is how they are going to keep the 2x gap between Core and Atom.

It's just like with Itanium where they had to artificially limite Xeon performance so Itanium looks good. Somebody go smack Intel with loads of competitiveness! Too bad nobody is going to do it because they have near 100% monopoly in the Windows world.

 

[ninaholic37]

Hardly class-leading performance.

I think they had to cap CT to 2.4GHz otherwise it would have looked too good against the horridly executed so-called "super-chip" Core M. This is how they are going to keep the 2x gap between Core and Atom.

It's just like with Itanium where they had to artificially limite Xeon performance so Itanium looks good. Somebody go smack Intel with loads of competitiveness! Too bad nobody is going to do it because they have near 100% monopoly in the Windows world.

Yeah, I remember them advertising CT was going to go to 2.7GHz in their slides. Your explanation, or 14nm problems, or both, sounds legit. Meh.

 

[MtSeldon]

In arstechnica so benchmarks iPad air 2 has a significant performance advantage over surface 3. Do the cpu so have similar power envelope? How does apple dominate almost every benchmark?

 

[liahos1]

In arstechnica so benchmarks iPad air 2 has a significant performance advantage over surface 3. Do the cpu so have similar power envelope? How does apple dominate almost every benchmark?

isnt the die size more than half the same size as the a8x?

 

[Roland00Address]

In arstechnica so benchmarks iPad air 2 has a significant performance advantage over surface 3. Do the cpu so have similar power envelope? How does apple dominate almost every benchmark?

A combination of things

1) Apple hiring some of the best engineers.

2) Apple designing the chip not to be a jack of all trades but specifically for the tasks you should be doing on a tablet.

3) Apple priortizing single thread performance and gpu performance and not multithread performance for you are mostly doing 1 thing at a time on a tablet and thus you want good single thread performance.

4) ARM designs their architecture like A57 and A53 to be universal chips ranging a whole range of tdps and a whole range of purposes. Apple which only makes tablet and cell phone chips (and I guess apple tv and ipods) can make their chips specifically designed for those priorities thus you can squeeze more performance out.

5) Apple having control of the OS so you can get deeper connections

6) Apple not needing to make money on the chip itself but on the final product, thus you can throw die space at the problem to get better performance. If you have 4EU @ 1000 MHZ or 8 EUs at 500 MHZ you get similar graphics performance. Yet if you can run the 8 EUs at a lower voltage to get that 500 MHZ you have a lower power consumption, tdp, and thus more thermal room. Thus you can get better battery life and better sustained performance.

All these factors by themselves can make a significant difference (lets say 5 to 50%) but rarely an order of magnitude difference in performance (aka 2x, 3x, 4x and so on). A combination of those 6 things and even more I am not thinking of all hand can add up.

 

[MtSeldon]

these are true, but they are also mostly valid for Samsung .

Intel is a totally different beast. Even with those factors on Apple's side, it is hard to explain how they do dominate over Intel.

Maybe, these benchmarks favor Arm architecture over x86? is that possible?

 

[scannall]

these are true, but they are also mostly valid for Samsung .

Intel is a totally different beast. Even with those factors on Apple's side, it is hard to explain how they do dominate over Intel.

Maybe, these benchmarks favor Arm architecture over x86? is that possible?

ARM is a more modern and efficient ISA. x86 is rather crufty after so many years.

 

[MtSeldon]

ARM is a more modern and efficient ISA. x86 is rather crufty after so many years.

AFAIK , this is a myth , that has been debunked many times.

atom soc's hold well against other ARM Soc's. it is the Apple that is significantly faster in most cases, not only against Intel , also against other Arm Soc's too. (tough i don't remember every new benchmark, correct me if i'm wrong.)

 

[frozentundra123456]

The advantage I see for atom is that it runs x86 apps. So it seems sort of an "apples" to oranges comparison to be comparing with geek bench and these android apps. It would be a big plus if atom was faster, but I have never thought atom was going to displace ARM in android, or iOS for that matter. I think there is definitely a place for x86 in tablets and convertibles, but I don't see it in phones, so I think Intel has a very uphill battle to break into that market.

 

[MtSeldon]

Asus zenfon 2 has the atom soc. It holds quite fine in benchmarks. It doesn't break any records but not bad either. About the lower edge of the high-end. Intel will keep pushing into that market, smartphone market is too big too ignore.

 

[Sweepr]

HP updates Pavilion x360 family of 2-in-1 notebooks (Braswell)

The school year hasn’t ended yet, but HP is already starting to unveil its 2015 back-to-school line of computers including new HP Pavilion notebooks with 14 through 17 inch screens and an updated HP Envy x360 convertible with a 15.6 inch display.

But I’m more interested in the smaller, mostly cheaper models: HP is updating its Pavilion x360 line of convertible notebooks with new model featuring Intel Braswell, Core M, or Core i3 processors.

The new HP Pavilion x360 convertible should be available from HP.com starting May 13th.

The 11.6 inch model will be a fanless system with a 32 Whr battery and a choice of Intel Celeron, Pentium or Core M-5Y10C processors. The notebook will be available with up to 8GB of RAM. HP says this model gets up to 8.25 hours of battery life.

...While HP hasn’t revealed pricing for all configurations yet, here are a few sample prices the company has shared:

11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, Pentium N3700, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive for $410
11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, Core M-5Y10C, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD for $500
13.3 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, Core i3 CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD for $530

http://liliputing.com/2015/04/hp-updates-pavilion-x360-family-of-2-in-1-notebooks.html

First Braswell producs will be out @ mid-Q2. Earlier than rumours indicated (Q3). Also $500 doesn't sound too much for a Core-M device.

 

[Be1n]

Are the yields on these braswells currently really low? If Intel is as serious over these as they say the actual launch could not have been slower.

 

[Titonus]

Are the yields on these braswells currently really low? If Intel is as serious over these as they say the actual launch could not have been slower.

:thumbsup:

 

[Be1n]

Intel Corporation’s LTE-capable Atom x3 Reportedly Coming in the Fourth Quarter of 2015

According to DigiTimes, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) will launch its SoFIA LTE processor -- which integrates an LTE modem with a company-designed applications processor -- in the fourth quarter of 2015. DigiTimes also reported that a couple ODMs, namely China's Wanlida and Taiwan's Elitegroup Computer Systems, will have reference designs based on this platform.

Is this a delay?
My first reaction to this report was that Intel had delayed this Atom x3 processor -- again. In 2013, Intel said SoFIA LTE would be available in the "first half of 2015." At a late-2014 investor conference, then-Intel mobile General Manager Hermann Eul did indeed signal a delay of this chip from the first half of 2015 to sometime in the second half:

[SoFIA products] kick in one quarter after the other. So, we will qualify SoFIA 3G by the end of this year, volume ramp in the first quarter, a quarter later the 3GR, a quarter later the LTE. So, we are on very, very fast cadence of innovation and product introduction.

If I am reading this correctly, Eul suggested the volume ramp of the Atom x3 with LTE will happen in the third quarter of 2015. In light of the DigiTimes report, Intel might qualify this chip for production early on in the third quarter of 2015 and begin manufacturing shortly thereafter.

It takes time for chips to actually get produced (I have been told a wafer typically can go from start to finish in roughly a quarter), so it would make sense that Intel would begin production shipments of the Atom x3-C3440 in the fourth quarter of 2015.

 

[Be1n]

Acer Aspire E11 goes Braswell

Acer is updating its affordable portable line of laptops with new models sporting Intel’s low-power Braswell processors. Last year the company launched the Acer Aspire E11 and V11 notebooks with 11.6 inch displays and Intel Bay Trail chips. Now Acer is introducing a new model called the Acer Aspire ES 11 which use Intel’s Celeron or Pentium Braswell chips.

The Acer Aspire ES 11-131 should be available in the US in July for about $229 and up.

Looks like they are giving priority to the portables now that they killed the desktop line.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Are the yields on these braswells currently really low? If Intel is as serious over these as they say the actual launch could not have been slower.

Its the OEMs. Its quite normal.

 

[Sweepr]

NotebookCheck's Atom x7 Z8700 Benchmarks

NotebookCheck just added their first Atom x7 Z8700 benchmarks, possibly from the Surface 3. Here's a comparison - Atom Z3795 is Bay Trail based and operates at the same clocks:

X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - Pass 1 Atom x7 Z8700
50.82 FPS

X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - Pass 1 Atom Z3795
47.13 FPS

X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - Pass 2 Atom x7 Z8700
10.28 FPS

X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - Pass 2 Atom Z3795
9.5 FPS

wPrime 2.0x - 32m Atom x7 Z8700
24.5 seconds - lower is better

wPrime 2.0x - 32m Atom Z3795
25.9 seconds

3DMark 11 - Performance Physics 1280x720 Atom x7 Z8700
1879 points

3DMark 11 - Performance Physics 1280x720 Atom Z3795
1799 points

Cinebench R11.5 - CPU Single 64Bit Atom x7 Z8700
0.46 pt

Cinebench R11.5 - CPU Single 64Bit Atom Z3795
0.44 pt

Cinebench R11.5 - CPU Multi 64Bit Atom x7 Z8700
1.79 pt

Cinebench R11.5 - CPU Multi 64Bit Atom Z3795
1.64 pt

Cinebench R10 - Rendering Single 32Bit Atom x7 Z8700
1225

Cinebench R10 - Rendering Single 32Bit Atom Z3795
1227

Cinebench R10 - Rendering Multiple CPUs 32Bit Atom x7 Z8700
4356

Cinebench R10 - Rendering Multiple CPUs 32Bit Atom Z3795
4106

www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Atom-x7-Z8700-Benchmarks.140906.0.html

Cherry Trail took a page from Broadwell's book and (likely) sustains Turbo clocks longer than its predecessor. Perhaps there's some IPC improvement too.
Atom Z3795 got few desings wins, other Bay Trail chips are quite a bit slower than the Atom x7 Z8700.

Atom x7 delivers almost the same performance as Core M-5Y10 @ multi-threaded x264 benchmark. Core-M gives you better single-thread performance (at a higher price).

AnandTech: Intel PPSTCK1A32WFC Bay Trail-T Compute Stick Review

The success of the ultra-compact form factor (UCFF) PCs have made vendors realize that small and power-efficient computing platforms are here to stay. ARM SoC vendors, finding that the tablet market had reached saturation, kickstarted a new product category in the form of 'HDMI sticks'. As a computing platform, they were smaller than the ultra-compact form factor PCs - just looking like an oversized USB key. Intel announced the Compute Stick at CES to bring one of the first Wintel platforms into this space. Late last month, Google also introduced the Chromebit, a Chrome OS-based HDMI stick. Both of these point to the 'stick' computing platform being more than just a passing fad. The Intel Compute Stick we are reviewing today comes with Windows 8.1 with Bing (32-bit) pre-installed, making it ready to roll right out of the box.

Despite the above shortcomings, the Compute Stick did impress us in a few areas - the form factor and portability aspects are praiseworthy. The CPU performance is not as bad as we feared it would be - Windows loads in a smooth manner and the system is as responsive as what one can expect from a Bay Trail-based mini-PC.

www.anandtech.com/show/9167/intel-compute-stick-review

Intel Pentium N3700 – The budget Braswell family is here

Somehow they managed to test a Pentium N3700 prototype/engineer sample (Braswell). CPU performance is similar to Bay Trail-M while graphics performance is more than twice as fast as before. 2.5x as fast as Pentium N3520 @ 3DMark Cloud Gate.

http://laptopmedia.com/review/intel-pentium-n3700-review-the-budget-braswell-family-is-here

 

[bullzz]

the article on N3700 says its an engineering sample. we should see better perf on final products

 

[Be1n]

Its the OEMs. Its quite normal.

Then where is their Braswell NUC?

 

[Shivansps]

man 3100 points on CG Graphics is WAY too close to a mobile HD4000 perf, better than i expected.

And its officially outperforming Kabini Athlon 5350 igp.