The Intel Atom Thread

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AMDisTheBEST

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Dec 17, 2015
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Atom has been a favorite among the many little known Chinese manufactures who builds cheap windows tablets under $200 bucks. I got one from one such manufacturer called chuwi just because I was curious. The performance... was absolute shit. Now atom has been discontinue, it means these manufacturers can no longer build dirt cheap which means they must build higher performance parts and charge more which means they will all be out of business because they can't compete with the more established brands at the same price points which means no more shitty devices, knock off clones, and ect in the market. Rejoice!
 

dark zero

Platinum Member
Jun 2, 2015
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Atom has been a favorite among the many little known Chinese manufactures who builds cheap windows tablets under $200 bucks. I got one from one such manufacturer called chuwi just because I was curious. The performance... was absolute shit. Now atom has been discontinue, it means these manufacturers can no longer build dirt cheap which means they must build higher performance parts and charge more which means they will all be out of business because they can't compete with the more established brands at the same price points which means no more shitty devices, knock off clones, and ect in the market. Rejoice!
But is also no longer low prices... And that will kill ATOM for real... Is as expensive now as the low tier Core ...
 

AMDisTheBEST

Senior member
Dec 17, 2015
682
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But is also no longer low prices... And that will kill ATOM for real... Is as expensive now as the low tier Core ...
Atom used to cost $18 per SoC. Intel core i5 6200u costs $280(you can almost buy a desktop i7 with that $$$) You see its appeal among these little known Chinese manufacturers? They can easily put together a crappy windows tablet/PC under $200 or a sub $100 Android device with it. Without the dirt cheapness, they are easily squashed by bigger brand Chinese companies like Lenovo both domestically and internationally.

Atom brand name is discontinued. Its successor architecture Apollo lake is now used in Celeron and pentium branded SoCs.
These manufacturers will then just used even dirt cheaper mediatek ARM-7 SoCs from 2012 once Microsoft officially released windows on arm this year.
 

dark zero

Platinum Member
Jun 2, 2015
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Atom used to cost $18 per SoC. Intel core i5 6200u costs $280(you can almost buy a desktop i7 with that $$$) You see its appeal among these little known Chinese manufacturers? They can easily put together a crappy windows tablet/PC under $200 or a sub $100 Android device with it. Without the dirt cheapness, they are easily squashed by bigger brand Chinese companies like Lenovo both domestically and internationally.

Atom brand name is discontinued. Its successor architecture Apollo lake is now used in Celeron and pentium branded SoCs.
These manufacturers will then just used even dirt cheaper mediatek ARM-7 SoCs from 2012 once Microsoft officially released windows on arm this year.
Sadly the minimun design they can use for Windows on ARM is not A7... is 64 bit A73.
 

Sweepr

Diamond Member
May 12, 2006
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Teclast X3 Plus: Apollo Lake Windows tablet with 6GB RAM

teclast-x3-plus_01.jpg


Chinese device maker Teclast’s latest tablet is a Windows-powered model with an 11.6 inch full HD display, an Intel Celeron N3450 quad-core Apollo Lake processor, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.

It’s called the Teclast X3 Plus, and it’s available for purchase/pre-order from Geekbuying, AliExpress, (and from Gearbest soon too) for around $360 to $400.

https://liliputing.com/2017/03/teclast-x3-plus-apollo-lake-windows-tablet-6gb-ram.html

Apollo lake touchscreen mini PCs are coming soon

https://liliputing.com/2017/03/apollo-lake-touchscreen-mini-pcs-coming-soon.html
 
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Sweepr

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May 12, 2006
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Intel Geminilake IA Notebook (Intel GLK RVP1 DDR4) shows up at SisSoftware

http://ranker.sisoftware.net/show_s...e0ddedcba39eae88f0cdfddbbedbe6d6f083be86&l=en

18 EUs IGPU at 800 MHz. This is rumored to be a 14nm+ version of their current Apollo Lake SoCs. Even at this early stage, iGPU clocks are already higher than Pentium N4200, even if only a bit (800 MHz vs 750 MHz).


ECS LIVA Z Fanless Dual-LAN Apollo Lake UCFF PC Review

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The fanless nature makes the system suitable for certain HTPC workloads. The LIVA Z fulfills all the basic necessities - 4K output (with 4Kp60 supported on the mini-DP port) and full hardware decode for 4Kp60 content in a variety of codecs. That said, it is not a 4K OTT box because it lacks the necessary DRM capabilities as well as a HDCP 2.2-capable HDMI 2.0 port necessary for Netflix 4K (currently available only on select Kaby Lake systems).

On the price front, the ECS LIVA Z is a winner. $180 delivers a system ready for OS installation, while $220 fetches a ready-to-go system with Windows 10 Home x64 pre-installed. The overall performance benefits are a step up from similarly priced Bay Trail and Braswell systems.

www.anandtech.com/show/11229/ecs-liva-z-duallan-apollo-lake-ucff-pc-review/7
 
Aug 11, 2008
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Atom has been a favorite among the many little known Chinese manufactures who builds cheap windows tablets under $200 bucks. I got one from one such manufacturer called chuwi just because I was curious. The performance... was absolute shit. Now atom has been discontinue, it means these manufacturers can no longer build dirt cheap which means they must build higher performance parts and charge more which means they will all be out of business because they can't compete with the more established brands at the same price points which means no more shitty devices, knock off clones, and ect in the market. Rejoice!
I actually had three of the cheap atom tablets, and for a hundred dollars or less, I thought the performance cpu wise was decent. The main problem was that overall they were just poorly made. One of them had a terrible screen, very weak wi-fi, and no usb port except for the mini usb charging port. The other two (winbooks) had decent screens and a full size usb ports, but the charging port failed on both of them.
 

Sweepr

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May 12, 2006
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Finally some nice Apollo Lake 11.6'' subnotebooks from ASUS. It's taking a while for the new generation to replace Braswell:

Asus introduces 11.6 inch Apollo Lake laptop (VivoBook E12)

Asus launched its first laptops with Intel Apollo Lake processors in late 2016. Now the company is adding a few new models to the family, and this time they feature smaller, 11.6 inch displays.

The Asus VivoBook E12 E203NA and VivoBook E12 E203NAH are compact notebooks with low-power Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core or Pentium N4200 quad-core processor options.

While pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, they’ll probably both be relatively cheap.

https://liliputing.com/2017/05/asus-introduces-11-6-inch-apollo-lake-laptop-vivobook-e12.html


ECS unveils the “world’s smallest” Apollo Lake mini PC

ecs_tiny_678_678x452.jpg


ECS has quietly added a new small x86 desktop computer into its lineup. The ECS PB01CF ultra-compact PC is powered by Intel’s Apollo Lake platform and uses an enclosure the size smaller than most wallets. The computer is clearly not a powerhouse, but it supports all the multimedia capabilities that Intel’s latest low-power chips have to offer.

The ECS PB01CF is based on Intel’s Celeron N3350 processor, a mobile SoC with two Goldmont cores clocked at 1.1-2.4 GHz, 2 MB cache and Intel’s HD Graphics 500 (Gen9) iGPU with 12 EUs. The SoC supports Intel's new multimedia playback engine that supports hardware-accelerated playback of 4K video from HEVC and VP9-based sources. The system comes equipped with 2 GB of LPDDR4 memory, 32 GB eMMC storage (not a lot, if you want to store UHD videos locally without using an external hard drive, but enough for streaming) and runs Windows 10 Home. As for connectivity, everything looks fairly standard here: a 802.11ac Wi-Fi module, a GbE controller, a microSD card reader, two USB Type-A headers, and one 4Kp30-capable HDMI output to connect to displays or TVs (note that the system does not have any analog connectors for monitors or audio). The PB01CF measures 7×7×3.1 cm and is powered by an external 24 W adapter.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11336...1cf-ucpc-to-lineup-5ounce-apollo-lake-desktop
 

sham63

Member
Apr 29, 2010
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Finally some nice Apollo Lake 11.6'' subnotebooks from ASUS. It's taking a while for the new generation to replace Braswell:

Asus introduces 11.6 inch Apollo Lake laptop (VivoBook E12)



https://liliputing.com/2017/05/asus-introduces-11-6-inch-apollo-lake-laptop-vivobook-e12.html


ECS unveils the “world’s smallest” Apollo Lake mini PC

ecs_tiny_678_678x452.jpg




http://www.anandtech.com/show/11336...1cf-ucpc-to-lineup-5ounce-apollo-lake-desktop

I am sure those vivobooks are just renders, but they look pretty sharp. Maybe I will finally retire my mini heater, otherwise known as the HP DM1.
 

edcoolio

Senior member
May 10, 2017
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Frankly, the only Apollo Lake / Goldmont CPU that I have used that performs "decently" is the N4200

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10635/intel-quietly-launches-apollo-lake-soc

From what I have experienced personally, the N4200 is about equal in CPU performance to a i3-370M (running at 2.40GHz) from 2010. Of course, the 370M is 35 Watts instead of 6, and the internal GPU of the N4200 is far more modern and optimized.

It is also true that a Core 2 Duo P9700 from 2009 is equal to, or faster, than a N4200 at 28 Watts.

I guess my point is to keep expectations where they should be. After all, a laptop or desktop with a decent dedicated GPU from 2009-2010 will be equal to or faster than even the "top of the line" N4200 Apollo Lake / Goldmont CPU.

Maybe recycling something that would be headed to the landfill on the cheap that outperforms the latest and greatest for the equivalent wattage of a 25 Watt light bulb may not be such a bad idea, unless you just want an extra-light touchscreen all-aluminum gold colored trendy laptop... and that's cool too.
 

FanlessTech

Member
Oct 25, 2015
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Thanks mikk! Braswell was all about graphics, Gemini Lake is all about CPU performance.

Internal slides mention similar 3D performance as Braswell (Intel is being very conservative, it's refreshing) but a 31% increase CPU-wise!
 

nvgpu

Senior member
Sep 12, 2014
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Gemini Lake uses DDR4 now? More memory bandwidth for the integrated GPU now.

4MB L2 cache also helps I guess.
 

Sweepr

Diamond Member
May 12, 2006
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Thanks mikk! Braswell was all about graphics, Gemini Lake is all about CPU performance.

Internal slides mention similar 3D performance as Braswell (Intel is being very conservative, it's refreshing) but a 31% increase CPU-wise!

Thanks for sharing FanlessTech. Looking forward to Gemini Lake tests.
 
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mikk

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May 15, 2012
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Thanks mikk! Braswell was all about graphics, Gemini Lake is all about CPU performance.

Internal slides mention similar 3D performance as Braswell (Intel is being very conservative, it's refreshing) but a 31% increase CPU-wise!


GPU should be the same (Gen9), only the display controller might be different if it has native HDMI 2.0 for the first time. CPU-wise it's a surprise, it's a bigger refresh than Silvermont->Airmont.
 
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Sweepr

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May 12, 2006
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Exclusive: Gemini Lake features Goldmont Plus core, 4MB cache (up from 2MB), DDR4, integrated WiFi / BT

So 31% CPU performance increase via 14nm+ process, more cache and maybe something else. Goldmont Plus hints at an updated core. Of course we need some benchmarks first.
 
Mar 10, 2006
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Thanks mikk! Braswell was all about graphics, Gemini Lake is all about CPU performance.

Internal slides mention similar 3D performance as Braswell (Intel is being very conservative, it's refreshing) but a 31% increase CPU-wise!

31%, wow! That L2 cache + frequency uplift (14nm+ or 14nm++?) could certainly do it :)

Hopefully Atom becomes truly great in a few generations.
 

Jan Olšan

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Jan 12, 2017
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Thanks mikk! Braswell was all about graphics, Gemini Lake is all about CPU performance.

Internal slides mention similar 3D performance as Braswell (Intel is being very conservative, it's refreshing) but a 31% increase CPU-wise!

Is the comparison really against Braswell? I would expect them to compare wtih Apollo Lake (Goldmont). I think 30% uplift was already projected for Apollo/Goldmont.

Edit: I looked up the news from last year and IIRC Ashraf Eassa suggested that Gemini is still 14nm, which would probably mean there is a PAO scheme going on instead of tick tock, anf Gemini is something like Kaby Lake.

tick/process: braswell/cherry trail/airmont
tock/architecture: apollo lake/broxton/goldmont
optimization: gemini lake/goldmont plus
(?tick/process: mercury lake?)
 
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dark zero

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Jun 2, 2015
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With the ARM A75 reveal, the Atom is now into a difficult position... They only defeat MIPS right now since VIA is about to do a leapfrog on the next generation...
 

mikk

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May 15, 2012
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Wait +31% is compared to Braswell? Basically zero CPU improvements to Apollo Lake in that case. The only big change seems to be native HDMI 2.0 then.