Jun

5

Nano vs Atom Processors vs Puma Platform at Taiwan Computex 2008

Filed Under Microprocessor, Video Gallery 

Taiwan Computex, held from 3 to 7 June 2008 in Taiwan World Trade Center, is now the largest IT show in Asia, and the second largest IT show in the world after Germany’s CeBIT. This year Computex is particularly exciting as major computer chip companies are all rev up for the emergence of Mobile Internet Devices (MID) market. To power such devices, ultra low power processors that are as powerful as laptop processor yet able to sustain long battery life are much sought after. That is why computing chip makers such as Intel, AMD, Nividia, VIA, are all competing neck-to-neck to offer ultra low power processors. And the winner goes to ….VIA. VIA won the coveted ‘Best of Computex’ award for its recently launched ultra low power Nano processor and VX800 all-in-one digital media IGP chipset (Ref). The award signifies that VIA is now one of the major contender in the MID market. It is interesting to note that VIA Nano processors are manufactured using Fujitsu’s advanced 65 nanometer process technology. They come with aggressive power and thermal management features within the compact 21mm x 21mm nanoBGA2 package for an idle power as low as 100mW (0.1W).

However the true winner is still lurking. VIA Nano processor would have to compete head to head with the largest CPU maker in the world, Intel, which recently launched the ATOM processors for the MID market. Compared to VIA Nano processors, Intel’s ATOM processors has an upper hand on manufacturing process since ATOM processors are manufactured using 45nm high-k metal gate technology. The demand for ATOM processors is so high that Intel is apparently not able to produce enough ATOM processors to meet the demand. Intel has promised to crank up its production of ATOM processors (Ref).

On the other hand, AMD is apparently playing another strategic. Instead of competing Intel on process technology, AMD is leveraging on its strategic acquisition of ATI’s graphic processor to offer a more energy efficent platform. At the Computex, AMD unveiled the platform, codenamed Puma, which includes Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile processor and the AMD 7-series chipset. Comparing to Intel’s Centrino mobile platform, codenamed Montevina, Puma has a number of media features not in the current version of Centrino, such as support for hardware acceleration of H.264 video decode, Microsoft DirectX 10.1 graphics application programming interfaces (APIs), PCI Express 2.0 and HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces (Ref). The might give AMD a good head start given the fact that Intel has just announced the delay of Montevina (Ref).

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