Intel's Pine Trail Out Q4, Possibly October

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By Jane McEntegart
published

Intel’s next iteration of its hugely popular Atom processor, codenamed Pine Trail, is now slated for a Q4 release. According to recent rumors, it's possible that we could see the processor as early as October.

Intel’s next iteration of its hugely popular Atom processor, codenamed Pine Trail, is now slated for a Q4 release. According to recent rumors, it's possible that we could see the processor as early as October.

Digitimes today reports that Intel is scheduled to phase out its Atom N270 CPU by launching its successor--the Atom N450--for netbooks in October at the earliest. Citing anonymous industry sources, DT says that Intel will issue last order notice for the Atom N270 in the first quarter of 2010, and the CPU will phase out before the end of the H1 2010

This fits in with earlier reports in May which said we’d see Atom’s Pine Trail chip with on-chip graphics, and the Tiger Point chipset (replacing the presently ubiquitous Atom N270 and 945GSE combination) "after September." When we published the news last month, most of you were uninterested and more eager to hear about machines running on Nvidia's Ion. Now that Nvidia has at least 20 manufacturers signed up and ready to produce a plethora of netbooks, nettops, all-in-ones and more, are you guys still unexcited by Pine Trail? Let us know in the comments!

Jane McEntegart
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25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Gin Fushicho
    It sounds interesting but I still sat Nvida FTW!
    Reply
  • matchboxmatt
    I don't think extra CPU power is enough to compensate for an actual GPU.
    Reply
  • Gin Fushicho
    matchboxmattI don't think extra CPU power is enough to compensate for an actual GPU.Thank you. x3 glad you didnt bash my comment. I already got bashed by someone who wont comment. lol.
    Reply
  • Honis
    I want to see the more powerful CPU paired with the Ion. If the last benchmark Toms ran was any indication, the CPU is holding the system back. As soon as it can play flash videos at full screen (for me that's 1920x1080, the review used a 720p screen) it will be first in line for the HTPC factor. I say flash is the last big hurdle since most online shows use it.
    Reply
  • TheFace
    Always exciting to see what is upcoming for this sector. The fight between intel and nvidia is fantastic. Intel wants everyone to believe that they can do everything on their own, and Nvidia wants everyone to believe that you need them to do anything more than run basic programs. These advancements should make for some excellent netbooks, net tops, and HTPCs.
    Reply
  • Vettedude
    "AMD To launch ATOM Killer in 2010" was a Tom's article yesterday I believe. Hopefully they are aiming to go after the Pine Trail ATOM.
    Reply
  • h0llow
    If the atom reaches to 2ghz with hyper threading without consuming so much power, and combined with the ion, then that would be great! Though that is pushing it for what a netbook is really used for. It would be nice to have a bit of a performance boost for games. 1.6ghz doesn't quite cut it. Having a powerful netbook (CPU & GFX) would awesome when it comes down to portability. I would be interested in the topics if Intel bumps it up a notch. I personally think the CPU may bottleneck the performance of the ION, but thats just me. 2ghz+ is what I would pair the ION with..
    Reply
  • ta152h
    The big thing holding the Atom back is the chipset. Most people I know will not buy Nvidia, since they are a low quality maker (compared to Intel) and have a lot more problems than Intel does with their products. Nvidia offers interesting things, but also headaches and aggravation.

    But, Intel makes a terrible chipset, so you're in a situation where you either buy a crap chipset, or buy a chipset with good features from a crap company. Who wants this choice?

    So, I'm personally waiting for a decent all Intel solution. I'd buy an Intel/ATI solution too, but there is nothing like that, but Nvidia is not a company I will buy from. I am not alone in this, most of the people I work with and know won't buy Nvidia. Well, not most, but probably close to half. So, for that reason it's relevant.

    Also, the Ion doesn't address the real issues with the Atom platform, which is the processor. I mean, it can help in some situations, but, really, it's up to Intel to increase the performance of the processor to really help make this platform more useful.

    So, I think this is much more significant than the Ion. You get better performance in every field, and you don't have to buy Nvidia products and potentially have problems. Even if you don't, you can't compare the support from a company like Intel, to a half-rate company like Nvidia that releases software that regularly gives BSoD (Ntune, anyone)?

    Now, before everyone yells at me at how good Nvidia is, you may believe that, and many people do, but there are also many that do not. A buddy of mine bought a Core 2 motherboard with an Nvidia chipset, after me warning him not to even think about it. Of course, he knew better, and I was just being ridiculous. Two days ago, he messages me about problems he's trying to solve, and then does some research and finds all the issues about his 790i chipset, after blowing up with Ntune and finding out that's a common problem. Of course, after I berated him for his insolence for not listening to me (you'd do the same thing, we're all human and love gloating), he was funny and claimed his motherboard was fun, and just needed tweaking here and there to make it stable. Of course, this is after reading page after page of 790i issues people have.

    So, buy Nvidia if you want. It's got the additional feature that you'll be able to post on more forums about the problems you have with it, and be able to share with fellow users. That's nice really.
    Reply
  • h0llow
    I'm still trying to figure out what Intel is trying to accomplish. I know they are trying to reduce power usage but jeez, my netbook lasts me easily 2 1/2 hours alone. That's plenty enough. If it's only going to make a difference by 30 minutes, it's not worth it. That's why they have larger cell batteries. The performance boost cannot be that great to have a jaw drop. Though like what everyone else says, each company going back and forth to make something better is great. By the way, I love Nvidia and never had a single issue with their video cards. I never tried their chipsets though so i wouldn't know ta152h. I'm a little AMD fanboy. Anyways, maybe I'm missing something big on this whole new release.
    Reply
  • grieve
    Competition is good… anyway you look at it.

    If the new Atom is superior awesome, if not, ION will do. I could care less whose processor is best, I will buy whoever is in the lead.

    Hopefully pinetrail is great....
    Reply