Apr 13, 2011 20:41 GMT  ·  By
Intel Cedar Trail Atom CPUs to feature Direct X 10,1 graphics and 1080p video playback
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   Intel Cedar Trail Atom CPUs to feature Direct X 10,1 graphics and 1080p video playback

Just as we reported yesterday, at the Beijing Intel Developer Forum, the chip giant went on to detail some of the new features introduced in its new 32nm Cedar Trail Atom processors which are expected to be launched in the forth quarter of 2011.

As everyone expected, most of the modifications brought to the chip concentrate on its graphics and multimedia capabilities, an area where Intel was severely lacking when compared to AMD's Fusion APUs.

Compared to its predecessor, the Cedar Trail GPU has been upgraded to feature DirectX 10.1 support as well as higher graphics performance, and it also features a greater variety of display interfaces, including HDMI, DisplayPort and embedded DisplayPort.

In addition, Intel has also installed a new media engine which should offload video decoding from the CPU and allow for 1080p video playback.

On the CPU side of things, the new manufacturing process should allow Cedar Trail chips to reach even higher clock speeds, and the integrated memory controller has been revamped to support DDR3 800MHz and 1066MHz DIMMs.

By using the 32nm fabrication node to build these chip, Intel was also able to achieve a significant power reduction and the company states that Cedar Trail can be used for developing fanless netbooks and nettops.

Furthermore, Cedar Trail also received a C6 sleep mode, which should allow for even higher battery life.

According to a leaked Intel roadmap, that made its way to the Web last week, the first Cedar Trail chips are expected to arrive in the fourth quarter of 2011.

These will be split into two different product families, Cedar Trail-D and Cedar Trail-M as the first targets small form factor desktops and nettops while the latter will be used inside mobile devices. (via Computer Base)

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Intel Cedar Trail Atom CPUs to feature Direct X 10,1 graphics and 1080p video playback
Intel Cedar Trail CPU overviewIntel Cedar Trail CPU allows for fanless netbook designs
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