Confused by Intel Atom CPU's

Not sure where else to post this, because this pertains to all Atom netbooks/notebooks (whatever you call them).

According to Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Atom_microprocessors

The Z5xx series Atom ranges from 800MHz all the way to 2000MHz and at 2.4W even.

So curious why they wouldn't run with the Z5xx series (Silverthorne) in netbooks instead, and appears they've been around a while.

So I guess what is the difference? The Z5xx series seems to support everything as the N series.

 

Z series were originally meant for MID's and devices like that, and not netbooks which the N series are meant for.

 

There are netbooks with Z series processor.

 

True, but you don't often see them. The only one I can remember from the top of my head is probably some models of the Acer Aspire One.

Point is, the Z series were originally designed with mobile handheld devices in mind.

 

The Z series is underpowered compared to the N atoms. Seeing as the last ones already provide very mediocre performance, there's not much point in going for the even less powerful Z series.
Benchmarks for equally clocked Z and N atom.

 

Underpowered Atom? Shouldn't that go without saying.

 

As far as I know N series may not be sold with 11.6" netbooks. So 11.6" netbooks like Acer 751 and Asus 1101 come with Z series Atoms.

 

Pretty much, yes. Surprisingly, they aren't underpowered, they are just really weak compared to the power they suck up. My friend's Acer Aspire One with the stock battery only got two hours. His has an N270, if it matters.

 

I'm typing this on a Atom Z520 MID... And to me it feels faster than my 1005ha. And the Poulsbo chipset for the Silverthorne Atoms with the GMA500 can reliably play 720 and 1080p video with hardware h.264 and vc1 decoding, which murders the GMA950/3150.

Atom N: Pinetrail is the new platform and Diamondville is the previous.
*Made with Netbooks and Nettops in mind. Up to 12w TDP.All models feature hyperthreading, the N330+ supports 64bit extensions, and none of the N-series support Intel VT-x.
Atom Z: Silverthorne.
*Made for MID's and UMPC's because the die is physically smaller than the N-Series. Up to 2.5w TDP. Any model Z520 or better supports Intel VT-x, and has hyperthreading, but is not 64bit compatible.

 

That has probably nothing to do with the CPU. N270 is clearly faster than Z520.

What feels faster is often determined by hard drive and acces times.

 

So people say its designed for MID's and UMPC's, but why? Their features look identical with the higher end Z CPU's. BTW, thanks to droes for the benchmarks, I've been looking for something like that. But wonder how the 2.0 GHz Z chip compares. They both have ~ 2.5W TDP too.

 

Of course, the N series may be sold with 11.6" netbooks. You can use Atom processors for anything you want.

As per usual, the villain is M$: it restricts the specs of netbooks which are eligible for steeply discounted versions of Windows (XP, 7 starter edition).

 

Yep, intel will gladly sell you an N series Atom for whatever size computer you can squeeze it into, it's just Microsoft that limits the OS discounts for OEM's.

 

Running the wPrime 32m benchmark on a Z530 Atom overclocked to 1.95Ghz gives a score of 97 seconds. The N270/280 at 1.6Ghz finishes the test in something like 115 seconds according to the reviews here on NBR.

BTW, to everyone else, the Atom Z-series is, as a platform, superior to the N-series. They're both slow as hell, so the speed differences between the two don't matter - if you think the N-series have any kind of performance advantage over the Z-series, then that's your opinion augmented by the placebo effect. The performance difference is only apparent in benchmarks.

Netbooks with a Z-series Atom processor do everything a netbook is supposed to do, up to and including playback of HD 1080p video and 720p Flash because of its GMA500 graphics. The fact that it is Direct10X also means that it can support Direct2D acceleration of webpages (upcoming in new releases of FF and IE9).

Lower power consumption, HD video/Flash playback, potential support for D2D acceleration, with no obvious performance penalty compared to other Atoms. I don't even know why people go with the N-series.

 

If it wasn't obvious already, power carries with it a premium. The Z series Atoms cost more than the N series Atoms. When you are talking about a $300 laptop that includes everything, a $50 price difference is enough not to make them consider it.

Intel's version of the GPU in GMA 500 does not support DX10 either.

 

True, if it costs more, makes sense.

But regarding DX10, who cares. A lot of dedicated cards are DX10 capable but I would never run DX10 on them because they just can't handle it, and Aero doesn't require it.

 

if i was buying atom , wouldn't get GMA500 and Z series unless i only wanted to play videos... generally , the N series and GMA3150 would be better for everything overall ...