Intel Cedar Trail architecture presentation

The Cedar Trail platform is Intel’s next giant step on the tablet and ultraportable processor market.

It will come after the Oak Trail will get some prime time, which is still a new attraction on the market, with most devices packing it still waiting for the production line red button to be pushed. Intel had an extensive presentation of the Cedar Trail chips a few days ago, during the Intel Development Forum in Asia, while scarce info about it surfaced around the web for a while now.

The information is not complete and most of it is not yet confirmed, but still there’s enough going around to have a decent picture about what Cedar Trail is all about and we’ll try to make sense of all the info in this presentation of the Cedar Trail platform.

First off, a little context. Intel is trying to cope with tough competition on the mobile device market from AMD and Nvidia (Qualcomm and Samsung riding shotgun) and started releasing Pine Trail processors a while back.

Intel Road Map for netbook processors

Almost all Intel Atom powered netbooks are Pine Trail based and the company tried to improve the line all the time. Cedar Trail is the natural successor of the Pine Trail line or a revamp, if you want. Intel tries to keep up with the market on both fronts (netbooks and tablets), and while Oak Trail is ready to ship on more than half a dozen tablet this year alone, Cedar Trail will try to be a viable alternative for Fusion chips from AMD on netbooks.

The Cedar Trail will be an improvement in all aspects in comparison with Pine Trail. The technology is based on a 32nm process standard, that has as direct advantages smaller physical size and lower power requirements. Netbooks try to have as unique selling points superior power management and as less grams as possible and a smaller processor can do just that. If the CPU takes in less power, all the infrastructure around is easier to build and the battery doesn’t have to be too big or bulky.

The processor comes with support for DDR3, while previous processors were mainly used in association with DDR 2, so expect better memory performance and management. A Cedar Trail chip will come with the actual processor and a built in GPU, a combination that’s used on AMD Fusion, being dubbed APU. The GPU on the Cedar Trail chips will come with an all new media decoder unit, meaning there will be support for 1080p playback, a feature that was rarely available on previous Intel Atom chips.

AMD chips can do this already, thanks to the integrated HD graphics, and it will be interesting to see if Cedar Trail will be able to support also HD gaming at a better level than AMD chips. The graphics core will have support for Direct X 10.1, while the Pine Trail platform was limited to DirectX 9. There will be also support for HDMI output, meaning that you’ll be able to output HD video on a bigger display, this being another feature that wasn’t available on the previous technology.

Differences between the current Atom features and Cedar Trail features

In terms of power consumption, Intel intends to cut power take in with 50%, positioning Cedar trail around the 4 W mark. The limit also refers to dual core processors, meaning that Intel might have found a solution to beat AMD’s record on the Brazos E-350 chip. Another interesting point is that the new processors will allow fanless designs. This is important because of several reasons. First, bodyworks without fans are cheaper, lighter and cleaner.

Cutting the little holes in the plastic is expensive and will make the insides of the machine to accumulate dust much faster. Also, a computer without fans has better battery life, because there’s no need to consume power to puff all that air out. Now, let’s take a look at some “not core” features, which will not be present on all Cedar Trail configurations, as they might be available as upgrades.

Cedar Trail netbooks will not require fans

Wireless Display is a technology that allows you to stream content from a computer to a monitor or TV without connecting any cables. It seems that Cedar Trail will support streaming up to 720p, but I don’t think this is a necessary solution for most people, as connecting the netbook with a HDMI cable is not such a big thing. Still, it’s nice that this technology will be available.

PC Sync is a technology that lets you sync files on two computers over WiFi. Not many details are known right now about this, but I guess it will be a useful “around the office” thing.

Wireless music will let you stream uncompressed music over WiFi, but you’ll need to buy a receiver for this- right now, Logitech offers a module for 30 bucks. The technology will be way better than what blue tooth can offer, but I see this as a premium enhancement on more expensive machines.

Always updated- lets applications looks for updates while the computer is in stand by.

Quick boot- as the name says, this might be an enhancement of sleep and wake cycles on Windows, which is always nice to have, considering the current performance Intel chips when it comes to this.

The Cedar Trail looks like a smart and optimized option for the netbook of the future, which has to be smaller, lighter, with better power management, increased performance and cheaper, if possible. The line will probably contain both single and dual core processors, with both classes being able to pull off very good battery scores.

Cedar Trail netbooks will likely move away from Windows 7 Starter, considering it will pack a HDMI port and the WiDi technology, so it will be interesting to see how manufacturers will keep the prices down on this, considering that 7 Premium is more expensive. Or maybe this will be the great opportunity for MeeGo to emerge as a great open source operating system for netbooks.

Tags: Intel Atom, Intel Cedar Trail

Last updated: March 27, 2012 | Published: April 26th, 2011 | Add the first comment!