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Intel's Atom To Ship In Over 35 Tablets Next Year
nateman1352 writes with a bit from TechSpot: "Intel has been trying to cut itself a slice of the mobile market for years, and it seems the company is finally making some headway. During a conference yesterday, Intel CEO Paul Otellini revealed that the company's Atom platform will ship in over 35 tablets starting early next year. The chipmaker has partnered with more than a dozen manufacturers who will launch slates running Windows [or] Android as well as Intel's own MeeGo operating system." The article lists Toshiba, Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Asus, AT&T, Cisco, and Acer as developing Atom-based tablets.
35 tablets is "making some headway"? Way to shoot high...
Yeah, I know... they meant "35 tablet models"...
Ubuntu is doing a lot of work on multitouch right now... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that at least some of these could have reasonably open drivers for their hardware. Given that Ubuntu is working on an app store as well there's at least some kind of a chance for an open alternative to Apple's walled garden.
.: Max Romantschuk
"Intel's Atom To Ship In Over 35 Tablets Next Year"
What are they hand built like a super car? Maybe in 2012 they can make 50 tablets but they may have to bring in another employee to pull that off.
At least SOMEONE realistically estimates their tablet sales prospects against Apple. Yes, I do think they'll be able to sell 35 of them or so. Maybe 40, if they drop the price.
you go, fanboi.. some people might want to use a tablet for something else other than gimmicky 'apps'. apples stuff doesn't allow that.
You call that realistic? I think they're missing a decimal point somewhere in that estimate. :|
Geekism is your _only_ God!
They managed to get into Macs but not into their iOS devices, so they are flooding the market with copycat devices. Just like ARM/Androids as well.
35 tablets isn't that many. Apple must have sold 10 million iPads by now.
The question for me is, will Microsoft do its part? Are they gonna half ass it by slapping on some lame, choppy UI that takes up even more memory and resources on top of Win7? Or will they do the right thing and strip Win7 down to its core and work on a first class tablet experience from the ground up? Remember MinWin? That sure looked cool, but where has that gone?
My guess is they will half ass it as they always do, and then a bunch of clueless execs will be left scratching their heads why sales flopped. Then, a handful of execs who knew the whole thing sucked and fought to do the right thing will leave and defect to Google or start a company. The wheat will leave and Microsoft will be left with the chaff.
Didn't the plethora of netbooks teach us the Atom processor is woefully underpowered? Why does anyone think it's going to be any better in a tablet?
The great thing is that you probably would've said the very same thing about the desktop market - and Apple's share is about to drop from insignificant to utterly insignificant as you probably know.
I suspect people working in education, business and science will be looking for functionality in a tablet and not care so much about the shiny finish or exquisitely rounded edges.
These users may spend some of their cash on mp3 jukeboxes etc - but when they go to work they will want something more than the digital equivalent of a designer handbag - its a simple matter of priorities.
I think it's more of a hardware problem than a OS issue. Samsung has shown that Android tablets can sell well, but they've used an ARM chip just like Apple has used. ARM chips get a hell of a lot more performance per watt than Atom has ever been able to get. Unless the amount of power they can offer is significantly better, I can't see a good reason why anyone would want to use one. Tablets require small sizes and light weights to be successful. Cramming a more power hungry chip in one is just going to make it burn through the battery more quickly or require a bigger battery.
I also wonder how many of these are going to end up being Windows 7 tablets because those haven't sold worth a damn and if the vast majority of these are Windows 7 devices, I wouldn't expect more than a few hundred thousand atom-based tablets to sell all year. That's hardly a praise-worthy figure when both Apple and Samsung can sell over one million ARM-based tablets in a month.
It's not an Apple thing. It's an unsuitable CPU thing.
The new Oak Trail and Moorestown processors look interesting from a raw technology point of view. Low watts, great power management, good performance, x86 compatible. A guy could make a lot of neat stuff with that. But a processor is not a platform. Intel has shown some shortsightedness in product positioning on netbooks by encouraging OEMs to stay within a platform definition for display size, memory configuration, and so on. They're afraid of "cannibalization". This limits the scope of creativity for the designer and prevents the creation of innovative systems that excite people. The fear of cannibalization is actually a fear that the new product will be overwhelmingly successful and sweep the field - which for any other chipmaker would be the ideal outcome, not something to be feared. The field needs sweeping, and I think the competitors are going to get her done by taking the field without these self-imposed hobbles.
That, and no current major PC vendor will ship a system that can run Windows with anything but Windows. That means that non-Windows systems with these processors will be made in low quantities, and Windows systems made with these processors will sell in low quantities no matter how many are made. The market has clearly spoken about the desirability of Windows tablets - screamed it in fact. So unless Intel can change the entire market dynamic of Windows and OEMs, these processors are going nowhere. Maybe Apple, Samsung and HTC will do the needful thing - otherwise this time next year we'll have forgotten these processors and be talking about the awesome iPad2 and other ARM tablets that continue to innovate and impress. There will of course be the usual number of indefatiguable fanboys for the Windows tablets product online - just like there are for WP7 and were for Vista - all of them posting from the same script, which is sort of creepy.
But the chips themselves? Yeah. Way cool tech. Way to go Intel! You guys sure know how to make chips. Congratulations on 35 design wins. I sure hope you manage to figure out how to sell chips into mobile and get people excited about your products in that space. But I'm not counting on it. It's not about the widget or the gadget. It's about the people and what they can do with it.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I understand why some people want to be compatible with x86, which is mainly for Microsoft Windows. Since most applications aren't designed for touchscreens, however, you don't need and shouldn't be using Windows in the first place. The target market for tablets is Web browsing, email, instant messaging, etc. It's an internet appliance.
So if they don't need Windows, why are they using Atom in the first place? ARM processors are much better on a processing-per-watt basis, which should be your primary target when designing a portable device.
Nintendo understood from the beginning that low-power is crucial for portable devices, which is one of the main reason the GameBoy won over all the other portable devices. The SEGA Nomad was a great idea, a portable Genesis/Mega Drive, but it could barely run 60 minutes on a set of fresh, brand-name alkaline batteries.
So my question is: are those companies so fucking stupid that they want to make inferior products or are they just too braindead to make software? Do Microsoft have a gun to their head? What's going on here?
It's the small guys' products I'm most interested about. Dell, HP, Asus, Acer & co. seem to be struggling to find something worthwhile, but small start-ups like Notion Ink and ExoPC are bringing genuinely interesting products that I'm far more interested to read about.
Yes, tablets will be a big thing in 2011 and probably beyond, but not because of all those slow megacorps.
3.5? How can you sell half a tablet?
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
other than native x86 compatibility? I was under the impression that ARM CPUs were much better for low power environments due to more efficient work-per-cycle (sorry, I don't know the technical term for this) and power consumption at idle (an ARM CPU can basically shut down when not in use). Have I just been drinking fanboy Kool-Aid, or have there been advances that I'm unaware of?
On another note, is Meego actually polished enough to be usable at this point? All I know about it comes from Nokialand, where Meego/Moblin (Harmattan) was intended to replace Maemo 5, aka Fremantle. However, as of the release of the n9, Meego was still so rough that Nokia went to Symbian instead. Any n9/n900 users who've tried it care to comment?
The article says "more than" I assume that by 3.5 they'd mean 4. :)
Geekism is your _only_ God!
I've been developing with low-power embedded systems, many from Kontron, and Intel Atom boards typically burn around 5-7 watts, while our ARM-based systems don't go over 2 watts for about the same performance (0.5 to 1.0 GHz clocks). I wonder how warm these Atom-based tablets will get and how long they'll run? The iPad's 10 hours is going to be very hard to beat. If these companies do the same things they've done with netbooks, they'll do good to get 5 hours.
actually, it says "over", not more... I obviously did not rtfa very intently. :|
Geekism is your _only_ God!
I can't say that i am ready to jump on the tablet bandwagon, but if I did it wouldn't be an iPad. I know I risk being left behind by not being an adopter, but tablets just haven't proven themselves primarily because developers don't write important mission critical programs for touch screens, they write them for keyboards and mice.
We recently went live with an EMR (Electronic medical record) at our hospital. As slick as the EMR is, it is written for a keyboard and a mouse. Guess what the docs want, you guessed it; Can we get it work on an IPAD? Oh yes, while technically possible via Citrix it is about as about as practical as mounting a steering wheel on a horse. Can't you teach the horse to respect the steering wheel? Um, no.
We have tried tablets in the past for the EMR. The users get excited about them and once they have them, they collect dust. $2,000.00 state of the art spill proof made especially for hospital settings tablet PC's which never leave their docking bays. What a waste.
All tablets are currently toys, iPad included. If I want toy to play with and have an extra couple hundred bucks burning a whole in my pocket then maybe I will buy one, but why would I want a toy with limitations, like the iPad?
Tablets may some day be a respectable tool for some apps who's developers are willing to write to them, but that will be 10 years out. Then, they will be about as sexy as a Palm is today.
Ubuntu is doing a lot of work on multitouch right now... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that at least some of these could have reasonably open drivers for their hardware.
The WeTab runs a modified version of MeeGo, but runs Ubuntu just as well. All the drivers work (including the Crystal HD decoder card). The hardware is pretty much identical to the ExoPC, so that should run Ubuntu just as well.
Isn't that Intel/Nokia's entry into mobile computing? Why wouldn't they use their own OS?
The thing is those people have had that option for years....and no one bought them. Look up the Motion Computing tablets or the HP Tc1100. Both had all the "something else" like usb ports, video out, memory card slots, all the crap that supposedly everyone wants...but they didn't sell for shit. I really wish the people who whine about their choices being too locked down had put their money where their mouth is but unfortunately all the whining in the world doesnt work if no one buys the products available so manufacturers get the idea that simple and stripped down is really more what people want.
There's no way they'll be able to turn a profit if they only ship 35 units. ;-)
People who want all that other stuff, in my opinion, probably want a laptop and are happy with it. Apple never targeted that crowd, they have laptops and I'm sure they didn't want any new device they field to cannibalize their laptop sales (which I think are still pretty good). Instead, Apple shot for a new market of people. That new market could care less about a lot of the whizzy hardware stuff, they just wanted a simple device for simple things. They got it. MS hasn't realized this, they think they are going to get their flock to, in addition to their existing Windows machines, ante up for something that will complement those existing machines. But that crowd doesn't appear to want a complement, they are satisfied with what they have.
MS never identified a market for their tablets. They do not want to compete head-to-head with Apple so they are not building a knockoff. They wish to move Apple's market into something they can take advantage of...if they only knew what that was.
It is also an OS issue, or at least a UI issue. What both products show is that a tablet should be a giant sized pda / smart phone, not a laptop with the keyboard chopped off.
ok, first... I am no schooled in objective c. If the average laymen/programmer wants to trust code I assume you can obfuscate in that language. But which is easier to track, - objective c or java like? And what is the proper process to out bad code? I don't know of any. So until that time... should we consider all code bad/untrusted? Just wondering... I am not for or against any platform/language. Free apps are fine. Some are good and some are evil. So I see a sight like fresh meat or such that can help the average joe.
For Windows developers x86 is Windows and nothing else. They don't know about anything else and can't believe anything else could be significant. It's sad, really, that so many people go through life thinking they understand the whole world having never been further from their birthplace than the next county over.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Both had all the "something else" like usb ports, video out, memory card slots, all the crap that supposedly everyone wants...
Would you like to bet that all 3 of those make it into the iPad over the next 1.5 years?
People do want that crap, it's just that Apple intentionally withheld it so they can trick OCD Apple fans into buying the next 2-3 models of iPad they release over literally the next 2 years. Seems kind of cynical to me, but they're probably right - Apple fans will lap that shit up.
So your point is silly. Apple has a built in set of marketing tools that nobody else has, and they had good timing with the iPad.
I heard that Microsoft sold over 50 zunes!
Amen. Our management was convinced to switch six of us, by an enthusiastic young lad; we endured them for 6 months, they recognized the mistake, we're back with something real again. Pretty machines, they'd look great in a hairdresser's salon or marketing department, but more of a toy than a "work device".
You can get usb, video out and CD card slot for an iPad, you just have to buy the adapters. People who want them pay a few bucks for them People who don't need them, don't have to pay for them in the base device.
Both had all the "something else" like usb ports, video out, memory card slots, all the crap that supposedly everyone wants...
Would you like to bet that all 3 of those make it into the iPad over the next 1.5 years?
The iPad already has video out. And it does support memory card slots and USB for importing photos.
But I'm 95% certain that Apple would never put something as thick as a USB port or video out directly onto the iPad. They want to keep the base design minimal (and cheaper to build), and let the 10% of the market that wants the extra features pay for the clunky add ons. So, I'd be willing to bet a good $200, and give you 5 to 1 odds, that USB and video out doesn't come directly onto the iPad in the next year and a half.
Apple has a built in set of marketing tools that nobody else has, and they had good timing with the iPad.
Time to market is so crucial in the quickly progressing tech industry.
Thank you. In addition to development tools there is a vast pool of software that's specific to x86 and non-specific to Windows. There's thirty years worth of programming contests, implementations of ACM Communications, free software projects, school projects, and just plain hobby stuff. There have been dozens of versions of BSD, hundreds of Linux distributions, and commercial apps to make those millions of lines of code look like scratches on a wall. That's a huge amount of human effort to just throw away.
On the other hand, re-implementing that stuff on Android for ARM with your own style and twist seems to be a legitimate and profitable business model. Who knew?
Non-sequitur: 35 design wins might be cool for Intel. Sweet. Good on ya Intel! But Freescale (Remember them? I thought they were dead, morphed to a patent troll by Blackstone Group) are bragging 23. Relatively speaking that seems to me a much bigger deal. I'm willing to bet not one of those is even trying to run Windows.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Why would you want the monopoly to pull this one out of the tank.
Intel has bought some good engineers. I'd rather see intel tank and have to unload those engineers to companies that wouldn't waste their talents supporting the x86 beast.
Most of the software that is unique to the x86 is ops spent trying to work around the cruft in the architecture. Transfering it to a decent CPU is more about cleaning out the cruft. And it is actually less work to transfer it to a decent CPU than it is to keep the x86 architecture relevant.
"It still runs!" is not a good argument when "runs" means kicking its legs while someone else pushes the wheelchair. It's time to let x86 sink back into the swamp from whence it came and leave a bad page of history behind.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
"Whatever exists here is mine..." -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1916240&cid=34612834
APK
P.S.=> Including ITT Tech Man, Professor hairyfeet, who got owned by not only proof from myself, but also others here on /., with more by request no less (but, I think what's there does the job - my std. "Kung Fu" has been HUGELY administered, & it was, as-per-my-usual? Just too, Too, TOO EASY... 2 EZ! RofFlMaO... apk
Then you never bothered using them.
I mean, it's really bad when people can't even be bothered to learn how to use Apple's stuff. I know it happens, and I know some of the reasons why.
("Where's the START menu?")
Apple's stuff may not do it all, but what it does, it does well, and if you're just letting even just six of those boxes go unused, you're just cutting off your own noses to spite your face.
Pejudice. But if you don't need them send them my way. I know what to do with them, even though I'm not exactly a fan.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
"Of course we repair guys are nice enough to laugh at you behind your back and call you PEBKAC and ID10T" - by hairyfeet (841228) on Sunday December 19, @10:53PM (#34612590)
FROM -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1916240&cid=34612590
Figures you'd do something "behind someone's back", well, guess what: I AM LAUGHING AT YOU, IN YOUR FACE!
Why/How? Ok, here:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1916240&cid=34612834
The URL above was the response to that rant of yours I quote from above, & that same response had data not only from myself, but from others here on /. also... & it busted your legs right out from underneath you... so much so, you've chosen to RUN from it!
(Your level of "so-called expertise" in the art & science of computing? Akin to a garage mechanic on automobiles, whereas where I am is at the Carroll Shelby level of ability (after all - I design & create programs, & my type of people (computer programmers) create the ability for the likes of you to be able to even BEGIN to function on these machines &/or networks - because w/out programs?? YOU'RE HELPLESS, period!)
Your failure in the URL above? Only evidences that for me, further (along with your constant name-tossing ad-hominem attacks, which only gave away your frustration & desperation to me).
APK
P.S.-> "I am the Lord of the Wasteland - Whatever exists here, is MINE!"... apk
"Whatever exists here is mine..." -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1916240&cid=34612834
APK
P.S.=> Including ITT Tech Man, Professor hairyfeet, who got owned by not only proof from myself, but also others here on /., with more by request no less (but, I think what's there does the job - my std. "Kung Fu" has been HUGELY administered, & it was, as-per-my-usual? Just too, Too, TOO EASY... 2 EZ! RofFlMaO... apk
I can agree with that. Even more, I still have no idea what all those people buying iPads intend to do with it.
Rethinking email
The earlier PC tablets were like the earlier compact laptops -- they cut out features and raise the price, sometimes dramatically. As a result, tablets and laptops with 10-12" screens were niche items.
The creation of the netbook changed this for small laptops. Sure, they were yet-even-more underpowered, though in an era in which most users don't need the power of the PC they've got, this is acceptable in a $200-$300 computer.
Apple took a different tack. They always sell overpriced laptops, and the reason they don't have an answer to the netbook, per se, is that selling a lower cost Macbook would destroy both their record-level margins on Mac hardware, and worse-yet, their ability to sell higher spec Macs at 2x-3x the same price as a PC.
Their solution, of course, is selling the inflated iPod that became the iPad. That's the same guts, larger screen and battery, as the iPod/iPhone... and it continues their high profit margins. Thing is, a $500 iPad is still only $500... toy money for the well-off. This is very different than the $2,000-$3,000 PC tablets that didn't compare, performance-wise, to a $500 generic PC notebook. The other ARM tablets suggest a similar level of acceptability.
And the PC tabs might too, in a vacuum. Building a tablet from Netbook DNA gets you a $200-$300 tablet, if not for 2011, then certainly for 2012. About all you're doing is taking stuff off the existing Netbook BOM... maybe add $20 for a touchscreen, but some Netbooks already had these, too. Another $20-$25 if you need a cellular LAN.
But there's no vacuum... what does the PC tablet bring that the ARM tablet doesn't? PC apps? Not so much... particularly for Windows. Sure, they'll technically run, but they don't work via a touch UI, they want far more resources than the tablet has available, etc. You're still selling worst-in-class performance. ARM tablets will all be running made-for-touch software evolved out of the smartphone world, and they'll all offer best-in-class performance. Sure, an Atom will compare in performance if not necessarily power savings to a dual core ARM Cortex A9 (the standard for all 2011 tablets), but does the x86 offer any advantage at that point? Is Intel building a whole system that can deliver the things tablet buyers will demand?
I very much doubt this, and here's why. Intel has spent the last 20+ years coming up with more work for the x86 to do. This has been very successful in keeping the PC processor centric, shedding nearly any bit of specialized software that came along (modem chips, audio synthesizers, etc) for another x86 device driver. But now there's the tablet -- it's expected to play HD video for 10+ hours straight, for example. To do most of what it does all day. Most of these are achieved by a basic ARM, small GPU, and a bunch of other dedicated units on an SOC that accelerate these specialty jobs. I have real doubts about Intel playing well here... they have the x86 doing too much work to compete against dedicated units. No matter how power light it gets, the dedicated stuff is going to run less power.
The bottom line will be the real value of the x86 tablet -- does it do anything consumers want, well enough to suggest that it's the correct answer? I don't believe we'll find out in 2011... Intel spent years getting the laptop x86 correct. They got hit occasionally, such as when Transmeta first shipped, but did eventually step up to clobber them. They got caught offguard by AMD's push into 64-bit x86 computing, but fixed that, too. Only this time, they're not playing in x86 land. And in fact, they're going up against the world's most popular 32-bit CPU, on a platform that probably won't benefit from Windows compatibility. This isn't going to be such an easy one.
-Dave Haynie
They don't cost anything significant in the base device. USB ports run about $0.50 each, for example. They do cost as an add-on... and you still can't get digital video out from an iPad. Why a device released in 2009 only offers CVBS or VGA out makes absolutely no sense.
But I do believe you have the answer here: Apple won't change. They're not going to offer additional ports, simply because they want customers to pay them for extra things. People who really need to hook their video or still cameras to an iPad will either live with the clumsy adapters, or more likely, buy a different device (that's one primary use of a tablet computer for me -- I would not even consider one that didn't have at least a card reader and one USB port as a built-in).
-Dave Haynie
But I'm 95% certain that Apple would never put something as thick as a USB port or video out directly onto the iPad
Thick? Have you seen micro-HDMI/USB ports? They're tiny and would easily fit.
I'll bookmark this conversation, and retroactively come claim my money if they do. If not, of course, I'll conveniently forget about it ;)
It's true there's lots of cruft in their architecture teams. They haven't killed Itanium yet. They try some stuff far too long. They aren't as bold about trying new things as I would like. Intel is a big boat that turns slow.
They still invest billions in constructing facilities to manufacture processors using processes that haven't been invented yet. As much as anybody they're driving Moore's law by sheer force of will. They're raising the bar on flash. There is a lot to be happy about in their efforts toward progress.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
You look at the amount of energy consumed by the x86 terminals on the network and you have to wonder.
I've seen estimates on the network (together with the computers tens and hundreds of millions of people use to surf) consumes on the order of twenty percent of the energy budget these days. How much less would that be if the user's (terminal) computers were ARM or 68k/coldfire/mcore or the like? How much less would that be if all the huge server farms that use x86 were running sparc or POWER or something even more efficient?
Sure ATOM is a huge step in the right direction. It's also way late. Ten years late, at the least.
Yeah, INTEL is driving the innovation, but they are driving it on antique architectures with engineers stolen from architecture projects that were\are at least ten, in some cases, thirty years ahead of the x86 architecture at the time INTEL stole/borrowed/invited/tempted/whatever them (the engineers) away from those erstwhile cutting-edge projects.
Thats a lot of energy that could have been saved, and not just in operations, but in manufacturing and waste disposal, as well.
Continually building (and re-building and abandoning) state-of-the-art manufacturing plants to fuel one's own competitive position in the marketplace is not exactly ecology-minded business policy.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.