Intel N530 To Replace 330 Netbook Chip: Fact Or Fiction

Chance Stevens 11 March 2010 579 views View Comments

Intel hasn’t said much about the successor to the 330 Atom processor but that hasn’t stopped other sites from proclaiming that it’s on the way.

After looking at some of Intel’s technical documentation on their Atom processors a few things seem to be definitely true.

- The replacement to the 330 (I’m calling it the N530) will bring a reduction in power consumption in a similar manner that the N450 chip did when compared to N270 and N280 processors. TDP should be in the neighborhood of 8W – 12W. This would include the CPU + graphics.

- Intel will pair the N530 with the same graphics chip it’s using with the N450. The 4500MHD is the other alternative and that kind of graphics solution would take up too much power. A move like this would allow the N530 to be paired with a supplemental card like a Broadcom HD encoder to help with graphics.

- Similar to the 330, the N530 will support dual channel memory but still won’t surpass 4GB. Intel doesn’t see the need for netbooks to go over 4GB and instead of getting manufacturers to come out with even more new boards they’re going to keep the limit at 4GB with 2 SODIMM slots for memory upgrades.

- Clock speed will remain at 1.66Ghz so that there aren’t any big hits to the battery life. Intel wants this chip to fight up against AMD’s L335 processor. If battery life end up being only 4 hours AMD will be able to fine tune their Congo platform to last longer while Intel will be in the odd position to play catch up.

While the things above seem almost certain there are still more questions than answers.

Intel hasn’t made any mention of a successor to the 330 which begs the questions if it’s just a hopeful dream or are they waiting to see how L335 based computers are received before making an announcement to steal AMD’s thunder. Also, with such limited use of the 330 in netbooks, one has to wonder if the N530 would actually make it’s way into any actual products due to it’s pricing and limited appeal. Sure lots of people complain and say they want this or that, but Dell’s M11x proves that people find complaining cheaper than buying a computer which gives them all they’ve been asking for.

If I was a gambling man, I’d bet that the N530 will get a fast announcement along with models shipping with the processor not very soon after. This is the same strategy they employed with the N450 and it served Intel well as AMD still hasn’t been able to get many netbook out to the market with their manufacturing partner.

[Source: PCInpact, and Intel]

Related posts: