By Damon Poeter, ChannelWeb, August 3, 2009, 1230 hrs
Intel flatly denies that it has stopped taking orders for its low-power Atom Z processors from netbook manufacturers, with an Intel spokesperson calling a report to that effect "100 percent inaccurate."
In an e-mailed reply to CRN.com, Intel refuted a story from DigiTimes, a Taiwan-based journal that covers the front lines of the semiconductor industry. The site reported that Intel "is getting close to completely digesting its inventory" of Atom Z processors.
"Intel is expected to completely stop the supply of Atom Z processors to the netbook market before the end of 2009 as it looks to clearly define the boundary between solutions targeting netbooks and those for MIDs," DigiTimes reported.
Intel's Atom Z series, also known by the code name Silverthorne, includes ultra-low power parts that draw less than a watt at idle and are typically used for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and other types of handheld computing devices. The Atom N series, or Diamondville, is more typically regarded as a pure netbook or nettop platform.
But the upper end of the current Silverthorne lineup includes more powerful processors like the Atom Z520 and Atom Z530, which have proven extremely popular with leading netbook makers such as Acer, Asus and MSI. And contrary to the report, Intel seems to be saying that it has no plans to phase out those parts, much less strong-arm OEMs to only use them for certain device categories and not others. |