Intel abandoning the Atom market - impact on future NAS products?

[zoomee]

What do I think? GET IN THERE AMD! Zen for teh win (hopefully not another faildozer lol)

 

[System Error Message]

Funny fact, intel celerons are actually intel atoms. If you read the datasheet it will mention what core is used. For example i was reading on what intel SoC one prototyping board used (it has intel for CPU and arduino compatible stuff on the same board), the Intel datasheet said intel iseries (it had a gen but cant remember which) atom. This means that it is an intel atom based on a recent iseries core but configured for low power usage. The TDP was also impressive in terms of how low it was too.

So intel may be abandoning a name but not the actual product itself. You will still see intel atoms in the future but renamed as celerons and such. best thing to do would be to read the datasheet.

 

[sfx2000]

intel celerons are actually intel atoms.

Intel sells Celerons and Pentiums on both the big and small cores (Haswell/Broadwell/IvyBridge big cores, Baytrail/Braswell small cores).

I think it kind of dilutes the Celeron/Pentium brands, and confuses the customer...

Celeron 1037U - Big Core, IvyBridge
Celeron 2957U - Big Core, Haswell
Celeron J1900 - Small Core, Baytrail-D (Silvermont)
Pentium N3700 - Small Core, Braswell (Airmont)

Go figure...

 

[sfx2000]

What do I think? GET IN THERE AMD! Zen for teh win (hopefully not another faildozer lol)

I've been hearing interesting things about the Zen platform - here's hoping that AMD brings Zen to the PS4 (next gen) and the XBone next revs - if not just for 4K support...

Zen plus Polaris with HBM and the upgrades HSA specs - that would be pretty awesome...

 

[System Error Message]

When it comes to celeron just avoid the big core celerons as those are terrible (essentially the reject line where chips have features removed with lasers and such). The small core ones should be fine i hope as long as they dont do the same things. The problem with both the celeron and AMD equivalent line for big cores is that some helpful features are removed, usually things like CPU cache, SSE performance and so on.

So i dont think intel has pulled out their ATOM line, only just stopped focusing on the low power/integrated SoC market where ARM is widely used. Even though the Intel Atom doesnt have as low power usage as ARM it still provides the best SoC and if AMD enters it too we could be seeing some good SoCs. Even though AMD would obviously use realtek it is still better than what Allwinner uses for their chipsets and some stock things the ARM core has (such as 100Mb/s ethernet).

When it comes to ARM even qualcomm, samsung and nvidia having their own chipsets are only good for one thing and dont offer the same things that x86 does such as with SATA, gigabit ethernet and all the common things a desktop uses. The other problem is only the developer boards for ARM offer any real expansions like RAM slots, SATA and all the desktop goodies but you than have to get a firmware working for it.

 

[sfx2000]

Intel killed off a very specific branch of the Airmont/Silvermont tree - those that were supposed to have 4G modems integrated in from Rockchip.

Rockchip was on TSMC's 28nm planar LP process, whereas Intel was on FinFET at 22nm/14nm nodes, so that would require a significant amount of work to integrate the two into a combined SoC suitable for smartphones... and rumor was that these Sofia chips would be fabbed at TSMC, which at the moment, their current best is 14nm FinFET, but it's a completely different process from Intel's, so it would have been a retape/requal for Airmont cores, as well as the rockchip stuff - amazingly expensive to do...

Probably more than they expected after looking under the hood - there was no Win for Intel, so they walked away... probably a smart move for both Intel and Rockchip, as neither has a lot of market traction in that sector.

The low-power intel arch is still around, they're still developing for it, and my guess is that we'll continue to see more SoC's based on LPIA...

 

[RMerlin]

I've been hearing interesting things about the Zen platform -

Remember Bulldozer... Back then, I knew an AMD engineer who was involved in the project, and like everyone else was telling me how Bulldozer would be amazing, and bring AMD back at the front of the pack. We all know how that turned out...

So when it comes to Zen, I'll believe anything only after it has actually shipped and proved itself. Until then, it's still smoke.

 

[RMerlin]

The low-power intel arch is still around

They need it for their grand IoT plans... whatever they might be.

 

[sfx2000]

So when it comes to Zen, I'll believe anything only after it has actually shipped and proved itself. Until then, it's still smoke.

I think everyone is quietly hoping - if it's another BullDozer/Piledriver, then it's probably the end of AMD as an independent company..

 

[sfx2000]

They need it for their grand IoT plans... whatever they might be.

Yeppers - that and Quark...

Note that their MIC - Knight's Landing, is based on an evolution of Silvermont...

 

[Shabbir Rao]

Well this is of course because they know something better than it now.

 

[zoomee]

Remember Bulldozer... Back then, I knew an AMD engineer who was involved in the project, and like everyone else was telling me how Bulldozer would be amazing, and bring AMD back at the front of the pack. We all know how that turned out...

So when it comes to Zen, I'll believe anything only after it has actually shipped and proved itself. Until then, it's still smoke.

Bulldozer was a good concept unfortunately it failed to deliver due to a number of reasons - scheduling in the Windows OS wasn't great at the time and the monopoly Intel have on the compilers ensured it was due to fail if it didn't tow Intel's line.

If it performs the same as my previous 4960X at a better price point I'll be all over it - tbh the performance gains since sandybridge have been pretty abysmal on Intel's front with them milking us for 5% performance gains every generation, if that!.

Waiting on Zen for my new custom desk build - fingers crossed -- really don't want to go back to Intel especially after seeing how their new generation of chips (skylake) are full of bugs and can't even run prime properly! - I can't believe people are letting them get away with such buggy chips at the moment tbh.

 

[Easy Limits]

Near where I live a whole town was developed for the prospect of Intel moving in. Intel moved in. A couple of weeks ago Intel announced it was shutting the doors. I don't think things look good for Intel.

 

[L&LD]

Near where I live a whole town was developed for the prospect of Intel moving in. Intel moved in. A couple of weeks ago Intel announced it was shutting the doors. I don't think things look good for Intel.

Thanks for the laugh. But I think Intel will be okay for a while longer.