Netbooks Dragging Down Intel Atom Chips

Intel has admitted falling demand of its netbooks, with the flailing mini-computer category pulling down Atom chip sales.
The chipmaker’s 8-K financial report for 2011 has tipped netbooks as the reason for revenue dropping by more than half, quarter-on-quarter, for its low power Atom processors.

“Intel Atom microarchitecture revenue, including microprocessors and associated chipsets, was $167M, down 38% from the third quarter and down 57% from the fourth quarter of 2010,” said the report.

“Intel Atom microarchitecture revenue is down as a result of lower demand for netbooks.”

“Intel Atom microarchitecture revenue, including microprocessors and associated chipsets, was $1.2B, down 25% from 2010, with netbook volume down significantly offset partially by other Intel Atom microarchitecture based businesses,” said the report on the whole of 2011.

Atom processors are still on the Intel roadmap well into 2014, trailing behind Intel’s Core i-series chips which will move from the second generation ‘Sandy Bridge’ into the third generation ‘Ivy Bridge’ this year.

Ivy Bridge will push the processors from a 32 nanometre architecture to a 22 nanometre, while the same microarchitecture will only hit Atom processors in 2013.

Intel updated its Atom processors to its third generation just before the new year and is slated for release on new netbooks in 2012, including HP’s freshly announced Mini 1104 in the US.

The company says that new netbooks with the latest Atom chips will offer up to 10 hours of battery life, and the ability to process Blu-ray content and manage HDMI and DisplayPort output options.

Computer manufactures like Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba are all set to release new netbooks in early 2012.