silvermont

Intel to announce first Atom chip redesign

Intel will detail plans for the first redesign of its Atom processor since its launch in Netbooks five years ago.

On May 6, the chipmaker is expected to announce the Silvermont micro-architecture, which will spawn Bay Trail and Merrifield processors, for tablets and smartphones, respectively.

"Intel Executive Vice President Dadi Perlmutter will...talk about Intel's next-generation Atom micro-architecture targeted at a range of market segments from low power tablets and smartphones, to microservers, the data center, and much more," Intel said in a statement Tuesday.

The new Atom uses a higher-performance out-of-order design, just like Intel's … Read more

Apple's rise to test Intel's next CEO

The success of the iPad and iPhone is a problem for Intel's next CEO.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini seems to be exiting in the nick of time. His successor will face an increasingly hostile world of customers like Apple fashioning chips for their own purposes.

Apple is a big Intel customer. Macs are all Intel-based. Problem is, most of Apple's growth is happening in tablets and phones.

This is not a trivial issue for Intel. As Apple ships more iPhones and iPads, more R&D and money flow to Apple's internal chip development -- in the … Read more

Intel working on new Atom chip architecture

Intel is working on a new Atom chip architecture that goes beyond the 3D transistors announced last week as the chip giant accelerates development of its most power-efficient chip design.

The new Atom-based "micro-architecture," codenamed "Silvermont," will ship in 2013, adding a spanking new architecture on top of the new transistor structures, industry sources familiar with Intel's plans told CNET. This will be the first architectural change since Atom--widely used in small laptops today--was announced in 2008.

When coupled with the 3D transistors, Silvermont is expected to enable new levels of integration and performance and … Read more