More news concerning Intel’s (News - Alert) 45 nanometer (nm) feature-size manufacturing process appeared recently, as the company announced a low-voltage CPU and chipset called the Atom and Centrino Atom. Previously codenamed “Silverthorn” and “Menlow”, the Atom will run up to 1.8 GHz and the single-core Centrino Atom will generally be teamed with the “Poulsbo” chipset along with a wireless chipset (WiFi? Ultrawideband? WiMAX (News - Alert)? We don’t yet know.)

 
Thanks to the new 45 nm manufacturing process, Intel can offer Pentium M-class performance within a 2 Watt power envelope running on a 25 square millimeter die. They have a maximum sustained power, or Thermal Design Power (TDP), of between 0.6 and 2.5 Watts. Such a tiny x86 processor can now be used in small embedded computing devices and could in theory displace the existing favored platform of the mobile world, the ARM (News - Alert) processor (though the Atom chips will doubtless cost more than any ARM processor and will consume a bit more power).
 
Atom chips are actually meant to open up an entirely new market involving Intel’s IA-32 architecture, including such things as high-end smartphones, without usurping the sale of existing mobile processors. Expect the Atoms to appear in MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) and UMPC (Ultra Mobile PCs) a relatively new category of mobile devices optimized for specific usage models such as Internet-to-go, Entertainment-to-go, and Education-to-go, even while affording full PC capability and versatility, a perhaps running Linux, too.
 
Other non-Poulsbo versions of the chip, code-named Diamondville, will ship with two-chip chipsets. These processors will be available in single-core and dual-core versions will most like appear in such diminutive notebooks as the Asustek Computers' Eee PC and lower-end desktops, perhaps with WiMAX capability. Intel calls these devices by the amusing names of “netbooks” and “nettops”, which means they’re the itsy bitsy analogs of notebooks and desktops. It is said that the very low-cost Classmate PC will be using the Intel Atom. The Classmate is a PC designed to improve education and provide economic opportunities in third-world countries and among the world’s not-so-fortunate people.
 
In the techno-industrial world, Intel undoubtedly has recognized the mobility craze, and would like nothing better than to sell the chips that make possible a whole new vast market of highly portable yet highly powerful, PC-like devices. Expect some of these devices to start appearing in mid or 3Q 2008.
 
 
Richard Grigonis is an internationally-known technology editor and writer. Prior to joining TMC as Executive Editor of its IP Communications Group, he was the Editor-in-Chief of VON Magazine (News - Alert) from its founding in 2003 to August 2006. He also served as the Chief Technical Editor of CMP Media’s Computer Telephony magazine, later called Communications Convergence (News - Alert), from its first year of operation in 1994 until 2003. In addition, he has written five books on computers and telecom (including the Computer Telephony Encyclopedia and Dictionary of IP Communications). To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.


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