14 DAY TRIAL // If you have been keeping track with the latest news in the industry for ultraportable computer systems, such as netbooks, you might be aware of the fact that Intel is getting ready to refresh its netbook platform with the much-anticipated Pine Trail platform. Although the platform wasn't expected to become available at retailers until sometime in Q1 2010, it appears that the first Pine Trail-powered systems have recently surfaced on the market, in the form of an all-in-one nettop, coming from the Shanzai manufacturers in China.
The KND K1850 appears to be the first all-in-one nettop to boast Intel's upcoming Atom refresh, featuring a dual-core 1.66GHz Atom D510 processor inside an 18.6-inch display. The system is also packed with 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive and a DVD drive, as well as integrated WiFi, Ethernet, several USB ports and a multi-in-one media card reader. Although the machine isn't likely to make it outside Asia, it's interesting to see that some PC manufacturers have already finished some of their Pine Trail designs.
As you might have read in previous articles, the Pine Trail platform is made out of a new Intel Pineview processor coupled with a separate I/O controller, which has been dubbed Tiger Point. Essentially, the new platform reduces the three-chip design from Intel's current netbook and nettop platform to a dual-chip design, as the CPU, memory and graphics controllers have all been moved on a single chip, the processor.
Intel's Pine Trail architecture has been designed to enable PC vendors to develop smaller and more energy-efficient netbooks that also provide a performance boost and potentially a smaller price tag, compared to today's traditional Atom-based netbooks. The news about the KND system can only suggest that more such systems, with similar specifications will be made available soon.