Intel Develops 22 nm Atom Silvermont CPU

By Douglas Perry
published

Intel was not kidding and is apparently already working on a 22 nm Atom CPU that will be taking advantage of the company's recently detailed Trigate transistor technology.

Cnet was able to get a first tiny scoop, which included the name of the CPU - Silvermont. It will be designed as a SoC and is targeted for a 2013 release. The chip will be two generations out from today's Oak Trail and are likely to aim for ultra-mobile markets such as tablets and smartphones. Cnet reports that Intel is accelerating the Atom roadmap beyond Moore's Law, which is an unheard of event for Intel all by itself.

There are no new details available, but given Intel's 3D transistor announcement, we would expect exceptional battery life and performance when compared to Oak Trail. The time frame for the actual introduction will be interesting: To make some noise in the Smartphone space, Intel will have to provide processor samples to phone manufacturers very early, and not miss a 2012 target in order to be able be in phones in 2013.

As far as we can see today, smartphones will still be the much more interesting market than tablets in the foreseeable time.

Douglas Perry
32 Comments Comment from the forums
  • wasabiman123: I don't see how using 22nm to achieve the performance and power envelope that ARM can get on 45nm is something to "YAY" about.
    Reply
  • PudgyChicken
    I'm too exhausted after giving you corrections on your last article to proofread this one as well. The word of the day is "pathetic."
    Reply
  • alikum
    cynical_douchewasabiman123: I don't see how using 22nm to achieve the performance and power envelope that ARM can get on 45nm is something to "YAY" about.Not to mention Brazos will be eating Atoms up in the netbook market. If they eventually decide to move to mobile segment, we may see a 3 corner fight
    Reply
  • schmich
    cynical_douchewasabiman123: I don't see how using 22nm to achieve the performance and power envelope that ARM can get on 45nm is something to "YAY" about.Except that an Atom kicks ARM's arse on a per clock basis. It might consume more power but it can do A LOT more work.
    Reply
  • johnners2981
    @pudgychicken, don't stop. I'm getting some valuable english lessons from you.
    Reply
  • whatisupthere
    schmichExcept that an Atom kicks ARM's arse on a per clock basis. It might consume more power but it can do A LOT more work.
    I agree with you schmich. Its interesting that so many people see the "1ghz" and forget forget about the differences between an arm risc and an intel cisc chip. I for one am really curious how they will compare in performance at similar power usages.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    I think it would be more interesting if Intel licensed ARM's latest Cortex A15 CPU's and made one on this 22nm process. Its not like Intel hasn't done that before if anyone recalls Xscale.
    Reply
  • ta152h
    PudgyChickenI'm too exhausted after giving you corrections on your last article to proofread this one as well. The word of the day is "pathetic."
    I'd say the word of the day would be "obtuse". It does not flow at all, and is grueling to get through, even forgetting the grammatical issues. On a purely stylistic basis, it offends and disgusts.
    Reply
  • darkguset
    PudgyChickenI'm too exhausted after giving you corrections on your last article to proofread this one as well. The word of the day is "pathetic."
    LOL! What is this about?
    Reply
  • vk_87
    Any chance of these coming for the desktop?
    Reply