英特尔改写Atom路线图，移动领域全力抗衡ARM

英特尔将加快推出新款Atom内核设计，压低其笔记本芯片的目标功耗，扩展其SoC的热能区。这是英特尔x86芯片打入智能手机与平板领域并抗衡ARM的最新举措。 英特尔首席执行官Paul Otellini在一次分析师会议上表示：“我们认为原来的路线图不适当，需要改变中心点。”他表示，这种调整的重要意义堪比奔腾和迅驰设计问世。 具体而言，英特尔将在2014年推出一个14纳米Atom内核，名为“Airmont”，同时将推出使用该工艺技术的主流PC CPU。英特尔现在的Atom内核基于45纳米制程，比其PC芯片落后一代。 在未来三年，英特尔将加快Atom设计，2013年将推出22纳米内核Silvermont。英特尔已经在其Medfield处理器中展示了一款32纳米内核，该处理器用于智能手机和平板电脑，可能在2012年出货。 Otellini表示，加快推出新款Atom设计，将形成“非常强大的路线图”，使该架构的摩尔定律进程加快一倍。 另外，从22纳米节点开始，英特尔正在把笔记本设计的重点转向15W的功率目标，低于目前的40W。此外，英特尔将扩展其SoC设计的范围，覆盖从不到1W到将近10W的芯片。 英特尔架构部门的总经理Dadi Perlmutter表示，重点发生改变，将给英特尔工程师带来一系列微架构与电路层面上的复杂变化。他说：“这改变了你做电源管理的方式，以及处理图形与媒体并行性等问题的方式。” 同时，Otellini承诺英特尔将在2012年上半年为Medfield推出一款主要智能手机设计。Medfield是Atom的32纳米版本。该公司正在从失去诺基亚这个重要伙伴的打击中恢复过来。诺基亚最近决定采用Windows Phone 7，放弃了Medfield的方案。 “我们没有坐在那里闷闷不乐，” Otellini表示，“我们与诺基亚一直非常密切地合作，几乎是独家合作，(因此)我们腾出了那些人手，并把那个(设计)变成了参考设计，正在向一些公司出售。” Perlmutter展示了Medfield智能手机设计和一个七英寸平板设计，运行谷歌Android的Gingerbread版本。英特尔正在转向谷歌的Honeycomb，这是x86平板电脑专用的Android，并预期在年底前推出一款10英寸平板电脑参考设计和开发工具。 Perlmutter 表示，Medfield的功率将是毫瓦级，能够与目前的40纳米智能手机芯片匹敌。他说，该芯片只具有一个内核，而竞争对手则正在推出双核芯片，但Atom内核将提供比对手更好的性能。 Otellini表示，英特尔的Atom现在有2000个设计订单，其中21%是从其它架构转化过来的，主要是ARM。英特尔展示了一些来自富士通和Viewsonic等厂商的平板电脑和上网本，采用了英特尔的Pine Trail和Oak Trail处理器。这是Atom的35个平板电脑解决方案中的一部分。 Otellini还重申了英特尔的一个长期承诺：致力于使PC成为更便于消费者使用的设备。他承诺，将在24个月内推出像平板电脑一样的超薄消费PC，运行多个操作系统并支持全天的电池续航时间。 Otellini说：“这是在重新打造PC，使它更像消费电子产品。” 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：Updated: Intel rewrites Atom road map，by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} Updated: Intel rewrites Atom road map Rick Merritt SAN JOSE, Calif. – Intel will quicken the pace at which it rolls out new Atom core designs, drive down the target power of its notebook chips and expand the thermal range of its SoCs. The moves mark its latest effort to drive its x86 chips into smartphones and tablets and counter mounting competition from ARM-based chips. "We decided our road map is inadequate, and we needed to change the center point," said chief executive Paul Otellini in an analyst meeting here, claiming the shift will be as significant as the debut of its Pentium and Centrino designs. Specifically, Intel will roll out a 14nm Atom core called Airmont in 2014, the same time it debuts mainstream PC CPUs using the process technology. Intel's current Atom core is based on a 45nm process, lagging its PC chips by a generation. Over the next three years, Intel will accelerate Atom designs, rolling out a 22nm core called Silvermont in 2013. It is already demonstrating a 32nm core in its Medfield processor geared for smartphones and tablets that could ship in 2012. The acceleration of new Atom designs will create a "very compelling road map [that] doubles the pace of Moore's Law" progress for the architecture, Otellini said. Separately, starting at the 22nm node Intel is shifting the focus of its notebook designs to a 15W power target down from 40W today. In addition, it will broaden the scope of its SoC designs to cover chips that range from less than a Watt to nearly 10W. The changed focus will translate to "a complex set" a host of micro-architecture and circuit level shifts for Intel engineers, said Dadi Perlmutter, general manager of the Intel Architecture group. "It changes the way you do power management, how you handle parallelism in graphics and media and more," he said. Meanwhile Otellini pledged Intel will have in the first half of 2012 a major smartphone design for Medfield, the 32nm version of Atom. The company is recovering from the loss of a key partner in Nokia, which recently decided to embrace Windows Phone 7, abandoning work on Medfield. "We didn’t sit down and mope," said Otellini."We had been working with Nokia very closely almost exclusively, [so] we have freed up those people and turned that [design] into a reference design that we are shopping to a number of companies," he said. Perlmutter showed the Medfield smartphone design and a seven-inch tablet design running the Gingerbread version of Google's Android. The company is porting to the x86 Google's Honeycomb, the tablet version of Android, and expects to have a 10-inch tablet reference design and developers kit ready before the end of the year. Medfield will run at milliwatt power levels that are competitive with today's 40nm smartphone chips, Perlmutter said. The chip sports just a single core at a time when competitors are rolling out dual-core chips, but the Atom core will deliver better performance than the competition, he said. Otellini said Intel now has 2,000 design wins for Atom, 21 percent of them conversions from other architectures, mainly ARM. Intel showed a handful of tablets and netbooks from companies including Fujitsu and Viewsonic using its Pine Trail and Oak Trail processors, part of a group of as many as 35 tablet design wins for Atom. Otellini also renewed a long time Intel commitment to make the PC a more consumer-friendly device. He promised within the next 24 months, tablet-like ultrathin consumer PCs running multiple OSes and supporting all-day battery life. "This is about reinventing the PC, making it more of a consumer electronics device," Otellini said.