Medfield is the next Atom

In its latest report on netbooks entitled 'Intel Atom: Netbook, Opportunity or threat?', UBS has some interesting information on the IALP/Atom roadmap. The outfit also does not think netbooks will be a net win for Intel.

The most important thing is a new code name, Medfield. It is the 2H/2010 32nm successor to Lincroft, part of the Moorestown platform. The interesting thing this time is that while Moorestown and the current Menlow platforms have a CPU + chipset, Medfield will be an all in one package.

According to the UBS guys, Medfield will have two variants, one with handheld level graphics, the other with beefier netbook graphics. There is no direct listing of what GPU will be in each one, but it is strongly speculated that the netbook variant will use a version of the current Intel integrated GPU, and the handheld version will carry on with a PowerVR core.

Moving on to a different topic, there has been a lot of talk lately on cannibalisation of the notebook market by netbooks. UBS ran the numbers in rather excruciating detail, and the short story is that it is unlikely that the cannibalisation will not be more than made up for by added netbook sales.

In addition, Atom sales have the potential to open new markets, the killer app for these little computers has yet to emerge. With that in mind, from a financial standpoint, they see Atom as a net good thing.

It is interesting to see how the financial people differ in viewpoints from the OEMs, who in turn look at things rather askew from the users. In the end, the whole Atom/IALP/Netbook phenomenon is a win/win for the industry, but only time will tell what the trophy ends up looking like.