Hewlett-Packard was one of the early trendsetters in the ultrathin laptop market with its Voodoo design. But the product has languished for more than a year. What happened--or what will happen--isn't clear.
The ultrathin laptop market is hot and one of the most visible laptop segments today. And activity in this segment has spiked recently in the wake of a raft of new, inexpensive thin laptops from MSI, Acer, and Lenovo, using low-power Intel chips.
HP's Voodoo Envy was a trendsetting ultrathin laptop but it hasn't been updated in a year.
(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)The Apple MacBook Air and Dell Adamo are two of the most prominent designs. The Air has now been refreshed twice. Dell's svelte Adamo was announced in March, complementing its ultrathin business laptop, the Latitude E4200.
But the razor-thin 0.7-inch-thick Voodoo Envy 133--first announced in June 2008--has stood still. ... Read More
Looking for signs that netbooks are catching on? And even morphing into notebooks? Here's a few.
Netbooks were the big end-user gadget on display at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference that ended Friday.
And all the Netbooks at a Microsoft booth were running Windows 7, Microsoft's next-generation operating system due next year.
A Microsoft person on the floor said that a lite version of Windows 7 will run on 1GB of memory and 16GB of (solid-state drive) storage. Higher-end Netbooks will have a 160GB hard disk drive, according to Microsoft "guidance."
Microsoft displayed Netbooks running Windows 7 at WinHEC
(Credit: Brooke Crothers)This person also said something surprising. Dual-core Atom processors will be used in Netbooks. I tried to disabuse him of the notion that netbooks would get dual-core Atom processors. No, I said, it was Nettops (Atom-based desktops) that would get dual-core. But he assured me that vendors were planning to bring out dual-core Netbooks.
So, I contacted Intel. There are no immediate plans for dual-core Atom chips designed specifically for Netbooks, according to Intel. But what's stopping a netbook supplier from using a dual-core Atom 330 (designed for nettops) in a Netbook? Answer: nothing.
At 8 watts, the chip has a higher power envelope than single-core Atom processors, but 8 watts is still low compared with a mainstream Core 2 Duo processor. Other specifications for the Atom 330 include a core clock speed of 1.6GHz, 1MB of level-2 cache, and support for DDR2 667MHz memory.
Beginning to sound more like a low-end notebook? I think so.
Netbook market share appears to be growing too. A little more than 5 million Atom processors shipped in the third quarter of 2008, according to Shane Rau of IDC, a market researcher. "Will it add to the total market or will it eat into the total market? Another question might be is Atom eating into another processor brand such as Celeron (Intel) or Sempron (AMD)?"
Rau says that the total market can grow while Netbooks eat into notebook market share. "The TAM (Total Available Market) can grow even as Atom eats into another brand. But we don't know how it's shaking out yet," he said.
And here's evidence of Netbooks penetrating the consumer consciousness. Best Buy now has a separate category for Netbooks on its Web site. Right under laptop computers you'll see "Netbooks". Interestingly, the Netbooks category is ranked above desktops and most other "computer" categories.
Other signs. Dell has a 12-inch laptop, the Inspiron Mini 12 based on the Atom processor. Is this a Netbook or notebook? You tell me.
Update on September 21 at 9:10 a.m. with pricing correction.
The single life for Atom is over--or at least one version. Intel said it has begun shipments of the first dual-core version of the Atom processor.
Tranquil PC T7-HSG Home Server uses the dual-core Atom 330
(Credit: Tranquil PC)Atom 330 pricing information and data sheets for customers will go live Monday, according to Intel.
The chipmaker indicated at the Intel Developer Forum in August that it would be shipping the dual-core chip this month.
The power-efficient processor will be targeted at Atom-based desktops called nettops. Currently, Intel offers the single-core Atom N230 processor for this category of small desktops.
At 8 watts, the chip has a higher power envelope than single-core Atom processors. The N230 is rated at 4 watts, while Atom processors for mobile devices such as the Eee PC and Acer Aspire have a thermal envelope of 2 watts.
Other specifications include a core clock speed of 1.6GHz, 1MB of level-2 cache, and support for DDR2 667MHz memory.
It's available as either a package with the Intel 945GC Express chipset (which includes built-in graphics) or as part of the Little Falls2 motherboard, Intel said.
"This is not for Netbooks," an Intel spokesperson cautioned.
But caveats aside, computer makers will do with the chip as they please. And a few may venture to put the chip into a netbook or notebook design. One of the more compelling reasons would be the 8W thermal envelope--far below the standard 35W power envelope of mainstream Intel-based notebooks.
Another reason is price. At $43 in 1,000-unit quantities, this makes it the least expensive dual-core Intel processor, along with the dual-core Celeron processor, also priced at $43.
Note: the price was originally stated as $40. Intel lists the price as of September 21, 2008 at $43.
Tranquil PC, a U.K.-based PC supplier, has already been taking pre-orders for a home server based on the Intel Atom 330.
SAN FRANCISCO--Intel plans to bring its first dual-core Atom to market next month, it was revealed here Monday during the Intel Developer Forum. The chipmaker also disclosed more details of the Nehalem processor.
The power-efficient processor will be targeted at Atom-based desktops called nettops. Currently, Intel offers the Atom N230 processor for nettops. This chip has a slightly higher power envelope than the Atom processors built exclusively for mobile devices.
That news was revealed to this reporter by an Intel employee as senior vice president Pat Gelsinger was delivering his IDF keynote, which included more specifics about Nehalem, the family of chips the company plans to begin rolling out in the fourth quarter. Gelsinger, the general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, showed the first wafer holding individual eight-core processors, detailed the power-saving features of the Nehalem processors, and confirmed future mobile Nehalem processors.
Intel Nehalem processor lineup as shown at IDF 2008
(Credit: Intel)Also due in September is the six-core Dunnington server processor, the final member of Intel's 45-nanometer "Penryn" family, which will ship to customers next month, Gelsinger said.
Most of his keynote centered on Nehalem, and one of the features Intel was pushing hard at IDF was a technology called Turbo mode.
Turbo mode is essentially a switch that turns off unused processor cores and then uses the remaining active cores more efficiently. This kind of sophisticated power-management technology will be used in both Nehalem-based laptops and servers, according to Gelsinger, and will become increasingly necessary as Intel brings out chips with more cores like the eight-core Nehalem processor due next year.
In short, in multi-core processors, cores not doing much can still use power. So, it's better to use, for example, a couple of cores more efficiently than four cores inefficiently.
The power saving technology is enabled by "an integrated microcontroller which only works on power management," said Rajesh Kumar, an Intel Fellow, who spoke during Gelsinger's keynote. There are about 1 million transistors dedicated solely to power management, Kumar said.
The feature "requires no operating system intervention. It is fully detected and managed by the hardware. If it has detected an idle core, it is able to reallocate that power budget to the other cores," Gelsinger said in an interview after his keynote.
On another front, Intel showed the first eight-core Nehalem chip. "This is the first showing of the eight-core Nehalem-EX," Gelsinger said in his keynote. He said the chip is a monolithic design, meaning that all eight cores are on one piece of silicon.
Nehalem-EP, or Nehalem Efficient Performance, will be a quad-core chip for mainstream servers and workstations. What Intel traditionally calls two-socket servers, Gelsinger said.
The mainstream desktop will be the Core i7. "With the i7 we have high-end desktop and extreme," Gelsinger said. The extreme edition is for overclockers, he said. Enthusiast gamers often overclock processors (ratcheting up clock speed beyond the rated speed) to gain extra performance.
"Turbo Mode" is a linchpin Nehalem technology
(Credit: Intel)But there will be more pedestrian dual-core versions of Nehalem too. "There will be versions for the desktop that will be dual-core as well," Gelsinger said.
Gelsinger also talked about Intel's plans to put graphics directly onto the same piece of silicon as the processor. This will be a first for Intel.
He described why Intel is putting graphics right next to the processor. "There's a big sucking sound near the CPU. It keeps pulling things closer to it. This is uniquely enabled by Moore's Law...and as things get closer together I'm able to drive down thermal envelopes (i.e., heat) and decrease physical form factors (i.e., enable smaller computer designs)," Gelsinger said.
Gelsinger broke down the future processor lineup--with graphics on the processor die and without--as follows. "Lynnfield and Clarksfield are the versions without graphics. Havendale and Auburndale are the versions with integrated graphics." (Even Intel executives occasionally get confused by all the code names and it took two tries for Gelsinger to get this right.)
AMD says it is on track to deliver a dual-core chip code-named Kuma, refuting speculation that certain Kuma models have been canceled.
"The speculation is completely untrue," said AMD spokesman Jake Whitman. "We're still on track to launch a dual-core--code-named Kuma--part in the second half of '08. It will be 65 nanometers, still be based on the Star's core. So, that's coming."
He also disassociated Kuma from Phenom, as speculated in some articles. "We have never said anywhere along the lines that Kuma was somehow associated with Phenom," he said. "Dual-core Phenom? I've never seen that on a road map."
Phenom is a line of desktop processors available in triple-core and quad-core versions.
AMD did state when the Phenom line was launched that there could be a dual-core variant, Whitman said. But this concept has never been realized and Phenom has never been branded as part of Kuma. "We have never branded that code name."
Probably more germane to AMD's future plans was a report issued Wednesday by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) that projected 2008 chip sales growth of 4.3 percent in 2008, revising down the previous growth forecast of 7.7 percent. This news caused both AMD and Intel shares to fall on Wednesday.
"Continued strong competition in memory chips--principally DRAMs--will result in slower growth in 2008," the SIA said.
However, processors--Intel's and AMD's main business--should still see healthy growth. "Microprocessors, which account for roughly 14 percent of total semiconductor revenues, have experienced healthy unit sales growth to date in 2008, and revenues are expected to grow over 10 percent per year for the next two years," the SIA said.
"Sales of personal computers, the largest single market for semiconductors, continue to be strong, especially in emerging markets," the report said.
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