Pinetrail Archive

The “Oak Trail” processor in the works?

Published: February 18, 2010Tags: Oak Trail, Pinetrail

Intel’s netbook processors seem to all have a few things in common, low power consumption, small size, and are named after trees. And since the successor to the N280 was called the “Pine View” processor it only makes sense for the successor to the Z5xx to be called the “Oak Trail” processor.

The Z520 and Z530 processors weren”t used in as many netbooks as the N270/N280 but they were in a few popular models (11.6″ aspire one, T91MT, Sony Vaio, etc). The Z5xx processor used a little less power than the N280 but was also more sluggish with its 1.3GHz clock speed. One thing it did have going for it was that the integrated GMA 500 graphics could make use of hardware acceleration so playing videos with flash 10.1 wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Well instead of letting the Z5xx series of processor die out it looks like Intel will revive them into the “Oak Trail” series. No word on the exact upgrades to be expected but I’m sure they will be along the lines of the N450/N470 which just got smaller and more power efficient. We’ll keep you updated as more details emerge.

via pcwatch

MSI Wind U160 available for pre-order

Published: February 16, 2010Tags: MSI Wind, Pinetrail

Remember the MSI Wind U160 we talked about here? Well it’s finally up for pre-order at Amazon. Both the Brown/Gold color and the Black are available. And the price, $380.

Here are the specs again:

Intel Atom N450 processor
10” 1024 x 600 display
1GB RAM (2 max)
250GB HDD
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
1.3MP webcam
Bluetooth
6-cell battery (15 hours)
Windows 7 Starter
Weight 2.4 pounds

You can pre-order one here.

via netbooked

1.83GHz Pine Trail netbooks to ship soon

Published: January 14, 2010Tags: Pinetrail

The new 1.67GHz N450 Pine Trail netbooks have just begun shipping (some just today) but we’re already getting ready for the faster model, the N470. The N470 is the same as the N450 except that it has a faster 1.83GHz clock rate, same GMA3150 graphics, etc.

Even though most manufacturers will probably add this faster chip to their line-up one of the first is the Lenovo Ideapad S10-3t. This 10″ convertible tablet/netbook is pricier than most starting at $549 ($649 for the N470) but is a net-vertible after all.

The shipping time is listed as “more than 4 weeks” on the lenovo site but here are the specs it will have:

Processor: 1.83GHz Intel Atom N470
Graphics: Intel GMA 3150
Windows 7 Home Premium
2GB RAM
250GB hd
4 cell battery
802.11 b/g/n wifi, bluetooth 2.1

via liliputing, lenovo

New Dell Inspiron Mini 10 packs 1366×768 display and Hi-def TV

Published: January 7, 2010Tags: dell mini, Pinetrail

Dell’s newly updated Mini 10 was spotted at CES today by wired.com and there are several interesting updates to this netbook. Of course the biggest is the new processor, the N450 Pine Trail which all new netbooks will feature. But besides the processor there are some other interesting options that you can configure from the Dell homepage. These include a 1366 x 768 hi-def 10″ screen with a stand-alone HD processor chip inside (broadcom?), optional internal GPS, and a hi-def tv tuner.

The other usual options include 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and all of the usual ports and what-not.

The base price starts at $300 but of course will go up quickly once these options are added.

via wired

Samsung N220 Pine trail netbook

Published: December 29, 2009Tags: Pinetrail, Samsung

We knew that Samsung had 2 new netbooks coming featuring the Pine trail processor, but it appears that there is a third. The N220 appears to be an updated version of the N140 with the new Atom N450 processor and some cool new colors. The other hardware specs appear to be the same as the N140:

Display: 10.1″ 1024 x 600
1GB ram
250GB hard drive
Windows 7 starter
802.11 b/g/n wifi and bluetooth
11.5 hours battery life

As you can see the amazing thing here is the battery life. We were expecting longer battery lives with the new processor due to its power efficiency, but this looks to be the first netbook to take advantage of it.

Oh and did I mention that this netbook is already listed for sale on a french website. We expect to hear more about this netbook shortly and will keep you updated.

MSI Wind U135 reviewed

Published: December 24, 2009Tags: MSI Wind, Pinetrail

The MSI Wind U135 is their first Pine trail netbook and will be released around Jan 15th or so at a price of $329. Laptopmag has published a full review of the netbook and we’ll start off with the specs:

Processor: Intel Atom N450 1.6GHz w/ integrated graphics
Display: 10.1″ 1024 x 600
250GB 5400rpm hard drive
1GB RAM
802.11 b/g/n wifi, bluetooth
Battery life observed: 5 hours 30 minutes
Price: $329

u1352

Basically the U135 is almost identical to the Asus 1005PE (review here). One interesting addition is a striped pattern on the lid which seems to hide fingerprints which alot of people seemed to complain about on glossy cases.

Another difference is that the battery life is only around 5 1/2 hours, which isn’t very good considering how energy efficient the new N450 processor is.

Aside from the unimpressive battery life this netbook is a very solid all around performer at a very good price. The performance is the same as the 1005PE (see results here), but can be summarized as 20% better than an N280 but not as good as Ion. For the price though this can’t be beat at the moment.

Checkout the other soon-to-be-released MSI Wind netbooks here.

Asus Eee PC 1005P/PE pinetrail netbook up for preorder

Published: December 18, 2009Tags: Pinetrail

Well Asus’ first Pine trail netbook is finally available for pre-order, but it’s in Italy. The official launch date for the Pine trail processor is at CES on Jan 15th, but manufacturers are already stockpiling netbooks with the new processor and getting them ready to start shipping.

Here are the specs for the newly emerged Asus Eee PC’s with the Pine trail processor:

Asus Eee PC 1005P

Processor: Intel N450 Pine Trail 1.67GHz
1GB RAM
160GB hard drive
Windows 7 starter

The 1005PE will share the same specs only with a 250GB hard drive and bluetooth. The price looks to be around $345 for the 1005P and $382 for the 1005PE, but expect these prices to come down after launch.

There’s also a cool carbon fiber look to the lid.

1005p-1

DDR3 support coming for Intel Atom N450 and N470 chips

Published: December 16, 2009Tags: Pinetrail

Intel’s new Pine Trail chips (launching in January) are going to be getting an added performance boost sometime mid-2010. That is when their model numbers will be upgraded from the Atom N450 and N470 to N45x and N47x to siginify their new-found support for DDR3 RAM.

The new chips will already be a big improvement over current Atom models, and when the supported memory goes from DDR2 to DDR3 we can expect to see another jump in performance. This will be even more exaggerated due to the new architecture having both the CPU and GPU on a single chip, and having faster available memory will greatly add to processing efficiency.

The N470 chip (1.87GHz) will be going into full production in mid-January, while the N450 chip (1.67GHz) is already in netbooks and waiting for a January release.

Asus Eee PC 1008P-KR Pineview netbook

Published: December 1, 2009Tags: Pinetrail

We’re all awaiting the first netbooks with the new N450 Pineview chips and it looks like the 1008P will be the first one from Asus. We saw this netbook making its way through the FCC awhile ago, but now some better pictures have emerged.

This is a designer version, though, so there is a pink crocodile like pattern on the exterior, but we’ll just imagine its not there. It’s also going to be available in graphite black which will suit our tastes a little better. Here are the pics:

It features the standard 160GB hard drive and 1GB of ram, but we expect it to be available with a 250GB hard drive and 2GB of ram when it’s released, along with Windows 7.

As you can see the exterior is very clean with almost all of the ports being covered by access doors when not in use.

The battery even slides out of its own compartment for easy replacement which is pretty cool.

And now on to the good part, the new Pineview processor (Atom N450).

Here is a look at this new “diamondville” processor:

atm

Fujitso MH380 Pineview netbook making its way through FCC

Published: November 24, 2009Tags: Pinetrail

There are several netbooks competing with the FCC right now to see who will be the first with the new Pineview platform. The latest is the Fujitso MH380 Lifebook with the Pineview platform; it’s a 10.1″ netbook with HD rsolution (1366 x 768) and 802.11 b/g/n wifi. Here are the leaked specs:

Fujitsu_MH380-475x338