Intel Ships 100 Million Atom CPUs in Three Years
Not bad for three years of availability.
There was a time, in the height of the netbook craze, when Intel’s Atom processor seemed to be in every single small computer that hit the market. Since then, the company’s seen some stiff competition from the likes of AMD, Nvidia and ARM, but that hasn’t stopped the steady shipment of Atoms.
Intel is this week celebrating a milestone for the Atom processor. The company today spent part of its Computex keynote wishing Atom a happy birthday (it’s three years old this year) and revealed that to date, the company has shipped a whopping one hundred million Atom CPUs.
The 100 million mark is something Intel has been aiming for since 2008, and at the time, it seemed like a tall order for the chip company. However, here we are, three years later, and Intel has achieved its goal.
For a blast from the past, check out this piece written by our own Wolfgang Gruener back in 2008 during the launch of Intel’s then-new Silverthorne Atom.
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Now Intel just needs one of those big McDonnalds style signs "100 Million Atoms served"
With 100 million shipped, it may catch on after all.
AMD just keeps becoming more of an afterthought as time goes by. When Bulldozer comes out and doesn't match up at all to SandyBridge it will finally be over for AMD in the CPU market.
damn ... 100 million crap shipped in 3 years
99% of unsatisfied customer do to a slow performing cpu.
The other 1% just don't realize what slow is.
AMD just keeps becoming more of an afterthought as time goes by. When Bulldozer comes out and doesn't match up at all to SandyBridge it will finally be over for AMD in the CPU market.
You are 100% correct sir, as AMD no longer manufactures CPU's it is "finally over" for them. The new game is APU and if you haven't used one of AMD's new chips then you are probably in the 1% nintendork is speaking about. I was blown away by the performance of the C50 chip compared to current generation Atom cpu's
I am VERY happy with my Atom powered netbook. My brother is happy with his. Upgraded from an 8.9' Acer with an N270 to an 10" Asus with a N550 and Ion2. We could not be more pleased. I am sill running a souped up Asus 10" with a 9 cell 8 hr battery and OC'ed to 2GHZ and an OCZ Agility HDD. Just wish I could put a little more than 2 GB of RAM, but its enough...
We can take them anywhere. Run real versions of Windows software, are more flexible than a smartphone... What is not to love. Don't do Photoshop or Crysis on it and you will be fine... It is so cheep that I don't fear loosing/breaking it.
Kudos to Intel for finally giving me what I always wanted: A fast enough cheap ultra-portable laptop with great battery life...
Atom gives a lot of people everything they need, while being absolutely tiny, and using lower power. How much electricity has been saved because of this chip? How many people in poorer countries could afford a computer, or use a shared computer because computers became more affordable.
It's not perfect, but in its own way, it broke down a lot of walls, and did a lot for computer. But, like Deer in New York, without anything restraining it, it grew wildly successful. But, also like Deer, Bobcats being around should make life more difficult for them.
Well....with little to no competition, what else has really been a choice for such devices? ARM has been a niche for most of this period for netbooks and such, and AMD has been late to the game. It's a big number, but it's not much of an achievement when your competition has been crushed over this period (weather from Intel themselves or the competitive companies own doing). Congratulations Intel, I guess. Let's revisit this dominance survey three years from now
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I remember when these first came out. A lower clocked core 2 duo was faster and gave more performance per watt, probably more expensive to produce i guess. But right now if i were in the market for a netbook, it would be AMD all the way.
... 100 million units of wasted silicon...
Umm, I am reading this on a desktop with an Intel d510 (atom) board. No fan running, a very small amount of hard drive murmuring, running ubuntu, using the box to develop and test some java code, and aside from being limited on video horsepower, I really like using this desktop.
I remember when these first came out. A lower clocked core 2 duo was faster and gave more performance per watt, probably more expensive to produce i guess. But right now if i were in the market for a netbook, it would be AMD all the way.
I don't understand why people are putting the C and E series Fusions in huge form factors? These are Atom killers like others said, not i3 alternatives and should not be priced like i3s. Completely don't understand the vendor marketing guys .
I don't understand why people are putting the C and E series Fusions in huge form factors? These are Atom killers like others said, not i3 alternatives and should not be priced like i3s. Completely don't understand the vendor marketing guys .
with an apu you can suddonly play games, in a netbook, so worth it.
Umm, I am reading this on a desktop with an Intel d510 (atom) board. No fan running, a very small amount of hard drive murmuring, running ubuntu, using the box to develop and test some java code, and aside from being limited on video horsepower, I really like using this desktop.
what you have there is a nettop.
a realy cheap desktop computer with core components of a netbook.
Once Dual Core Llano arrive, all of the All in One with E-350 will be replaced.
Twice the gpu power, twice the cpu power, more or less same price.
To put this into perspective. As of January 2011, 15 billion ARM cores had shipped. That's slightly over 5 billion in 3 years.
To put this into perspective. As of January 2011, 15 billion ARM cores had shipped. That's slightly over 5 billion in 3 years.
Nice. 6 of them for every human on Earth? May have went a little overkill with the production line there.
Nice. 6 of them for every human on Earth? May have went a little overkill with the production line there.
Last I checked there was 6 billion people in the world so 2.5 per person on Earth, yeah.
Don't forget though that there's ARM cores in practically anything. In a typical PC there will be at least 4-5 ARM cores, yes, even in Intel/AMD PCs as practically all microcontrollers used in PCs are ARM cores.
There's ARM cores in practically everything.
[citation][nom]it will finally be over for AMD in the CPU market.[/citation]
People have been saying that since middle 90's. Shut up already.
Unfortunately for AMD, it takes 3 years to catch up, and by that time the market has passed them by. The netbook market is cooling off. NO ONE is going to replace a net book that gets better "APU" performance. The point of a net book is to type and send emails. Better GPU performance only means more time spent looking for outlets in the airport.
..
They keep saying it because it's true. Accounting tricks are the only reason they are still in business.
100 Million Atoms sold is more CPU's than AMD has sold since the 90s.
Wow, 100 million idiots out there with underpowered, slow devices.
AMD is moving to new markets, they aren't interested in putting all their R and D into desktops. Desktop is dying and AMD knows it.
AMD has blown Intel away this year and they are just getting started in this market.
The profit margin on an atom cpu is soooo small. All those profits went to AMD for fines incurred for shady business practices.
Atom is so slow. How come people still buy Atom based netbooks?
Unfortunately for AMD, it takes 3 years to catch up, and by that time the market has passed them by. The netbook market is cooling off. NO ONE is going to replace a net book that gets better "APU" performance. The point of a net book is to type and send emails. Better GPU performance only means more time spent looking for outlets in the airport.
Umm... My E350 netbook has better batter life AND better performance than my buddy's Atom netbook. Get your facts straight- the performance/watt on the AMD APUs thus far is excellent.
You are 100% correct sir, as AMD no longer manufactures CPU's it is "finally over" for them. The new game is APU and if you haven't used one of AMD's new chips then you are probably in the 1% nintendork is speaking about. I was blown away by the performance of the C50 chip compared to current generation Atom cpu's
GPU performance on a netbook ?!? Great, instead of 0.1 FPS you are going to get 0.3 FPS with Crysis. Well, that's like elephant talking about bicycle performance. Even if one bicycle is faster, how is elephant going to ride a bicycle ?
Wow, 100 million idiots out there with underpowered, slow devices.
When it is all you need, it's all you need.
When I am traveling, my Atom powered Samsung netbook is all I need. When I am at my house, I have 3 personal OC'd desktops, 2 company desktops, a personal 15.6" Dell laptop, and a 17" company laptop.
When I am traveling on vacation, I have access to full sized computers at the houses of all my relatives.
GPU performance on a netbook ?!? Great, instead of 0.1 FPS you are going to get 0.3 FPS with Crysis. Well, that's like elephant talking about bicycle performance. Even if one bicycle is faster, how is elephant going to ride a bicycle ?
Being able to push 1080p video flawlessly while traveling is pretty sweet. And hey- I can even play Starcraft 2 on my netbook. I'm not sure you could do that with your typical atom netbook.
I find it amazing that people don't understand that there is a market niche for the Atom based computers. My netbook doesn't replace my tablet. It does not replace my smartphone, nor my desktop. But it has a place, and it is where students and mobile small business professionals fall.
I can't wait to upgrade to a good AMD Fusion when they come to the form-factor I want (hopefully sooner rather than later). A nice 10.1" 720P netbook that CAN do 3d with 8 hrs of battery life or more would be fantastic for my needs.
Come on AMD - put them out of their dreams already! Atom may be popular, but it SUCKS.