Intel Pineview Due in Second Half of 2009

Intel's Atom Pineview CPUs based on Lincroft architecture will be targeted at netbooks and nettops

As reported last month, Intel announced that it is prepping the Intel Atom successor, which would be the 32nm fabrication process built Medfield. But before that, an Atom variation dubbed as Pineview will appear in the second half of 2009. As per a DigiTimes report, sources at notebook makers have confirmed the arrival of single core and dual core Pineview processors. Atom variant Pineview processors will be built on 45nm fabrication process and will feature built-in northbridge functions, an integrated memory controller, and GMA 950 IGP. The northbridge integration will reduce motherboard area consumption by almost 60%. The Pineview's core frequency will be clocked higher than the current 1.6GHz Atom processors. Also, memory bus support will be boosted to DDR2 667Mhz from DDR2 533MHz. Even the GMA 950 IGP graphics core will be clocked to 200MHz from 133MHz. New low-cost Pine Trail-M netbook platform will be offered, which will pair Pineview with all new Tiger Point southbridge chips. One of the crucial specifications, the Thermal Design Power rating will drop to 7W instead of the 8W found in the current Atom processors.