Intel 'breaks' Moore's Law with new Atom chips

12.06.2009
It seems Moore's Law doesn't apply to the next generation of Intel's Atom chips. The low-cost, power-sipping chips, codenamed "Pineview," will greatly improve upon both of those traits, but at the expense of any significant speed boost, according to .

The trio of processors is expected to come in single and dual-core versions running at 1.66 GHz. For users, that would be an imperceptible increase over the 1.6 GHz speed of most of today's Atom chips.

Similarly, the graphics chip Intel is said to be planning to pair with the upcoming Atom CPUs will only be slightly faster than its existing one.

Publicly, Intel has all but conceded the lack of speed boost, saying that that is that the Atom CPU will be integrated with a single chipset that holds both the graphics processor and the memory controller.

This architecture change will bring these components closer together and nearer the CPU, enabling netbooks and net-top PCs running Pineview -- or "Pine Trail," as the integrated platform will be called -- to be a little faster than today's generation, says Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight64.

Beside the longer battery life that comes with more efficient chips, lower heat also means some netbooks with the new Atom chips will not require a fan.

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