Intel Details 945 Successor Pine Trail, Updated Moblin
Intel had a conference call today to discuss some of its strategies regarding its Atom products. First, Intel revealed a plan for a new platform called ‘Pine Trail’ which will be the successor to Intel’s current Atom 945GC/945GSE platforms. The changes basically remove the need for an FSB, because the processor will actually be a part of the chipset (graphics and memory controller). This change allows the manufacturing of a four layer board rather than a traditional six-layer board, which equates to lower power consumption, better performance, and fanless motherboards for nettops. Although its far in the distance, it will be interesting to see some friendly competition between ION and Pine Trail.
The second talking point of the conference call was Intel’s Moblin operating system aimed at Atom based devices. Moblin has many features that netbookers will find adventageous. One of those features is its booting speed. Early versions of the operating system boast a 5 second boot time, while final versions are expected to be around 10 seconds. Another way Moblin plans to speed up your hardware is to reduce the bloated unneeded features from the operating system. The Moblin interface called M-Zone will be setup so that most of your computing needs are just one click away. Judging by the picture it seems like it will be similar to Ubuntu Netbook Remix on steroids. Moblin will have tons of built-in social networking features so that you can avoid the dreaded web browser to update your facebook status. The operating system will also have an enhanced mozilla browser with screen realestate and performance in mind. Moblin is also customizable so every vendor can have their own logo plastered on anything and everything. All kiding aside though, Moblin seems like a great step towards a wonderful netbook/top experience. You can download the Moblin 2.0 Beta at Moblinzone. Read more at Crunch Gear.
Related posts:
