Graham Bell
Graham is Sr. Director of Marketing at Real Intent. He has over 20 years experience in the design automation industry. Occasionally he writes blogs for the Dominion of Design. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are his alone and not those of his employer.
Will the Atom take over?
June 18th, 2009 by Graham Bell
Atom processors from Intel are defining the new “netbook” slice of the personal computer market. They are very popular with ‘power’ users, who want to have another computer to use because of the convenient size and almost disposable cost. Ultimately targeted for the smaller platforms such as smart phones, Atom-based computers are surprisingly powerful. If an Atom notebook PC has everything I need to do my day-to-day job then maybe it will begin to steal market share from the traditional notebook market. Another trend that may accelerate this shift is the use of ‘cloud computing’ where data is stored in the cloud (some server farm on the net). Cloud computing reduces further the need for a local high-performance CPU.
Even Intel insiders are wondering what will be the business impact caused by the success of the Atom processor. Will it poison their traditional microprocessor franchise? Let me know your thoughts!
+Graham
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I dont think the comment ” Cloud computing reduces further the need for a local high-performance CPU”. I mean how can a generation of CPU hungy multimedia applications survive without a local high performance CPU. Just by keeping data remotely, you cannot escape the need to process it and present it to the user in so many varied formats.
Hi Graham,
Congrats on the blog.
For me, the most interesting aspect of the Atom push is in the new Intel-Nokia relationship, and how it will impact future handsets and MIDs.
Will Intel influence Nokia to develop handsets that support WiMAX? Intel is a huge backer of WiMAX worldwide, investing in Clearwire in the U.S. and UQ in Japan, while Nokia compared WiMAX to BetaMax during the recent CTIA Wireless show in April.
-Mike
Graham, Just saw your EDA Cafe blog and had to send you a note! I hope you have been having fun this last decade — it would be fun to catch up with you. I retired in 2005 and moved to a Del Webb community north of Sacramento. Unfortunately, Karen died in February 2008 — she was just 66. Last year I moved to a house in north Tacoma facing Pugent Sound. I invited my daughter and family to live with me, so I’m now a “resident-grandpa” I still remember, with pleasure, the times we met in the 90s and the good discussions we had. Regards, Tom