Intel Atom (CPU)

  • Silverthorne
  • Diamondville
  • Pineview
  • Lincroft
  • Cedarview

Intel Atom is Intel microprocessors, which are designed for particularly cost-effective and energy-saving systems. They are based on the Intel Atom microarchitecture and are to be used among other things in sub-notebooks, mobile internet devices and the like, but they are also becoming more common in low- server solutions and nettops used. You have an x86 instruction set, which was supplemented ( called Diamondville ) from the second generation to an x64 instruction set.

As a direct competitor from AMD, the low-power AMD Fusion variants apply with Bobcat core.

  • 4.1 Silverthorne ( Atom Z -500 series)
  • 4.2 Diamondville ( Atom (N) 200 - and 300 - series)
  • 4.3 Pineview ( Atom (N) 400 - and 500 - series)
  • 4.4 Lincroft ( Z600 Series)
  • 4.5 Cedarview (atom (N ) 2000 - and (D) 2000 series )
  • 4.6 Penwell ( Atom Z series)
  • 4.7 Centerton ( Atom S- series)

Product generations

Silverthorne

The first generation of Intel Atom is marketed under the name Atom Z500 - series, internally called these single-core Silverthorne. These processors are manufactured using a 45nm process and have a 512 KiB L2 cache. They supported Hyper- Threading and Streaming SIMD Extensions ( SSE instructions ) to SSSE3. The processor was introduced on 2 April 2008 at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. Predominant areas of application for Silverthorne processors such as mobile computers and embedded PCs.

Diamondville

As processors for installation in netbooks and nettops 2008 Diamondville was presented in June. Technically, the processors are virtually identical to Silverthorne, the desktop version (Atom 230 and Atom 330 ) dispenses with the SpeedStep technology but is supported as a first version of Intel 64.

Pine Trail

As a successor to the Diamondville platform Pine Trail was presented on 21 December 2009. As the biggest difference to the graphics processor and memory controller integrated into the processor core, thus space requirements and power consumption of the overall system continue to fall. The code name for the processors of the Pine Trail platform is Pineview.

Oak Trail

With Oak Trail, a smart combination of Atom Z600 Lincroft alias in conjunction with a special Southbridge named Whitney Point came from 2011, the successor to Pine Trail. Whitney Point is different than that provided for in Moorestown Platform Controller Hub (PCH ) MP20 alias Langwell, suitable for "normal " operating systems such as Windows or previous Linux versions that require a BIOS or EFI to boot. The PowerVR graphics of Oak Trail to be suitable for video up to Full HD format HD. The Oak Trail platform should preferably be used in tablet PCs due to their low power consumption. The presented to an Intel Developer Forum 2011 Z670 reach a maximum of 1.5 GHz, and there are still slower version Z650 with 1.2 GHz. Both should be suitable for fan -cooled tablets or netbooks.

Cedar Trail

In September 2011, Intel introduced the first 32 -nm Atom ( Cedarview / Cedar Trail ). The first devices with this chip generation appeared in late 2011, but used an additional soldered graphics chip due to driver problems instead of the built-in.

Bay Trail

22nm atom. The first devices with this chip generation released in late 2013. CPUs are installed only in tablets.

Power saving mechanisms

Some of the Atom processors have particularly effective power saving mechanisms by which the very low power consumption at idle can be further reduced. In addition to the now common in virtually all processors SpeedStep there is a further saving mode in complete inactivity. This increases the battery life of netbooks based on Atom for example, distinguishes between read and write texts. For other processors shows this amount of activity has no effect.

For future products based on the processor core Silver Mont, there is another power saving mode in which the data in the Level 2 cache are preserved, which speeds up the entry and exit to and from the power saving mode, thus saving even more power.

Chipsets

Mainly for cost reasons (Atom 230 and 330 ) of the Intel 945GC chipset was designed for nettop atom. On the use of this chipset there is a lot of criticism because its energy demand is quite high; it requires significantly more energy than the processor itself A typical atom -230 system with this chipset so will idle about 25 W at full load about 35 W of power. In addition, in particular the performance of the graphics unit used herein is very limited; as the representation of Blu- ray movies or the use of modern 3D games is simply impossible.

Nvidia offers but as a counterpart to the ION platform, in their 9400 chipset appropriate GeForce graphics unit including HD acceleration integrated.

The Netbook Atom N270 is used in conjunction with the Mobile Intel 945GSE chipset, which reduces the power consumption compared to the other variants by about 10 W ( in both cases). The N280 is used in conjunction with the Mobile 945GSE chipset or the Intel GN40. The power consumption is about 8 watts with the 945GSE chipset and 16 watts with the GN40 chipset. Alternatively, a specially developed for the Silverthorne atom economical chipset called " Poulsbo " or " US15W " is partly used. For this part of the GMA500 graphics unit derived from PowerVR Technologies. The GMA500 is not technically related to the normal Intel GMA and also requires a separate, available only for Windows XP drivers. He may be an acceleration of HD video capable, but the 3D performance is still lower than the GMA950.

All Atom CPUs are in the 441 - or 437- ball offered μFCBGA and soldered from the board manufacturers directly to this board. A subsequent processor exchange is excluded.

For Pine Trail, there is a completely new chipset named " Tiger Point NM10 ," which is technically is only a southbridge. The graphics unit and the memory controller are now part of the processor.

Model data

Silverthorne ( Atom Z -500 series)

  • Single-core
  • Silverthorne core in the C0 stepping
  • L2 cache: 512 KiB
  • No Support for Intel 64, SSE4
  • Package: according to the model 437 -ball μFCBGA ( FCBGA437, 22 mm × 22 mm) or 441 -ball FCBGA8 USFF ( PBGA441, 13 × 14 mm)
  • Manufacturing Technology: 45 nm
  • The size: 25 mm ²
  • In all models, the multiplier drops idle on 6 × (ie, 600 or 800 MHz).
  • The TDP is reduced by about 0.2 W, if Hyper -Threading is disabled.

Diamondville ( Atom (N) 200 - and 300 - series)

  • Diamondville core in the C0 stepping; at atomic 300 series two dies on one chip package
  • No support for Intel VT, SSE4, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology ( EIST)
  • Package: 437 -ball μFCBGA, 22 mm × 22 mm
  • Operation voltage ( Vcore ): 0.9 to 1.1625 V
  • Operating Temperature Range: 0 to 85.2 ° C
  • Manufacturing Technology: 45 nm
  • The size: 25,96 mm ² per core
  • Single Core
  • Diamondville core in the C0 stepping
  • L2 cache: 512 KiB
  • No Support for Intel 64, Intel VT, SSE4
  • Package: 437 -ball μFCBGA, 22 mm × 22 mm
  • Operation voltage ( Vcore ): 0.75 to 1.1 V
  • Manufacturing Technology: 45 nm
  • The size: 25,96 mm ²

Pineview ( Atom (N) 400 - and 500 - series)

  • Single core, this on a chip package, from end of August 2010 Atom N550 available in Atom D500 - series two as dual-core
  • No support for Intel VT, SSE4
  • The models D425/D525 and N455/N475 support both DDR2 and DDR3 SDRAM
  • The model N550 only support but DDR3 SDRAM
  • Supported RAM: 2 GB, D- series up to 4 GB
  • In the processor core integrated graphics
  • Package: 559 -ball μFCBGA, 22 mm × 22 mm
  • Operation voltage ( Vcore ): 0.8 to 1.175 V
  • Manufacturing Technology: 45 nm
  • The size: 52-87 mm ²

Lincroft ( Z600 Series)

Cedarview (atom (N ) 2000 - and (D) 2000 series )

  • Dual -core
  • Manufacturing Technology: 32 nm
  • Supported RAM: 4 GiB
  • N2600, N2800, D2550 and D2700 Intel GMA 3650; D2500 Intel GMA 3600
  • Support the graphics card under Linux (Debian, Fedora ) with open-source PVR CDV driver, but interventions in the Linux kernel needed (as of July 2012)
  • Currently, no support artwork by drivers from Intel for Windows 8 (June 2013)
  • Currently, no support artwork by drivers from Intel for the 64 -bit version of Windows 7 (as of June 2013)

Penwell ( Atom Z series)

  • Single-core, dual-core
  • Manufacturing Technology: 32 nm
  • Graphics engine and memory controllers are integrated on the chip
  • Based MID platform Medfield chip for

Centerton ( Atom S- series)

  • Dual -core, server CPU
  • Manufacturing Technology: 32 nm
  • MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, Intel 64, XD-Bit, Hyper -Threading, Intel VT
  • Graphics engine and memory controller on the, 8 PCI Express 2.0 lanes, supports up to 8GB ECC DDR3 SDRAM DDR3L SDRAM and 1.35 V;
  • Base - core Saltwell
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