Intel Officially Launched Atom and Atom Centrino Family Processors in Shanghai IDF

Intel has officially launched the new Atom and Atom Centrino processors during recent IDF (Intel Developer Forum) held in Shanghai, China. If you are aware, Atom is an official name replacing Silverthorne and Diamondville code name silicon released by Intel targeting for UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC), MID (Mobile Internet Device) and even for embedded market.

There are five SKUs being officially announced, namely Z500, Z510, Z520, Z530 and Z540 with slightly different speed grades and features. Both Z500 and Z510 offers 800MHz and 1.1GHz respectively catering for entry level market. Meanwhile, Z520, Z530 and Z540 are clocking between 1.33GHz up to 1.86GHz targeting for power hungry applications in high end market segment. Some major differences between those are the high end silicon will have higher FSB (Front Side Bus) frequency at 533MHz as compared to 400MHz for entry level silicon. Besides, Z540 features Hyper-threading technology for better performance for threaded applications. Nevertheless, all are having similar architecture and fabricated using 45-nanometer metal high-k process technology that can boost up the performance per watt significantly.
Intel has a high expectation on these Silverthorne-based Atom processors it is believed that it will capture more market shares from its current competitors such as VIA technology. We should foresee the similar momentum to be continued by the availability of Diamondville-based Atom processor later this year.