Intel's next-gen Atom platform - Pine Trail

Intel has released some details of the next-generation Atom platform, code-named Pine Trail.

One of the most interesting revelation (apart from the late 2009 launch date) is that Intel is packing more into the CPU (code-named Pineview). The Pineview CPU will incorporate both the GPU and memory controller onto the CPU, which means that the number of chips on a Pine Trail board will go from three (CPU, a GPU/memory controller chip and I/O chip) for Atom to two (CPU/GPU/memory controller chip and an I/O chip) on Pine Trail. This means that Pine Trail will not only cheaper to produce and assemble, but also more power efficient. This means longer battery life for netbooks and less heat to dissipate for nettop devices. The Pineview CPU is, as expected, a 45nm part.

Where's Intel going with this? Well, it's clear that this competes directly with NVIDIA's Ion platform. Ion will have more power, but Pine Trail will be more power efficient and also cheaper.

This sounds like a very interesting platform.