Intel's 1.83GHz Atom N470 due in Q1 2010

In January, Intel was reportedly planning to debut Intel Atom CPU's next variation dubbed as Pineview in second half this year. Now, news that the next generation Atom platform, dubbed as Pine Trail M, will get two 45nm Pineview processors - Intel Atom N450 and N470, has surfaced at the CES 2010. Intel will make these available in the first quarter of next year.
Built on 45nm manufacturing process, Pineview CPU will have built-in memory controller and GMA 950 integrated graphics controller. Pineview CPUs are expected to be 60 percent smaller than the Intel Atom N270. Under the new Pine Trail M platform, Pineview processors will be paired with Tiger Point south bridge chip to be offered in the netbooks.

As Fudzilla reported, single core Intel Atom N470 processor will be clocked at record 1.83GHz, hyper threading support, 667MHz FSB and Thermal Design Power of 6.5Watts. The Thermal Design Power rating of Pineview processors is higher than the current Intel Atom N270, N280 because N470 CPUs have integrated graphics chip as well. Hence, the TDP rating is that of the CPU and GMA 950 IGP collectively. Users will be able to pack DDR2 RAM with 667MHz FSB.

The Pine Trail M platform would be compact, cost effective and power efficient. Since the Graphics chip goes along with the CPU, the platform will have two chips only - CPU and the south bridge chip. Pineview will be an ideal solution for the netbooks and nettops maker also acting as alternative to Nvidia ION platform.

Previously, Intel Atom was a three chip solution with the graphics and south bridge chips paired along with CPU. Hence, Nvidia had paired its GeForce 9400M graphics chip with Intel Atom CPU. But now, since the graphics controller moves to the CPU in Atom N470, Intel has shielded itself from the graphics competition with Nvidia. Also, the price of Intel's two chip solution would be lower than Nvidia ION solution that would include Intel Atom CPU. Still, Nvidia ION would win hands down on grounds of performance in netbooks and nettops with its famous GeForce 9400M graphics chip.