Intel has introduced two new processors for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), Z550 and Z515. These two new processors were introduced at Celebrations of the 1-year anniversary of Intel Corporation’s introduction of its wildly popular Intel® Atom™ processor family. The Z550 is 2GHz chip with a sub-three watt power consumption and will be seen mostly in netbooks. The Z515 is a lower powered chip whose performance can be boosted on demand using “Burst Performance Technology”. During his keynote, titled “Mobility’s Next Wave of Growth,” Chandrasekher demonstrated the first live demo of Intel’s next-generation Atom-based MID platform, codenamed “Moorestown.” Chandrasekher provided a sneak peek into the low-power innovation of the platform by showcasing a greater than 10x idle power reduction compared to today’s Atom-based platform in a side-by-side demo. This dramatic reduction is made possible through a combination of new power management techniques, a new partition optimized for the MID segments and Intel’s Hi-k 45nm manufacturing process. In a press release, Intel said that the Moorestown platform is comprised of a System on Chip (codenamed “Lincroft”) that integrates a 45nm Intel® Atom™ processor core, graphics, video and memory controller, and a companion input/output (I/O) hub which will be due by 2010. The platform will be accompanied by a new Moblin software version that is optimized to enable the rich, interactive, PC-like Internet experience along with cellular voice capabilities.
