Introduction:
Intel has introduced two versions of the Atom processor. The 2xx, 3xx and N2xx series codenamed “Diamondville” have been specially designed for nettops and netbooks, while the Z5xx codenamed “Silverthorne” is for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). This particular chip is physically much smaller than the others with low power consumption, making it suitable for MID.
Nettops are the future concept of desktop PCs where there would be a solid state drive, no optical drive, and you would have some USB ports for your convenience. It would be a low-cost item, around $300, and would be used for basic computing tasks where you would be able to browse the Internet, access rich, web-based Internet applications, and have audio and video playback. Netbooks would be ultra-thin laptops with wireless connectivity and all the other features of a nettop.
The Intel Atom processor for mobile Internet devices gives you the smallest pocket Internet experience, with low power consumption and high performance. Intel is bringing a revolution in MID design, and these devices would gain a huge competitive advantage by using Intel Atom processors, along with complementary low-power chips with integrated graphics, delivering a high-definition video and Internet experience.
The architecture:
The Atom family has a 32 KB L1 instruction cache, 24 KB L1 data cache, and a 512 KB L2 cache, with 1 MB in the dual-core processor, and the types and capacities of the processors are determined by the sets. of chips and not by processors
The Atom is built on a different microarchitecture than current dual-core processors, yet the Atom family contains the same instruction set found in x86 processors as the core architecture. Processors like the Pentium Pro, Pentium II and above did not execute the microinstructions in order, whereas the Atom executes those instructions in order just like the early Pentium. This has made it possible to reduce costs, since the components necessary for sending and controlling microinstructions have been eliminated from the design.
The Intel Atom processor brings the power of the mobile Internet, as the world’s smallest mobile Internet processor. The Atom measures less than 25 square millimeters in size, with 45nm process chips that have a thermal design specification of 0.6 to 2.5 watts, clocked at 1.8GHz.
The smallest of all processors, the Atom family has certain reasons for being small. Firstly, Atom processors are all 32-bit x86 chips, which is why Intel has phased out 64-bit processing with a view to making today’s and tomorrow’s MIDs unavailable with 64-bit processing, so It will use fewer transistors. The concept has reduced the price of Atom processors.
design features:
Most of the Atom family uses the ability to use processor idle time to form a virtual second processor, which is called “hyperthreading technology.” In this, the operating system considers each of the cores to be dual processors, often called two threads. There is no doubt that this technology is less efficient than “dual core” systems, but again, it gives the system additional performance. The clock speed of Atom processors remains the same even when idle, and does not slow down in an idle state.
The Atom has been designed using 45 nanometer (nm) technology, making the Atom processor the smallest in the world. This has been possible thanks to the reduction in the size of the die, since the components that go inside the semiconductor are smaller. For comparison, the Celeron chip uses 90nm technology, and each of the logic gates within it is four times larger than the Atom’s.
Devices built with Atom processors run cooler. While in typical mobile processors the Thermal Design Power (TDP) can reach 100 degrees Celsius or more, the Atom family runs a bit cooler, reaching 90 degrees and some of the processors max out at 85 degrees Celsius. . This makes a world of difference when you consider pocket and portable MIDs. The processors not only reduce the size of the devices, but also reduce the battery consumption of the cooling fans.
Applications:
The Intel Atom processor occupies the smallest footprint, and with its low power consumption and intricate instruction sets, the processor has set a new standard in Internet computing. On average, the Atom family consumes around 2 watts of power, making it an ideal processor for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), netlops, and netbooks.
One of the members of the Atom family, the N270 processor, has a wide range of applications in industrial computing. The device, with its low power consumption, provides excellent thermal performance enabling fanless operations. This becomes an important factor since with the absence of moving parts, such as the fan, the overall reliability of the designed system is greatly increased, and there is no need to provide vents in the design.
critical appraisal:
What does the Atom family have to offer? It is quite interesting to note that Intel’s Atom family has modern features like Extended Memory Technology 64 (EM64T), Supplementary Streaming SIMD Extension 3 (SSSE3), etc. put in an older architecture. Since the Pentium, the Atom is the first to be a family of x86 processors. Power management in the processors and their manufacturing have been the two biggest factors in saving cost at the expense of performance and as such does not make the Atom a competitor to the Core 2 Duo.
Reports say that power consumption and trying to embed processors in portable or embedded devices have always been a problem for Intel. The Atom processors are not the first that Intel has tried to come up with for the same type of applications. However, the Atom family is radically different from others in the sense that Intel has a new architecture in the Atom that drastically reduces power consumption.
Some of the test results obtained by comparing Atom with C7 and Celeron-M show that the overall performance of Atom is somewhere between C7 and Celeron-M, when under identical frequency conditions. Testing was conducted on Netbooks with the C7’s clock set close to that of the Atom and the Celeron-M clocked significantly lower. It was concluded that Atom-based machines would have the same kind of performance as the machines we have today.
Whatever it is, battery life is a big concern when it comes to portable machines. This is going to be an important factor for the user. Cooling requirements on a desktop wind PC were found to be much lower for an Atom-based machine, and it can be concluded that they will be even lower on portable machines. In the event that the Atom proves to be more battery efficient than the Celeron-M, we may see more Atom-based Eee PC owners, with users selling their Celeron-M-based systems to upgrade to the Atom-based ones. in Atom.