atom

It's hard to maintain excitement about Netbooks lately, with all the tablet and ultraportable developments of the last few months. That's not stopping manufacturers from trying to offer some valuable solutions. HP has announced the December release of the Mini 1103, a business-targeted Netbook for $299.

Based on the specs, there's nothing to get excited about: a 10-inch screen at 1,024x600-pixel resolution, single-core Intel Atom N455 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter in the entry configuration. Optional 3G mobile broadband from AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon is also available. The … Read more

Intel's chief executive, Paul Otellini, took a minute at the start of today's earnings conference call to praise Apple's iPad, but he said Intel has every intention of ultimately winning the category.

Intel executives have made many statements about the tablet category in past conference calls. But these were typically about the category being new and only "additive" to the much larger PC market. This time Otellini made a uncharacteristically strong statement, seemingly in response to investor worries that Intel is not addressing the category aggressively enough.

"I know the big question on everyone'… Read more

Google TV products from Sony and Logitech pack a potent brew of software and hardware that could animate even the most inveterate couch potatoes. But will they sit up and take notice?

TVs are quickly on the way to becoming hybrids that can switch freely between passive TV and PC-like interactive modes, according to Intel. Will consumers finally begin to lean forward more and lean back less? After all, this has been tried before.

"The reason we feel very confident this time around is it's less of a leap now because consumers are used to consuming Internet content," Wilfred Martis, general manager of Intel's Retail Consumer Electronics business, said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Intel is a key player in the Sony Internet TV and Logitech Revue set-top box, which was introduced yesterday, because it supplies the Atom CE4100 processor that powers the interactive side of the Google TV platform. And this is no ordinary Atom. It squeezes a lot of processing into a tiny system-on-a-chip.

"The CE 4100 combines dual 1080p video decoders, dual audio DSPs (digital signal processors), 3D graphics, display processing, and security infrastructure," said Martis. "That allows you to consume broadcast or Blu-ray content as well as all the content and applications on the Internet."

All very convincing on paper but some consumers, at least, may have beaten Google TV to the punch.… Read more

Netbooks don't change very much in terms of specs, at least compared with other laptops, but there has been one new wrinkle as of late: dual-core Atom CPUs.

Acer's 10.1-inch Acer Aspire AOD255 Netbook includes a new dual-core Atom N550 CPU for a very reasonable $329, along with 1GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter. A single-core AOD255 will still be sold as well, starting at $269. It comes in four colors--red, black, brown, and aquamarine--and will go on sale later this month.

Acer has a line of "premium" Netbooks … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Scientists at IBM Research say they have figured out for the first time how to record rapid changes at the level of individual atoms.

Until now, it has usually taken hours to get a picture of what is happening to a single atom. But according to IBM Research, scientists at Big Blue's $6 billion R&D unit have figured out how to use a scanning tunneling microscope to record and study very fast changes at the atomic level. It is thought that the scientists will now be able to record atoms' behavior at speeds of … Read more

Intel's Atom chip is already on a road map that shows its circuits shrinking to an infinitesimally small 15-nanometer scale, according to a presentation given this week at the Intel Developer Forum.

How small is 15 nanometers? One nanometer is the width across a few atoms (while DNA molecules measure about 2 nanometers) so, 15 nanometers would be the width of about 60 atoms.

Processors are typically categorized according to some of the smallest circuits formed during the chip's fabrication process--i.e., 45 and 32 nanometer processes. Currently, the most advanced Intel chips are made on a 32-nanometer … Read more

Some of the cool high-end laptops from Asus we saw way back at CES 2010 are finally ready to hit the streets, according to the company. These include interesting systems such as the Asus NX90J -- the Bang & Olufsen themed multimedia laptop we've been waiting for since January.

Asus NX90J Designed by Bang & Olufsen designer David Lewis, this 18.4-inch laptop has two giant touchpads -- one on each side of the keyboard. Highlights include a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 1.2TB of hard drive space. Available at the end of September, for $2,… Read more

Head-turning consumer tablets using Intel processors are still mired in to-be-shipped status, leaving the iPad as the sole high-profile 10-inch class consumer product.

Launched in April, the iPad is still racking up impressive sales numbers with 2010 shipments expected to be more than 10 million. Yet nothing has emerged from the Intel camp of computer makers, comprised of some of the largest computer companies in the world.

The latest "upcoming" tablet is from Dell: a hybrid design that may be more Netbook than tablet. The only shipment information available at this stage is "later this year," … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Dell showed off a 10-inch Windows-based hybrid tablet Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum, boasting a slick design that allows it to be converted into a laptop-like configuration.

The Inspiron duo-branded tablet packs a dual-core Atom processor and comes with Windows 7. Its most unique feature is the ability to open up the case, flip the screen, and then convert it into a clamshell Netbook design (see video below at 2:40 mark.)

And Dell couldn't resist taking a swipe at the Apple iPad. "There are times that you have to do work. Tablets are great for entertainment, but they aren't exactly conducive to productivity," said Dave Zavelson, a marketing executive at Dell, at the conference. That's when he revealed the hidden keyboard.

The tablet will be available later this year, he said. … Read more