Intel’s next generation Atom platform, Cedar Trail, has launched. It brings a shrink from 45nm to 32nm, higher clock frequencies, lower power consumption and a new integrated GPU. Cedar Trail also supports movie playback at 1080p, Blu-ray 2.0 and Intel WiDi.
Intel’s new Cedar Trail platform was heading for a delay, and it is still kind of true since the launch will happen in two waves. The first is today, with the D models for nettops and desktops in low-profile. The N models for netbooks are expected in November. The platform will be called Cedar Trail, while the Atom circuits are called Cedarview.
Cedar Trail is still based on the same Atom architecture as before, but this is where the similarities stop. The latest platform builds on 32nm, has an improved memory controller and SGX545 GPU from PowerVR. This will enable playback at 1080p (MPEG4 part2, VC1, WMV9, H.264), and support for HDMI 1.3a and DisplayPort 1.1. Intel WiDi (Wireless Display) is also supported, for wireless transfer of media material. The graphics performance will be 2-3x over Pine Trail depending on model and support DirectX 10.1.
Atom D2500 comes with two Atom cores each with 512 KB L2 cache and 1.86 GHz clock frequency, integrated northbridge and SGX545 GPU clocked at 400 MHz. The circuit can run a single channel DDR3-800 on 64-bit memory bus.
Atom D2700 will also get two Atom cores each with 512 KB L2 cache and clocked at 2.13 GHz, integrated northbridge and SGX545 GPU clocked at 640 MHz. This model also supports HyperThreading. The circuits support slightly faster DDR3-1066 on 64-bit bus.
Both D2500 and D2700 are rated 10W TDP, which will hopefully mean that most designs will be fan-less. N2600 and N2800 will ship in November for netbooks with 3.5W TDP and 6.5W. All Cedarview circuits will be paired with the tested southbridge NM10.
Intel has alsow lowered the price of previous generation Pine Trail platform, almost 50%. Atom D2500 will cost $42, and D2700 $52 in 1kU for OEM and ODM. The platform has launched, and it should not take long before we see motherboards and nettops in stores.
Source: CPU World
