Intel Corp (INTC)

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Anandtech... and everyone else that can possibly get there hands on. There's isn't a single professional review.

Sure there is. About 3 or 4 of them have been linked to on this forum so far.

Who says Core Convertibles can't go under 13.3 inches?

I didn't. You seemed to infer something that wasn't there.

That can happen with Android, not Windows. And the tasks you have mentioned aren't the only things people do. Try running flash games or streaming videos other than Youtube. They are not hardware accelerated and needs better performance than Atom. FWIW, it seems slow on a 800MHz Ivy Bridge.

You seem to be lost in an argument that nobody cares about. I was talking about addressing demand for 7" tablets, which are clearly companion devices, and not meant to replace the laptop. Intel can address that market with Atom, but they cannot address it with Ivy Bridge - even when running at 800MHz, which is a strange and useless strawman.

Sure I guess than they should just give up new architecture and scale down Medfield for 22nm. Is that what you are suggesting? I assume current Atom isn't that good on perf/watt either, while Silvermont will improve on both absolute performance and performance/watt.

No, because Silvermont is useful for a couple of reasons. First, it makes a better Windows 8 tablet, since Windows can expose applications that need performance. Second, it's about delivering better performance at lower power, which is key to winning in the phone biz. Just look at ARM-A15, which I think is destined to become ARM's "Bulldozer". It's a power hungry processor that is well suited for climbing into entry laptop/Chromebook configs, but it will make an aweful smartphone architecture. When Intel launches Silvermont, it will get better performance at low power than ARM or Medfield.

Tablets are the new Netbooks, in that the under $250 category is basically taken up by them. If Intel wants Atom to have any impact there, it should be in a $299 Tablet at most, not something costing 2x.

I think tablets can target more than one space. Have you used the new Windows 8 tablets, yet? They are much closer to a real PC than Android or iOS. In fact, you can attach a keyboard and very nearly replace your laptop completely. I'll go ahead and let the cat out of the bag, since I was saving it for another post - but I just bought a Samsung ATIV tablet, and it's incredible. But it's also slow in some more intensive tasks. For simple tasks, Microsoft did an amazing job optimizing for Atom architecture. But even task switching between the music app, downloading Windows updates, and checking out some of the other apps, it slows down to a crawl. I feel like I'm getting so much more than a "tablet" experience like I did with my iPad, but I could use the extra performance that Silvermont is expected to deliver.

By the way, I still recommend one of these. I plan to buy a couple more for relatives this Christmas.