Intel Releases Two New Atoms for NAS Devices
Intel getting NAS-ty!
While we still associate the Intel Atom with being the overwhelmingly popular netbook CPU, it's got more applications than just for tiny portables.
The Atom's being doing well inside networked storage appliances and Intel this week has added two new Atom processors to further boost the company’s offerings to its OEM partners Acer, Cisco, LaCie, LG Electronics, Netgear, QNAP, Super Micro, Synology and Thecus.
For consumer electronics, Intel is introducing the 1.8GHz Atom processor D425 single-core and D525 dual-core with support for DDR3 SODIMM.
The new Intel Atom processors (D425 and D525) are paired with the Intel 82801 IR I/O Controller and support Microsoft Windows Home Server and open source Linux operating systems.
“Networked storage appliances based on the Intel Atom processor platform enable consumers and businesses to organize, manage, protect and share documents, photos, videos and music throughout the home or office,” said Dinesh Rao, product line manager, Intel Storage Group. “The versatile Atom processor, which is at the heart of a growing variety of small, innovative, Internet-connected devices, makes it possible for storage vendors to develop low-power appliances that can innocuously sit on a desk or shelf while keeping digital content safe and available anytime, anywhere.”

I have to agree. It would be cool to see them adopt element names to denote different models.
"Plutonium Inside"
:-)
There were rumors a while back about Intel designing chips for devices like phones and such. It was a modified atom-like chip with a super low TDP that would make cell phones and such much more powerful.
NVidia GTX Plutonium?
Should grill the same way.....
That would be great on my next trip through customs. Might get a lot more than the rubber glove treatment.
Not just rumors. The next gen Atom for smart phones is in the works. Its based off the one thats able to do full 080P encode/decode. Has independant power planes for each part such as music, video and phone features.
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=dCuSHhM0xDkhj7v0
Runs CentOS 5.5 x64 with 4 GB of RAM and provides me with:
- Samba storage
- Torrenting
- Routing
- Full featured Apache web server
- Mail server, webmail
- FTP
- TeamSpeak 3 Server
- DNS
And a ton of other functionalities related to Web Services. Not bad for a tiny in-order dual core which draws 35 W fully equipped. (I still run it from a cheapo 450 W PSU, so power will drop even more with an adequate, efficient unit).
What reason would I need to buy more power hungry equipment? Well, none, except for maybe opening up an ISP business. And even then, you could find some use for low end Atom-based dedicated servers.
What he is trying to say is that the original atoms were really meant for ultra portable PCs, (UMPC) a hand held phone like computer with more kick than a regular smart phone. They were not really designed for low power and cheap laptops or now called netbooks.
The original atom was rather slow and could not even playback 720p video very well.
Now they are much better and as seen in Toms Hardware recent p4 vs atom, the dual core atom flat out beats a 3.0 GHz P4 while using less power.
If you want overall system responsiveness on the older atoms than go with linux. Even the original Asus Eee PC before the atom used linux and a celeron m at 800 Mhz.
But don't kid yourself the atom is not for Photoshop, Seti@Home, number crunching, or Crysis.
Kim Jong-Il might want to get a hold of that!