Intel Ships 100 Million Atom CPUs in Three Years

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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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Jane McEntegart
38 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mikem_90
    Now Intel just needs one of those big McDonnalds style signs "100 Million Atoms served"
    Reply
  • jsc
    With 100 million shipped, it may catch on after all.
    Reply
  • sonofliberty08
    damn ... 100 million crap shipped in 3 years
    Reply
  • Nintendork
    99% of unsatisfied customer do to a slow performing cpu.

    The other 1% just don't realize what slow is.
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    otacon72AMD 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
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    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...
    Reply
  • ta152h
    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.
    Reply
  • matt_b
    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 :) .
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    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.
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    ... 100 million units of wasted silicon...
    Reply