Atom chips

A family of low-voltage x86 CPUs from Intel that is designed for portable devices. Along with the introduction of the Atom in 2008, Intel coined the term "netbook" for small, entry-level Atom-based notebooks.

Available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, Atom CPUs use Intel's Bonnell microarchitecture, which delivers more performance per watt than Intel desktop CPUs. The chip footprint is also significantly smaller; for example, a single 12" wafer can yield 2,500 Atom chips, compared to 600 Core chips. In addition, Atom chips create a fraction of the heat. See x86.

Centrino Atom for Laptops
Centrino Atom is the Atom chip platform, which includes an Atom CPU and Intel graphics and radio chips. See Centrino and netbook.

Medfield Atom for Smartphones
In 2012, Intel introduced its Atom-based Medfield system-on-chip (SoC) for the smartphone market. Medfield was the first Intel SoC that requires only two additional ICs (radio chip and power management chip) to make the device work.

Clover Trail Atom for Tablets
Also in 2012, Intel debuted its Atom Clover Trail SoCs, designed for longer battery life for Windows 8 and Android tablets. See SoC and mobile platform.

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References in periodicals archive

The team, led by Innsbruck's Jorg Schmiedmayer, used the smallest wires to date for atom chips, although their 10-micrometer width is not thin by electronics standards.

Atom microchips get off the ground

According to Intel, the Silvermont microarchitecture delivers exceptional performance-per-watt efficiency, offering 3X the peak performance of current-generation Saltwell Atom chips, or the same performance using 5X less power.

Intel reveals Silvermont architecture for Atom; tablet SoCs due late 2013

Some low-power Intel Atom chips are already being used in servers, and Intel is also launching a new line of low-power x86 Atom S-series server chips later this year to further tackle the ARM threat.

Calxeda receives $55m to push ARM chips into data centre

Intel's first successful answer was the Medfield SoC lineup, its first truly low-power x86 Atom chips competing with ARM offerings from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, and others.

20 Windows 8 tablets and 140 Ultrabooks in the works: Intel

The new Atom chips also use 10 watts of power, three less than the predecessor chip, Ramamoorthy said.

Intel showcases cloud-enabled, Atom-based NAS platform

International manufacturers such as Lenovo and Motorola have also started work on smartphones powered by Intel Atom chips. Motorola is one international player that has announced that it will an Intel powered smartphone by the end of the year.

Karbonn and Intel join hands to launch smartphones

Dell is building low-power servers using ARM processors, and SeaMicro already sells servers with Atom chips, though it will likely switch to processors from Advanced Micro Devices, since it was justboughtby that company.

HP puts Intel Atom chip in low-power 'Gemini' server

29 -- Intel's Cedar Trail processors, 32nm Intel Atom chips, have finally been released.

Intel Atom 'Cedar Trail' processors revealed, due early next year

Intel has pegged release for the Moorestown chip at around the same time.<p>Intel has little presence in the mobile space beyond netbooks, most of which carry Atom chips, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.

Intel wants to put Moorestown chips into tablets

The first Intel Inside smartphones will ship later this quarter, which should trigger the first volume shipments of Atom chips for smartphones.

Intel profit dips as PC and server chip sales decline