Intel to develop new CPU architecture for OLPC type computers

[lyon_wonder]

Intel plans to develop new CPU architecture for ultra-low cost laptop
computers

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=9277

Intel isn’t content to cede any portion of the CPU market to rival AMD
and to compete on all fronts -- including the OLPC market -- Intel
plans to develop a new CPU architecture.

No current Intel processors fit the specifications for the one laptop
per child notebook program (OLPC), so Intel is designing a new
processor specifically for the ultra-low cost laptop category where
the AMD 433MHz Geode LX-700 reigns king.

Few specifications on the new Intel architecture are known at this
time, other than it will be cheap and aimed at the specifications of
the AMD processor currently being used in the OLPC system. Yahoo! News
is reporting that Intel considered using existing mobile processors
including modified versions of the Celeron M and the upcoming
Silverthorne processors, which were specifically designed for mobile
systems.

Those processors were ruled out because Intel says the small size, low
cost and low power consumption required by the OLPC laptop are unique
enough to warrant a new architecture. While Intel processors aren’t
powering the official OLPC, Intel parts are used in similar systems
including the Classmate PC and the ASUS Eee.

The ASUS Eee PC will be shipping soon and is going to be sold through
Newegg.com and Best Buy. That system features a 7-inch screen and
should be quite power efficient. However, the retail price for the
system is more than the target cost of the OLPC, which originally was
aiming at a $100 price tag.

Prices for the official OLPC system have since increased significantly
over the original $100 target.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Few specifications on the new Intel architecture are known at this
time, other than it will be cheap and aimed at the specifications of
the AMD processor currently being used in the OLPC system. Yahoo! News
is reporting that Intel considered using existing mobile processors
including modified versions of the Celeron M and the upcoming
Silverthorne processors, which were specifically designed for mobile
systems.

Those processors were ruled out because Intel says the small size, low
cost and low power consumption required by the OLPC laptop are unique
enough to warrant a new architecture. While Intel processors aren’t
powering the official OLPC, Intel parts are used in similar systems
including the Classmate PC and the ASUS Eee.

Which goes to show that Intel doesn't know anything about its markets,
and it just designs processors randomly hoping people will pick them up.
It made a big deal out of its announcement about the Silverthorne
processor as recently as a couple of months ago during its IDF. Now it
looks like that processor is inappropriate for OLPC. The Geode processor
that AMD puts out is not just a processor but a full chipset as well, so
its power consumption figures are for both processor and chipset, which
Intel can't match since it doesn't have any kind of SoC solution. This
has been pointed out about Intel before, it simply has no understanding
of its customers.

Yousuf Khan