Intel Atom Z670 Oak Trail: attacking the tablet market

Intel has officially launched their Oak Trail platform for their low energy use Atom processors with the Atom Z670 processor aimed at tablets. This release is a bridge to the release of the next generation Cedar Trail family burned at 32 nm.

While Intel’s x86 Atom processors certainly found their market in netbooks, the same can’t be said of more mobile devices like tablets and Smartphone’s.

In this field, ARM processors remain the dominant product, thanks to their low energy use and architecture optimised over the years for mobile devices.

But Intel is looking to make up for lost ground as soon as possible by refining their Atom platform. A first step has now been taken with the announcement that their first processor "for tablets" - the Atom Z670 using the Oak Trail infrastructure, and burned at 45 nm is available.


Attacking tactile tablets
Compared to its predecessors, it benefits from a more compact size (13.8 x 13.8 mm, compared to 22 x 22 mm for netbook Atom processors) while using less energy with the various products in the family, while promising a full day of battery life.

The Atom Z670 also assures the decoding of 1080p video, support of HDMI interfaces and the Flash technology, with it also being compatible with different platforms: Android, MeeGo or Windows. The Intel SM35 Express chipset is found in the processor, providing the Intel HD Audio layer.

Intel announced in December 2010 that they had obtained "35 design wins" for tablets powered by Atom processors, with commercial releases to start during the year in both the general public and professional segments.


Cedar Trail approaching
During the IDF 2011 show in Beijing, Intel also spoke about the next generation of their Atom "Cedar Trail" processors for netbooks and nettops, this time burned at 32 nm, with this to provide additional power without increasing the energy consumption.

It will also provide Blu-ray 2.0 support, a dedicated media engine for the playing of 1080p videos and HDMI and DisplayPort connectivity options. Intel will incorporate their Intel Wireless Music technologies, Intel Wireless Display, PC Synch and Fast Boot. The first products should be available in the second half of 2011.