Three Intel Atom Processors

Tharindu Weerasinghe, Computer Engineer Graduate Peradeniya Engineering Faculty

Intel’s new ‘Pinetrail’ Atom processors roll graphics and memory controllers right into the CPU – plus they are smaller and use less power.

Chip-making giant Intel has taken the wraps off three new Atom processors, aiming to push so-called netbook and net-top computing to new heights – using even less power. The new CPUs, codenamed Pinetrail by Intel, integrate memory controllers and graphics processors right into the CPU for improved performance, plus the chips are some 60 percent smaller than their predecessors. The chips intended for netbooks use 20 percent less power than Intel’s earlier Atom chips, and the versions aimed at net-tops use 50 percent less power.

Intel Atom is the brand name for a line of ultra-low-voltage x86 and x86-64 CPUs (or microprocessors) from Intel, designed in 45 nm CMOS and used mainly in netbooks, nettops, and Mobile Internet devices (MIDs). On December 2009, Intel announced the next generation of Atom processors, including the N450, with total kit power consumption down 20%

Processor and chipset

The new chips include the Atom N450, which rolls in 512K of L2 cache and has a total power consumption of 7 watts. The Atom D410 is aimed at desktop systems with 512K of L2 cache and 12 watts of power consumption.

The D510 is also aimed at desktops and ramps up to 1 MB of L2 cache and 15 watts of power consumption.

All three of the new chips run at 1.66 GHz, like previous Atom offerings. All the new Atom CPUs are built on Intel’s 45nm manufacturing process; the power consumption figures for the chips seem higher than previous Atom CPUs, but bear in mind they also include graphics and memory controllers, so the total power consumption foot print (and heat output) is considerably lower. Although the new CPUs probably won’t show dramatic performance improvements over previous generations, they will be a boon to netbook fans in terms of battery life.

The Pinetrail Atom CPU’s integration of graphics and memory controllers is another round of bad news for graphics developer Nvidia, which had been building its Ion platform as a high-performance drop-in replacement for graphics controllers on Intel’s earlier Atom processors.

Since the new Atom CPUs have graphics controllers baked into the chip itself, there’s no way for system manufacturers to buy graphics-free versions of the new Atom chips if they wanted to go with another graphics solution.

Intel says the new Atom processors will be available to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in January. More than 80 netbooks and other products based on the new Atom processors are already on the way from manufacturers like Dell, Asus, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba.

Expect to see tons of products with the new generation of Atom processors on parade at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

Continued newt week

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A handful of Oscars!

Nalaka Gunawardene and Vindana Ariyawansa

Answer our Wiz quiz and win valuable book vouchers from Sarasavi Book shop. Mail your answers to Wiz quiz, Daily News, Lake House, No 35, D R Wijewardena Mawatha, Colombo 10

It’s the film award season once again! Awards for the best performances and technical accomplishments in feature films released during 2010 will be announced during the first quarter of 2011. The best known – and most sought after – film awards are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Official called the Academy Awards, they are better known by their informal name, the ‘Oscars’.

The first Academy/Oscar Awards ceremony was held on 16 May 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honour outstanding film achievements of the 1927/1928 film season. The 83rd Oscar awards ceremony is scheduled for February 27, 2011, and will honour the best of films released during 2010. Nominations for the 2010 Awards will be announced today.

This is the first of two quizzes looking at the colourful and glamorous Oscar awards. First, a peep at the history of Oscars

1. Who was the first Asian director to win the Oscar award for best director? This Taiwanese-born director won the Oscar for Brokeback Mountain in 2006. He first became famous for directing the Wuxia martial arts epic Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in 2000.

2. Only three Indian made movies have been nominated for the best foreign language film in the entire Oscar history. Two of them are Mother India (directed by Mehboob Khan, 1957) and Salaam Bombay (directed by Mira Nair, 1988). What is the third and most recent one, which was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker in 2001?

3. The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema won two Oscar awards for best foreign language film during his career spanning 57 years. One was for Rashomon in 1951. The other was for a Russian language movie he directed in 1975. What is the name of this second movie, a Soviet-Japanese joint production?

4. The highest number of Oscars won by any single film is 11. Three films have achieved this feat. The first was Ben Hur in 1959, and the second was Titanic in 1997. Do you know the third movie that also won a total of 11 Oscars, in 2003?

5. This composer has won 8 Oscar awards, giving him more Oscars than any other living person. He has won Oscars for the best original score and best original song for movies The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992) and Pocahontas (1995). Who is he?

6. A versatile actress, still very much active in Hollywood, holds the record for the most number of Oscar nominations in acting received by any actor (male or female). From these 16 nominations (13 for best actress, and 3 for best supporting actress), she actually won two Oscar Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer in 1979, and Best Actress for Sophie’s Choice in 1982. Who is she?

7. Only two movies in the history of cinema have won both the best picture Oscar and the Palme d’Or (‘Golden Palm’), the highest award to competing films at the Cannes Film Festival in France. The Lost Weekend won both these in 1945. What is the other movie that won both grand prizes in 1955?

8. Who was the first female composer to win an Oscar for best original score in a movie? She won this award in 1996 for Emma. (This British lady was once married to Uberto Passolini, the Italian director of the Sri Lankan made film Machan.)

9. French films have won 12 Oscars for best foreign language movie, which makes it the second highest total. Spain and Japan with 4 each take the third place while Sweden, Soviet Union and the Netherlands have won 3 each in the history of Oscar awards. Which European country’s movies have won 13, the highest number of Oscars for best foreign language movie?

10. In the history of Oscars, only two non-professional actors have won Oscars in acting. One was Harold Russell (Best supporting actor) for Best Years of Our Lives in 1946. The other was a Cambodian-American doctor, who won the best supporting actor award for playing real life Cambodian photojournalist and refugee Dith Pran in The Killing Fields in 1984. As of January 2011, he remains the only Asian to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Who was he?

11. Only two people have ever received 4 Oscar nominations for a single film (Producing, Directing, Acting and Writing). One is Orson Wells for Citizen Kane in 1942. The other person did it twice. Once for Heaven Can Wait in 1978, and then for Reds in 1981. Who is he?

12. Acting in a film of one’s own direction is no easy task. Only two performers have directed themselves to a Best Actor Oscar. One was Laurence Olivier for Hamlet in 1948. Who is the other, and Italian actor who directed himself to an Oscar in Life is Beautiful in 1998?

13. Who was the first African-American actor to win an acting Oscar? She won a supporting actress for Gone with the Wind in 1939.

14. Shirley Temple at age 6 was the youngest person to receive an Oscar, when was presented with an honorary (ie non-competitive) miniature statuette in 1934.

Who was the youngest recipient of an Oscar in a competitive acting category? This winner was 10 years 4 months old when she accepted best supporting actress award for Paper Moon in 1973.

15. Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Ray directed a total of 37 films which included feature films, documentaries and shorts.

His first film was Pather Panchali (1955), which won numerous international awards including Best Human Document at the Cannes Film Festival. Which Oscar award did he receive in 1991?

Answers will be published next week

Answers to last weeks Wiz Quiz

1. MMXI
2. Forests for People
3. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, or UNESCO
4. Egodahage George Wilfred Alwis Samarakoon
5. Mahinda College, Galle
6. Thun Man Handiya (1970)
7. Year of the Rabbit (or Hare)
8. Michael Clarke
9. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968)
10. New Zealand
11. Germany
12. Spanish
13. Estonia
14. India
15. Hara Lakshe (Four Lakhs)