The INQUIRER: Because it's already tomorrow and yesterday somewhere
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Massive Atom N450 netbooks release is delayed
IT LOOKS LIKE a flood of Intel Atom N450 based netbooks that was expected to launch in December will be delayed.
Asustek, Acer, Lenovo and even MSI planned to launch shedloads of Atom based netbooks in December in time for Santa to drop them in stockings hung by the chimney with care.
However now they have all announced that they will launch their Atom N450 based netbooks on January 11 of next year.
The reason seems to be a stiffly worked letter that has shown up on their CEO's desks from Intel, which apparently does not want to see its glorious Atom N450 chips in the shops until after January 10.
According to Digitimes, Intel's concerns were only part of the problem, though. Vendors are a little concerned about releasing new technology on the market and getting stuck with lots of older inventory over the holidays. There is also pressure to flog leftover stock in the January sales.
With the launch of second-generation Atom netbooks approaching, Asustek, Lenovo and MSI have all dropped their current 10-inch models to $311 in Taiwan to clear inventories.
Most are planning three versions of Atom N450 based netbooks using different operating systems. These are Windows 7 Starter Edition, Moblin Linux and Windows XP Home Edition.
Windows 7 Starter Edition seems to be the most popular choice for vendors, but it's also the most expensive. µ
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If I've understood correctly, the N450 package deal includes faster graphics, and it uses less power. Otherwise I'm troubled by reports that indicate that the actual processing capability is no more than the Celeron M (?) in my old Samsung Q1 tablet UMPC from -way- back, despite a much higher clock speed. Except that, using less power, the computer goes on processing for longer, of course.
Clarification needed: the Atom N450 is a single-core CPU. And Engadget reports: "the even faster N470 chip will start making the rounds in March 2010". But: how is the single-core Atom N400 series better than the dual-core Atom N300 series? And the Atom N500 series is either: (some say) "dual-core"; other sources say the Atom N500 series is still single-core, but (different from the N400 series) just has Hyperthreading enabled:
http://darrenyates.com.au/?p=545
These Atom CPU's all seem to be 45nm designs. Is there an Intel roadmap for a 32nm (genuine) dual-core (+ Hyperthreading enabled) Atom CPU?
Also: any chance that an ATI video solution might surface in a Netbook? As competition for the ION chipset.
There's almost zero difference. Sure, Intel is claiming that these new Atoms are a major upgrade, but if you take a look at the specs you'll that almost no performance benefit and these are still mainly 32-bit without virtualiztion and no core improvements. Intel doesn't want to cannibalize their real laptop processors (Core, Pentium, Celeron) so they're barely improving Atom.
I'm sure people are wondering what's the material difference between an N450 and whatever kind of Atom they are selling now?