Intel's 2013-2014 Bay Trail Platform Leaked, But With Netbooks Dead, Will Anyone Care?
New leaked slides from Intel have shed additional light on how the company's 2014 platforms will challenge ARM products in the netbook/nettop space. At present, the company's efforts in the segment are anchored by Cedar Trail, the 32nm dual-core platform that launched a year ago. To date, all of Intel's platform updates for Atom have focused on lowering power consumption and ramping SoC integration rather than focusing on performance -- but Bay Trail will change that.
Bay Trail moves Atom to a quad-core, 22nm, out-of-order design. It significantly accelerates the CPU core with burst modes of up to 2.7GHz, and it'll be the first Atom to feature Intel's own graphics processor instead of a licensed core from Imagination Technologies. TDPs are expected to hit the 4.6-5W range at the low end, with 10W parts at the upper -- that's comparable to Cedar Trail's overall target spread. Full HD encode/decode are also going to be supported. With DDR3-1333L (low-power) support, and external resolutions of up to 2560x1600, the new mobile platform should finally shake the netbook stigma that's dogged Atom for years.
