Intel Atom processor for tablets - a new wave of innovative tablets is coming
The company has announced plans to accelerate improvements to the Atom processor family.
Intel has announced the next generation of the ultramobile Intel® Atom ™ platform. The chips, codenamed Oak Trail, are now commercially available to manufacturing partners. The first tablets will pop up on store shelves in May, from manufacturers like Fujitsu and Lenovo, running a wide range of operating systems. The Oak Trail platform takes up 60 percent less space than the previous Atom generation, allowing tablet manufacturers and partners who make industrial or embedded devices to create even thinner, more compact and energy-efficient products.
The new platform does not require fan cooling and also allows the emergence of devices that have enough uptime all day long. With Enhanced Deeper Sleep technology developed by Intel, the chip completely shuts off any circuits that are not needed in a thousandth of a second and then reactivates them when needed - but only for as long as needed. The strategy is for the processor to do its job as quickly as possible, such as displaying a web page, and then go to sleep as soon as possible, saving energy. The multimedia capabilities of the Oak Trail are well characterized by full Flash support and video playback at up to 1080p resolution. The platform supports HD audio, HDMI video output and USB 2.0 connections.
In addition to the 45-nanometer Oak Trail, Intel also announced the approach of the 32-nanometer generation of Atoms. Launched for the first time in a generation, codenamed Cedar Trail, the platform for netbooks and mini desktops will bring significant advances in energy efficiency and multimedia, including support for Blu-ray 2.0 and DisplayPort. New capabilities include Intel Wireless Music and Wireless Display technologies, as well as PC Synch and Fast Boot techniques. The Cedar Trail and the computers based on it are currently being tested, with a commercial release expected in the second half of 2011. Further details will be revealed by Intel at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.
