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Info On Intel Bay Trail 22nm Atom Platform Shows Out-of-Order Design

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-like-the-restroom-at-denny's dept.

MojoKid writes "New leaked info from Intel sheds light on how the company's 2014 platforms will challenge ARM products in the ultra light, low power market. At present, the company's efforts in the segment are anchored by Cedar Trail, the 32nm dual-core platform that launched a year ago. To date, all of Intel's platform updates for Atom have focused on lowering power consumption and ramping SoC integration rather than focusing on performance — but Bay Trail will change that. Bay Trail moves Atom to a quad-core, 22nm, out-of-order design. It significantly accelerates the CPU core with burst modes of up to 2.7GHz, and it'll be the first Atom to feature Intel's own graphics processor instead of a licensed core from Imagination Technologies."

8 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. It is Always Reassuring When .... by pollarda · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is Always Reassuring When .... You spend a bunch of money on a new processor and they tell you it is already "Out of Order" from the get-go.

  2. About bloody time... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I, for one, will be overjoyed to see the last of Imagination's 'PowerVR' shit, especially on x86, and hope we'll never see the likes of the "GMA500" again.

    On the other hand, this report has me wondering exactly what the Atom team is up to. Back when Intel started the whole 'Atom' business, the whole point of having a substantially different architecture, in-order, was to have something that could scale down to lower power in a way that their flagship designs couldn't. Since then, the ULV Core I3/5/7 chips have continued to improve on power consumption, and the Atoms have apparently been sprouting additional complexity and computational power. How much room do they have to do that before 'Atom' evolves itself right out of its power envelope, or Core ULV parts start hitting the same TDPs as higher-power Atoms; but with much more headroom?

    1. Re:About bloody time... by rev0lt · · Score: 5, Informative

      How much room do they have to do that before 'Atom' evolves itself right out of its power envelope

      That's why they reduce the gate size (22nm). You get a less power-demanding product, and at the same time you gain additional room for extra features.

      or Core ULV parts start hitting the same TDPs as higher-power Atoms; but with much more headroom?

      If you consider current Atoms and performance-per-watt, a latest-gen Core is probably more efficient than Atom. But on the other hand, they are way more complex processors, usually with bigger on-die cache, and way more expensive. There may be some overlap over "budget" processors (such as Celeron and the old Pentium D) on the new versions, but even then I don't think they will be direct competitors (as an example, how many easily upgradable Atom boards with ZIF-style socket have you seen?).

    2. Re:About bloody time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      AMD wasn't defeated, they committed suicide by laying off engineers to help the bottom line in the short term. Naturally they're finding that is deadly in the long term.

  3. Re:Not Windows 7 compatible by Billly+Gates · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The link is here. Basically some Atoms can not run WIndows 8, and clovertrail is specifically designed not to be Windows 7 compatible.

    Unless any information has changed my suspicious part of me feels Intel feels threatens the low margin and is trying to make sure this stays only in tables and not in servers nor desktops which is shame. I see no reason to spend a tiny portion of R&D backporting WDDM1.2 to WDDM 1.1 so the graphics work with the Windows 7 kernel.

    --
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  4. Same old, same old... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    New leaked info from Intel sheds light on how the company's 2014 platforms will challenge ARM products in the ultra light, low power market.

    Intel is using the tactic perfected by Microsoft, i.e., compare your product plans from two or so years in the future with the current products of your competitor, and then say how much better your envisioned products are.

    .
    Intel is behind the 8-ball in the low power market space, and this is nothing less than a move of desperation on Intel's part.

  5. Re:First by Yoda222 · · Score: 5, Funny

    In an out-of-order thread the first post is not necessary the first post.

  6. Re:First by jones_supa · · Score: 5, Funny

    My branch prediction showed that you were going to post that comment.