Re: [wlug] Intel?s Atom Chips Circling The Plughole (Lawrence D'Oliveiro)

I wondered--still wonder--why Intel doesn?t just make ARM chips. It?s got to be more profitable than the billions it has wasted on developing Atom processors that nobody seems to want.
I believe the Atom was Intel's competition to the AMD geode which is I think is still available. I wouldnt say no one wants them. Microsoft has been keen on them since Windows RT failed. Arm is an old competitor to Intel; remember Acorn computers? I dont think they would attract investors if they were buying licenses from ARM. Seems logical they are dropping the Atom in favour of their new IoT chips. Im more interested in what Samsung is doing with its Artik 12x12mm SOC, an arm you can fit in your undies! -- Rowan Schischka

On Sun, 1 May 2016 13:53:02 +1200, rowan schischka wrote:
I wouldnt say no one wants them.
As was reported in the article, there are no more new generations of Atom chips coming out. This is the end of the line.
No, Intel are only cancelling their smartphone and tablet targetted Atoms (Broxton), and the SoFIA SoC for smartphones etc. There’s been no news about Apollo Lake, which is the new Atom-based netbook chip. I would say there’s still a pretty good chance that Intel will continue to operate in this space, if only because a low-cost low-power x86 CPU is still an easier target for a lot of applications (netbooks , as well as higher-end IoT or embedded systems) than ARM is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_CPU_microarchitectures <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_CPU_microarchitectures>

On Sun, 1 May 2016 15:36:58 +1200, Daniel Lawson wrote:
There’s been no news about Apollo Lake, which is the new Atom-based netbook chip.
Do netbooks still exist as a market? I thought they were strangled by Intel and Microsoft between them imposing tight controls on hardware specs that vendors were allowed to offer.
I would say there’s still a pretty good chance that Intel will continue to operate in this space, if only because a low-cost low-power x86 CPU is still an easier target for a lot of applications (netbooks , as well as higher-end IoT or embedded systems) than ARM is.
Seems like “higher-end” and “IoT” don’t really belong in the same sentence...
participants (3)
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Daniel Lawson
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro
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rowan schischka