Intel announces an accelerated Atom roadmap

CHIPMAKER Intel has announced an accelerated roadmap for its Atom system on chip (SoC) processor that will be more in line with its Core and Xeon chips.

Talking about its Atom chips, Intel has made a shift in design priorities that focuses on low-power leadership and performance. The firm hopes to push its Atom into the smartphone and tablet markets with its sped up roadmap.

Steve Smith, VP of notebooks and tablets at Intel said, "When we first introduced Atom it was thought of, generally speaking, as a lower end should be lower cost. and performance wasn't the essence of the product line."

"As we shifted into smartphones and tablets we really do care about performance, we care about the energy efficiency of the new node and so we have a strategic need to get advantage."

As you can see from the picture the low power Atom will move into 22nm territory codenamed 'Silvermont' in 2013, a year after Ivy Bridge that is expected next year. 2014 will bring 'Airmont', which will be made using the 14nm process.

The 22nm Atom promises a reduction in power consumption of more than 50 per cent when compared to 32nm technology. A change in methodology will see a performance version of the process, such as a Xeon, and a SoC version built at the same time rather than the SoC design coming later.

Smith also announced a decision to combine the Core and Atom design teams into one for a single unified approach. Smith said, "We've recently shifted our development structure to have the best of both worlds."

"The whole purpose of this is to achieve speed in product development. So we want to accelerate that Atom roadmap, for example, and we want to accelerate getting the benefits of the power management into the Core family." µ