Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Pinetrail: Intel's Atom D510 processor and NM10 chipset get tested


Intel's Pinetrail Atom platform isn't just intended for netbooks, but also nettops, or as Intel likes calling them, entry-level desktops. The first entry-level desktops with Pinetrail are expected to hit the market by January 2010, and they will be fitted with either the single-core Atom D410 CPU or the dual-core Atom D510 CPU (partnered with the new NM10 chipset which was previously referred to as Tiger Point; see a better explanation of the Pinetrail platform here).

If you plan on getting any of the new nettops that will come out running on Pinetrail in January, then you might want to check on the benchmarks ran by Tom's Hardware, comparing the performance and power consumption of the new Intel dual-core Atom D510 with the last generation Atom and a low-end Pentium E-series processor. The results are not in the least bit surprising. The Intel Atom D510 didn't show a significant increase in performance. In fact, it even failed to complete some tests and constantly crashed during testing. However, it did show a significant reduction in power consumption, and if you're after low electric bills, I'm sure you'll find that to be very good news.

There's a lot more information to be digested about the new Pineview Atom desktop processor, so head on to Tom's Hardware for the full test results.

Source: [Tom's Hardware]