HOW MUCH laptop power can fit in a small, lightweight chasis at a bargain price? Recently Intel announced its second-generation Atom processor; Acer unveiled a slew of new netnooks bases on nVidia's Ion platform; and HP began shipping a laptop equipped with AMD's Neo chipset- another first.
As vendors debut tweener laptops whose specs straddle the line between "netbook" and "ultraportable," competition will only heat up. Here is what's in the pipeling.
The new Intel Atom Z550 (one of two Atom processors launched a year after the first-gen Atom hit) is a GHz CPU that incorporates Intel's Hyperthreading technology for improved multitasking and graphics performance. We expect to see Atom Z550 products later this year.
Intel also expects all of its Atom processors to support at least two of the many Microsoft Windows 7 versions.
Acer's just announced AspireRevo mini-desktop is the first product to use the nVidia Ion platfrom. which boasts superior graphics. The AspireRevo pairs a 1.6 GHz Atom N230 CPU with nVidia's Geforce 9400M GPU and CUDA graphics technology to handle high-definition 1080p video and DirectX 10 graphics. Acer hopes to ship the PC by late this summer.
As vendors debut tweener laptops whose specs straddle the line between "netbook" and "ultraportable," competition will only heat up. Here is what's in the pipeling.
The new Intel Atom Z550 (one of two Atom processors launched a year after the first-gen Atom hit) is a GHz CPU that incorporates Intel's Hyperthreading technology for improved multitasking and graphics performance. We expect to see Atom Z550 products later this year.
Intel also expects all of its Atom processors to support at least two of the many Microsoft Windows 7 versions.
Acer's just announced AspireRevo mini-desktop is the first product to use the nVidia Ion platfrom. which boasts superior graphics. The AspireRevo pairs a 1.6 GHz Atom N230 CPU with nVidia's Geforce 9400M GPU and CUDA graphics technology to handle high-definition 1080p video and DirectX 10 graphics. Acer hopes to ship the PC by late this summer.
Meanwhile. AMD is positioning its Athlon Neo platform as a step up from first generation Atom chips. The HP Pavilion dv2 ultraportable (with its 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40 CPU) shows the computing potential of this latest AMD platform.
And as if the three way battle shaping up among AMD, Intel, and nVidia weren't enough, Via- which claims a 10 to 15 percent share of the netbook market- is looking for a piece of the ultraportable pie, too. Via's 1.3GHz Nano CPU will provide the power for the soon-to-ship Samsung NC20, which features a 12.1 inc display and weighs just 3.3 pounds.
-Melissa J. Perenson
0 comments:
Post a Comment