14 DAY TRIAL // Intel seems to face a lot of troubles with the launch of its mobile Atom processors based on the new Cedar Trail architecture and these issues have apparently forced the chip maker to postpone the launch of these CPUs to the end of December.
This means that its partners won't be able to release netbooks built around these new chips until mid-January 2012, or even later next year.
According to VR-Zone, the problems Intel faces are caused by the Cedar Trail graphics driver which didn't have much luck passing Microsoft's WHQL certification, so Intel has decided to postpone the platform's launch until these issues are addressed.
This isn't the first time that we have heard Intel is having troubles with the graphics drivers for its next-generation Atom processors.
At the start of this month, a report stated that Intel has decided to drop both DirectX 10.1 and 64-bit support from its Cedar trail drivers, as the chip maker has decided to re-focus its driver development efforts on Windows 8.
The Cedar Trail platform comprises the Cedarview processor and the NM10 chipset, which is the same controller logic used by Pine Trail.
These are the first Atom processors to be built using the 32nm fabrication process and feature a unified architecture that packs both the computing cores and the graphics core on the same die.
Speaking of the computing cores, these use the same design as their predecessors, but the operating frequencies have been increased in order to allow for better performance.
More important changes were brought on the graphics front, where the CPUs have gained hardware decoding support for MPEG2, VC1, AVC, and H.264 Full HD content as well as for Blu-ray 2.0. Intel initial mobile Atom Cedarview processor lineup will include two chips, the Atom N2600 and N2800.