I think the runtimes are better if the software makes heavy use of the SSE units. I had done some benchmarks a year ago (non boinc related) and with nearly 100% SSE usage the Atom N270 (hyperthreaded) came very close to my Celeron D 336 (singlethreaded).*

*The Core 2 SSE units (from which the Atom's SSE units were taken) were improved much over the abysmally bad SSE units of the Pentium IV's.

Cindy Ng, Intel Netbook Marketing Team, demonstrates the Intel Atom Processor N450 for netbooks and the Intel Atom Processor D410 and D510 for entry-level desktops.

Intel's Pineview Processors Debut, New Netbooks Due Out in January


The new platform, which includes the Atom N450, for netbooks and the D410 and D510 for entry-level nettops, as well as the NM10 Express chipset, comes with the same specifications that have been leaked on the Internet in recent months. The Pineview-based N450 processor features a single-core architecture and is built using the chip maker's advanced 45nm manufacturing technology. The single-core D410 and dual-core D510 have been designed for small-sized, low-power desktop PCs both of which can be paired with the new NM10 integrated chipset.

According to Intel, the new Intel Atom processors will be featured in new systems that will be made available as early as January 4, next year. There are over 80 netbook design wins, with ASUS, Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Samsung and MSI being among the top OEMs to have adopted Intel's latest Atom platform, according to Intel. The new systems will be featured with either the N450, which sports 512k of L2 cache, a 7 watt total kit TDP, including chipset, the N410, featuring 512k L2 cache and 12-watt total kit TDP and the D510 chip with 1MB of L2 cache and 15-watt total kit TDP.


More . . .

A circle of new netbooks were shown inside the Intel booth at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, including many brand new models with sleek, fashionable designs. These are some of the netbooks with the Intel Atom (codename Pine Trail) released a few weeks prior to CES.

512-core server using Intel Atom Processors


The mystery behind secretive server startup SeaMicro is dispelled today as the venture-backed maker of what it has been calling "data center appliances" unveils its first product: the SM10000, a server cluster comprised of 512 of Intel's Atom processors with a built-in, virtualized network fabric for the servers.

While SeaMicro thought the future "Bobcat" processors from AMD were interesting, they would not get to market in time, and among the Nano, ARM, and Atom alternatives, Feldman says that the single-core Atom offers the best bang for the buck and the added benefit - some might say absolute requirement - of compatibility with the x64 architecture. By SeaMicro's reckoning, on Internet-style workloads - search, Map/Reduce and Hadoop, social networking apps, and such - the Atom core offers about 3.2 times the performance per watt of a Xeon or Opteron core. And the box can run Windows or Linux applications unchanged.

And so SeaMicro created what is in essence a supercomputer interconnection fabric that also virtualizes the memory and I/O for tiny Atom-based servers, many of which are crammed onto a single motherboard, with many of these mobos plugged into the fabric using plain old PCI-Express links.



More . . .

Most people know that Intel’s Atom is a slow, low-cost processor. But does it even offer enough performance to take it beyond desktop processors nearly a decade old? Today we're comparing a modern Atom CPU to two Northwood-class Pentium 4-based PCs.


Intel Pentium 4 Vs. Atom: A Battle Of The Generations

Intel Dual-Core Atom Netbooks Hit the Streets

Chipmaking giant Intel has announced that netbook computers based on Intel’s dual-core N550 processor are going on sale today at retailers, promising performance boosts for games, video, and entertainment applications—as well as those daring souls who might be running multithreaded productivity applications on a netbook. Intel claims the N550s offer improved application performance—Intel specifically calls out Hulu and YouTube—with battery life in the same range as the single-core Atom N450 CPU, along with support for faster DDR3 memory.

The Atom N550 is the latest in Intel’s dual-core Atom line; it sports a 1.5 GHz clock speed with 1 MB of L2 cache and supports Intel’s hyper-threading technology, which in theory means support for up to four simultaneous execution threads. Netbooks from makers like Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, Toshiba, and MSI. Intel says models are available now, although it may take a few days for retailers to get them onto shelves. Configurations will vary among manufacturers: Asus is planning to pair the N550 with Nvidia Ion graphics.


More . . .

Wilfred Martis,GM,Digital Home Group, explains how the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100 offers the processing power, HD video and audio and advanced graphics to bring personal content, websites and social networks to your TV in a new way.

Asus Eee PC 1015PN with dual core 1.66Ghz Intel Atom N570 at CeBIT 2011