First of all, let me thank Pankaj Kedia and Intel for giving us an hour of undivided attention at CeBIT. Combined with the information I got at the other Intel events it was very helpful in understanding the future of Atom and MIDs and I’ve managed to build up a good picture of what Atom is all about. In this article, I try and explain what’s I understand and what the current Atom and MID plan is. Lets talk about Silverthorne, Diamondville, Atom, Centrino, MIDs, Moblin and UMPCs.
In summary, Silverthorne and Diamondville are completely new, very small, very power efficient CPUs that will be combined with other Intel silicon (Silverthorne will be combined with the Poulsbo chipset, Diamondville with an unknown chipset – possibly the 945GSE.) to form power efficient and low-cost computing platforms. Silverthorne+Poulsbo will form the lower power, smaller platform. Diamondville+945GSe will form the lower cost, slightly larger, slightly more power-hungry platform. Both of the CPU’s are now called ‘Atom’ CPUs but those devices using Silverthorne and confirming to some sizing guidelines are eligible to be approved as Centrino devices.
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The potential product range Intel are talking about is quite staggering. Can you picture that ‘Atom’ logo on your fridge? TV? Car dashboard? Cheap 2nd or 3rd laptop? Set-top box? Remote control? And how about an iPhone with Centrino Atom inside? The marketing numbers go way up into the many hundreds of millions of units and its no wonder that Intel are investing so heavily in this. We’ve all heard the expression ‘Internet Everywhere’ and that’s exactly what the Intel Atom plans are based on.
Centrino is the brand that will most interest readers here as it defines not only a low power computing platform but also pocketable sizing range. It’s a significant marriage of a mature, very valuable brand with Intels ‘Atom’ silicon in order to push forward the Mobile Internet device category. In the laptop market, Centrino has been a huge success as a marketing tool and for Intel to associate their Atom processor and a new product category with one of their most valuable brands tells us that they truly believe that its going to be big and that it’s going to work. If it fails, it de-values their Centrino brand and that could have a serious effect on Intel’s business. There’s been an important change of focus in nomenclature too. One year ago in the mobility briefing, Intel showed us a slide with four ultra mobile PC usage scenarios on it ; Communications, Entertainment, Location Info and Productivity. Nothing has changed in the categorisation as it still includes everything from dedicated Internet tablets to smartphones but the category itself is now called ‘MID’ and not ‘UMPC.’ UMPCs are still a part of the MID and Atom strategy but they are seen as a small market and Intel will work with partners to make this happen if necessary, in much the same way as they work with customers to put Core laptop processors in ultra mobile devices.
Its clear that Intel are targeting the same markets that ARM operate in and its hard to see how Intel would compete. While the processors are more powerful, ARM still has the slight power advantage. Pricing, and sizing appear to be advantages with ARM too but there is one part of the Atom plan that could really help. Software. When we met with Intel, they took a lot of time to explain what was happening in this area and in theory, it sounds very promising. One of the core elements of the Intel MID ecosystem is Moblin, a Linux-based core operating system. There are around 150 people working on it and its going to include not only a core Linux kernel but an Atom-optimised build, UI guidelines and an API. This core system will be distributed via well known Linux brands like Ubuntu, RedFlag (China), Miracle (Japan) and Haansoft (Korea.) who’s teams will implement a UI on top. Additionally the core will be available to manufacturers wishing to build their own user interfaces, apply branding or provide their own apps. On top of this there is a number of ways that independent software vendors can link into the ecosystem either in a core or third-party way. From what I’ve seen at CeBIT there are already a lot of software vendors working on applications. Fluendo, the media center, is one we saw a nice demonstration of but we also saw navigation and live TV apps which were working well on the MID devices. I was quite surprised at the quality to be honest and overall, this idea of distributing a highly tuned, open source operating system while providing a process for third party software developers seems to be exactly what’s needed.
As for other operating systems, XP and Vista are supported and drivers will be made for these operating systems. At the end of the day, if a manufacturer wants to build a productivity MID (UMPC) It will be up to them. Intel will support it.
Intel tells us that in 2008 we should expect to see 30 MID devices being released into the market. Some of these we already know about (About 10 devices will launch globally in the summer. See slide below.) but the others will filter through later on. In 2008, the first year of the MID, we’ll see more activity than in the whole 2006 ‘Origami’ market.
Gigabyte, Clarion, EB, Lennovo, Toshiba, LG, Digifriends, Aigo, ASUS and Benq devices coming this summer.
In Part 2, I present my thoughts about Atom performance, graphics, price, size and, ‘Where’s the UMPC?.’ I also have an interview with Pankaj Kedia, head of Intels MID ecosystem.
