14 DAY TRIAL // Even with all the attention that the Xeon and Itanium processors are getting, it looks like Intel is planning on adding yet another series of chips to its server lineup, although this particular one already exists, though it is used for consumer products.
Some end-users may remember that Intel's Itanium platform has been the subject of controversy over the past few weeks.
On the one hand, Oracle dropped support for it and said the chips won't go on for much longer, while, on the other hand, Intel and HP stated and reinforced that they will.
More recently, Intel actually delivered some 10-core processors, but even with these new Xeons, the outfit still said that Itanium would go on.
Nevertheless, it looks like, even if it goes on existing, the platform won't have just the Xeon to divide the server market with.
If a recent report by Zdnet is to be believed, the Santa Clara, California-based chip developer wants Atom chips to service this sort of systems as well.
“The Xeons go down to 20 Watts but we're not going to force customers who want to use Intel architecture to go somewhere else,” Boyd Davis, Intel's general manager of server marketing, supposedly said.
“We'd leave a hole if we didn't have an Atom-based product. The space is unserved, so we'll make sure we have a product for customers. The first cost-optimised server products will come from Intel."
Basically, since Atoms have been doing so well on the netbook market, the chip giant hopes to see them in applications that focus on low cost and power needs.
"The lowest cost is always a virtual server. A VM [virtual machine] is cheaper and lower-power than any physical device will ever be," said Davis.
Even if not in servers, Atoms should still gain traction amongst storage boxes for small companies.