Are cheaper, faster, more efficient netbooks on the way? Could be! Via’s low power CPU’s were the chip of choice for early netbooks. When Intel discovered that the netbook was encroaching on its high power and high dollar space, it introduced the Atom. A small performance advantage, and likely a little coercive marketing pushed the Atom into the marketplace as the standard netbook CPU. Not one to give up and go away, Via is fighting back with a faster more efficient processor. Chipzilla will certainly respond, meaning we’re likely to see big improvements and falling prices. That’s great news for Tightwads!

Thus far, the Atom’s been the processor of choice, but VIA today announced a new Nano that could change things. Now bumped up to the Nano 3000 Series processors, VIA’s latest offering is based on the 64-bit superscalar ‘Isaiah’ architecture, which boasts flawless playback of high bit-rate 1080p HD video.

The VIA Nano 3000 also supports CPU virtualization technology, SSE4, and security capabilities integrated in the VIA PadLock Security Engine.

“With the VIA Nano 3000 Series, we are launching our fastest and most power-efficient processors yet,” commented Richard Brown, VP International Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Coupled with our market-leading digital media chipsets, they enable the richest experience across a broad range of mobile and all-in-one system designs.”

Available at speeds from 1 GHz to 2 GHz, Nano 3000 Series processors deliver up to 20 percent higher performance using up to 20 percent less power than current Nano processors. (Tom’s Hardware)

Intel has introduced a new 2Ghz Atom processor to the line. The device also includes hyperthreading support. –

Both new Atoms form part of the Z series of chips, all aimed at handheld internet tablets rather than netbooks. That said, while there’s currently almost no demand for said palmtops, the new boys will surely find themselves in mini-laptops in the meantime.

Especially the Z550 with that headline 2GHz clock speed. Consuming less than 3W of power, the part incorporates Intel’s Hyperthreading technology to allow it to appear to the host operating system as a pair of processors.

The Z550 was announced by Intel mobility chief Anand Chandraseker at the chip giant’s much-reduced Beijing Intel Developer Forum, the once international event rendered locals only by the recession. Chandraseker also unwrapped the Z515, a lower end Atom but one able to be revved to 1.2GHz on an as-needed basis.

This Burst Performance Technology is described as enabling “the processor to run at 1.2GHz when performance is needed”. Since the the Z515 sits between the existing 1.1GHz Z510 and the 1.33GHz Z520, we’d expect it to run at 1.2GHz anyway.

So can a 2Ghz Duo model be far behind? I would not think so. For the OED’s this means netbooks that become even more useful. At 2Ghz the Atom would be close to a celeron processor in capability with all that power savings locked in.

VIA what’s your next move?

Linky.

“We had something of a downer on the Intel Atom 230 as the single-core 1.6GHz processor could barely pull the skin off a rice pudding.” Wry British understatement, I love it. Needless to say, yes the Atom is not the processor one would want to doing computational analysis. It was designed for low power general computing.

Well the same chap did the review above comes back with a review of the Shuttle X27D with a Atom dual core motherboard. I won’t ruin it. Just go here and enjoy the review. Its an affable read, which for tech is a tough trick to pull off.

Well now its starting to look interesting on the Atom line. Intel will be moving the chips to a 23nm fab in the 3rd gen production release. At the same time they will be bringing many of the Mobo chips into the fab. A near SOC design for Atom. –

Intel’s 32nm Atom chip - aka ‘Medfield’ - has popped up on the chip giant’s roadmap with a 2010 release window.

Current Atoms are fabbed at 45nm. Medfield will use the smaller transistor size to increase the level of on-die component integration, bring into the system-on-a-chip the I/O functionality currently relegated to the chipset in today’s netbooks.

Today’s ‘Diamondville’ Atoms are due to be superseded by ‘Pineview’ next year, a part based on the upcoming ‘Lincroft’ SoC, which will bring the memory controller and other components that are traditionally part of the system logic chipset into the processor package.

It took 3 years for Intel to match what VIA has done. This will put pressure on VIA to match the move. It will be interesting to see what VIA has up their sleeve.

This also means that we will see NetTops morph. The small chunky designs will be able to morph to a slimmer form factor and dump a few ounces of weight. The extra real estate gained on the motherboard should be used to plant a multifunction comm chip. Oh, but the Boss already covered that one in the post below.

Linky.