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fino.meng
I suggest ATOM delete 16bit 8086 asm; cut out all things not useful; a cpu can ...
KB3001
@Rick, I was asking about Intel's plans with regards to tighter integration with ...
Intel packs Atom into tablets, set-tops, FPGAs
Rick Merritt
9/14/2010 3:54 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Intel showed progress getting its Atom processors and MeeGo operating system into a range of embedded devices include tablets and set-top boxes at its Intel Developer Forum. The PC giant also announced Stellarton, a system-in-package that pairs an Altera FPGA with an Atom to enable reconfigurable systems.
Dell previewed a Windows 7 hybrid tablet with keyboard that stole the show at the second day of IDF. The Inspiron demo (see video here) was one of many new products to use Atom, the lead architecture in Intel's effort to expand beyond traditional PCs.
Separately one vendor showed the first MeeGo tablet (see video here), a device that will go on sale next week. Amino Communications showed a Web TV application running on MeeGo.
So far, Intel has sold 70 million Atom chips into netbooks, the majority of its overall Atom sales. But demos and announcements at IDF suggest the Atom and Atom-based SoCs will slowly appear in a growing range of products.
At IDF, Intel formally announced its Tunnel Creek products now called the Atom E6xx series. The SoCs merge an Atom core with display, memory and graphics controllers as well as a 4x PCI Express Gen 1 interconnect.
Nine versions of the chip will range from high-end devices consuming 3.9W at 1.6 GHz and low end versions consuming 2.7W at 600 MHz. The chips will be in volume production in November.
Oki, Realtek, STMicroelectronics and Intel will make companion chips for the E6xx. They will focus on markets such as media phones, home gateways, medical devices and in-vehicle entertainment.
Intel's Stellarton will pair an E600 with an Altera FPGA in one package to be released before June. It aims at reconfigurable systems in areas such as industrial automation or accelerating algorithms for portable medical systems.
Set-top box makers ADB, Technicolor, Samsung and Sagemcom will make systems using Intel's upcoming Groveland chip. The 45nm Atom-based Sock, now renamed the CE4200, is aimed at cable-TV boxes and will support H.264 encoding and up to eight video streams.
Also at IDF, D-Link announced the Boxee Box, a set-top delivering the Boxee TV service for premium and online content. It uses Intel's earlier Sodaville chip, the CE 4100, and will ship for $199 later this year.
Separately Asustek and Acer demoed Atom-based systems that will deliver a Microsoft Media Center TV service in 2011. They are also based on the CE 4100 chip.
In automotive, Visteon showed an in-vehicle infotainment system based on Atom and MeeGo. Visteon will turn the prototype into a full reference design complaint with the specifications of the IVI alliance in time for CES in January.
Intel said 6,500 attendees from 60 countries attended IDF this year, a record for the event.
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unknown multiplier
9/14/2010 6:05 PM EDT
Intel getting into SoC's and SiP's is worth noting. Tunnel Creek and Sandy Bridge both containing graphics in addition to core. The CPU aspect is being diluted it seems, with emphasis on the system.
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Baolt
9/14/2010 6:23 PM EDT
After long researches and marketing efforts of atom family intel slowly coming back to cheap portable low energy consuming chip market. Yet ARM is far apart leading the market, thanks for Apple's innovative products. Price of ~200$ is pretty promising either. However all these efforts are useless without a giant customers who are hungry for more. Dell and Sagem are initial good examples despite not enough. Overall low cost chip market demands reconfigurable systems, i wonder further details of Stellaris indeed.
About MeeGo we see the first contributer of the team at the game, but what about Nokia? Where are they standing at the moment? i am sure we'll see new products of nokia with this platform very soon if first tablet will be in market shortly.
What about implemeting atom to mobile sets? any details about?
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resistion
9/14/2010 6:49 PM EDT
So Stellarton is half-Intel, half-TSMC fabbed? Wonder how the coordination of chip and product lead times would work?
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rick.merritt
9/14/2010 6:53 PM EDT
@ Resistion: I believe Altera will provide die to Intel who will sell the part so no fab problems.
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resistion
9/14/2010 7:02 PM EDT
Altera is fabless, has to wait for its part from TSMC. It's just you need more players to run smoothly now. Intel becoming like OEM now?
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TingLu
9/15/2010 12:27 PM EDT
It doesn't seem Intel will provide a special FPGA programming port. So FPGA is likely programmed through PCIe, which is great ideal to improve reconfiguration speed. But Altera has no such support in current product line. So it must be new feature in Altera 28nm/32nm product, which is not quiet ready yet. And there will be lots of challenge ahead such as tool integration, etc. So there is long way to go. Maybe Intel should just buy Altera as rumor indicated last year.
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rick.merritt
9/14/2010 6:55 PM EDT
What do peoploe think about Stellerton, Intel's Atom+FPGA on a chip?
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GREAT-Terry
9/14/2010 10:03 PM EDT
Is there anything that Altera can do but Intel can't? I wonder if the FPGA is only be launched to pack some non-standard IP that Intel won't like to risk on. I would suspect finally Intel will eat the whole piece of cake. Altera won't be in the consumer/PC market for long.
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Sanjib.Acharya
9/14/2010 11:45 PM EDT
I like the idea but trying to think about how the users are going to get the benefit out of it. Smaller package and probably lower cost compared to using separate chips? What about the development tools? Will Intel and Altera integrate the development tools? I believe users also prefer flexibility for their choice of FPGA & processor for a specific application.
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betajet
9/15/2010 2:32 PM EDT
I think they just opened a letter from Texas Instruments asking them not infringe on TI's Stellaris trademark by having a name that is close enough to create confusion.
I also think it's cute that Intel is getting back in the programmable logic game. Their old CPLDs were actually pretty nice and had decent tools. It remains to be seen whether they come up with a price point that makes the CPU + FPGA combo practical, or whether it ends up a disaster like similar attempts by other companies.
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David134
9/14/2010 7:42 PM EDT
Just sayin. Its D-Link's Boxee Box and Boxee TV.
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Neo1
9/14/2010 11:57 PM EDT
Ok, so now they are enticing the product makers by like selling Atom's in lbs.
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Sudarshan NS
9/15/2010 3:20 AM EDT
I like the Idea but Atom is the platform which is power hungry,using it in medical,hand-held application is not a good idea.
-Sudarshan
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kinnar
9/15/2010 8:28 AM EDT
It seems that Atom Processor will become a Micro-controller for user portable devices like players, netbooks, projectors, mobile phones etc, it that happens then it will be very good for developers, as we are still using 8051 and pic as universal micro-controllers.
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Robotics Developer
9/15/2010 6:40 PM EDT
As always the devil is in the details. I am wondering what size FPGA? Will there be dedicated pins or a standard interface (PCIe,SPI,??) on the chip to bring out the FPGA pins? Having the FPGA will enable some speed and parallel processing for a number of applications like PWM generation, high speed interfaces, video ports,...etc. I wonder if the end user will be able to reconfigure the device or if that will be "fixed" at product production? It does lend itself to some interesting possibilities.
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elctrnx_lyf
9/16/2010 3:23 AM EDT
Good to see that many developers are showing what they have done with the Atom processors. But the tablet is already a known application with the Atom devices. Only the product features such as User Interface and Mechanical design looks appealing. I would like to see more like smart phones, hand held medical equipments to accept the Atom is really making some waves. Otherwise this is just like any other chip makers evaluation products but touted too much.
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KB3001
9/16/2010 4:37 AM EDT
@Rick, I was asking about Intel's plans with regards to tighter integration with FPGAs on the IDF article, and here is the answer :-) However, we need to know more about the communication links between FPGA and Atom. Also, how big is the reconfigurable logic fabric and what architecture does it use? What is the programming model of the Atom+FPGA? Is some kind of C-2-Hardware interface provided? The devil is indeed in the detail...
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fino.meng
9/18/2010 6:06 AM EDT
I suggest ATOM delete 16bit 8086 asm; cut out all things not useful; a cpu can run windows by lowest power is good enought. BIOS is not necessary.
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