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Intel lets slip some more Bay Trail Atom platform secrets

by Alistair Lowe on 20 November 2012, 11:45

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

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Bay Trail is Intel's Atom platform for 2013/2014, which will support the redesigned, 22nm Valleyview Atom processor, based on the out-of-order Silvermont core featuring Gen7 (Ivy Bridge) derived graphics technology.

Intel Valleyview Atom

Recent leaks have revealed that the new Valleyview Atom is to feature up to a 2.4 GHz quad-core design, though at the loss of hyper-threading. Graphics will be based on the Ivy Bridge platform, offering a performance improvement at least three times that of Cloverview. At 2.1 GHz, the quad-core CPU is expected to offer a 50-60 per cent performance boost over a 1.5GHz dual-core Cloverview SoC.

Intel Bay Trail Slide

The latest leaks show that the Bay Trail platform will support a three camera configuration, which, when backed-up with a new ISP supporting stereoscopic video shows a clear focus on providing 3D stereoscopic support throughout the platform. In general there are less interfaces present, in a clear effort to root-out those not frequently used and amalgamate several low-speed interfaces with fewer high-speed alternatives, we assume in an effort to reduce power consumption and die complexity.

USB 3.0 host and OTG functionality is now also present, with full Windows 8 compliance. Power-states have been adjusted to support the S1 and S3 states typically seen in desktop processors.

Intel Bay Trail Slide

It's clear from the preceding information that the largest boost in performance is to come from the redesigned graphics core, something desperately required in the Atom ecosystem, with resolution support of up to 1600p, however, at 22nm we perhaps expected more of a boost from the CPU and wonder just how it'll hold-up against the 22nm ARM Cortex-A57. Interestingly, Intel has decided that 30 days of standby is more than necessary for a mobile platform and has opted to improve active battery life at the cost of 10 days of standby.

Intel Bay Trail Slide



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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Perhaps one of the biggest features you haven't mentioned is that this will be Intel's first out-of-order architecture for Atom. And intel are very good at out-of-order so it's a big deal.

Could make it much more powerful than ARM in a low power envelope. And although ARM is doing out-of-order, I think it's meant to be a substantially more minor implementation than what intel is will be doing.

Anandtech thinks late 2013/early 2014 for this chip though so still a while yet :/
It will also be interesting to see how AMD Jaguar will also perform as that is the 28NM sucessor to AMD Zacate,and that is meant to be 1H 2013. It appears the FPU is meant to be more capable than the previous generation,although I do hope they use GCN for the IGP.

The Intel does looking interesting,as the graphics will finally be good enough. Will be good to see how this stacks up against my E3300 and 9300-ITX in my other system.

As with all CPUs though the proof of the pudding is in the eating. It will be certainly an interesting 2013 for SFF fans! :)
Interesting, BT should be compatible for DX11 gaming :clapping:
At 2.1 GHz, the quad-core CPU is expected to offer a 50-60 per cent performance boost over a 1.5GHz dual-core Cloverview SoC.
Wonder if that's per core, per clock, or overall? A ~50% improvement going from dual, in-order, SMT cores isn't that impressive if the mean the latter. Based on the hype I was expecting that per core, at the same clock!

I wonder if SMT has been dropped completely from Silvermont or just disabled in this platform? It makes sense omitting it if it didn't offer much improvement for the die space it needed, especially considering they're offering quad core now. It was kind of a necessity for a single Bonnell core.

Also, I wonder why idle power has apparently increased?

Edit: DX11 is more of a marketing point for low-end GPUs ATM; they might be theoretically compatible but generally aren't powerful enough to run DX11 features.
THere are too many TLAs in this thread, IMO.