Posted on Thursday, April 19 2007 @ 0:25 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
At the IDF, Intel said the new Ultra Mobile PCs will use the old 90nm Pentium M processor,
TG Daily reports. This chip is almost three years old:
Yes, we are absolutely serious, the second-gen UMPC platform promoted by Intel does not use 65 nm Core Solo or - as some have speculated - Core Duo processors, but integrate a revived Pentium M CPU with 90 nm Dothan core.
For Intel’s new UMPC platform, code-named McCaslin, the processor has dropped the Pentium brand and is now known as the A100 series of processors. There will be two versions, the A100 (600 MHz) and the A110 (800 MHz). Both CPUs run on a 400 MHz FSB and integrate 512 KB of L2 cache. We are still a bit puzzled by the fact that Intel has not chosen a more up-to-date power plant for a segment that is starving for more computing power; however, the Pentium addresses the need for low power consumption: According to the company, the chips are rated at a thermal design power of 3 watts.
For now, it appears that McCaslin may very well become another platform that has to provide a bridge to a more convincing platform that can make the UMPC segment more successful. “Menlow” was demonstrated as a prototype at the IDF stage and is scheduled to arrive next year. It will bring “Silverthorne”, a new 45 nm processor specifically designed for the UMPC market as well as a new chipset code-named “Poulsbo”.
