Stop! Render time!
Whilst installing a PC-Game I took a peek in 3D Studio Max at one of my models. I had nothing better to do because I was installing a game. It is ridiculous how long it takes to install a recent pc-game. Gigabyte after gigabyte after gigabyte after… Wel you get the point. Anyhow, one thing led to another so I ended up with a small render which you can view on the left.
Some of you might remember the blog entry about the atom mainboard which I made a few weeks ago. Well recently the dual core atom boards were unleashed on the web. Some colleagues of mine managed to get their hands on one of the dual core intel boards and decided to test if it could manage to play High Definition (1080P) video content. During the first try the movie had a few hick ups here and there. After examining the task manager we noticed that only one core was in use. It turned out that vlc was using only one core to decode the movie. When BS Player was used the movie was played back smoothly.
So there you have it, the cpu is in theory capable of handling High Definition video. However adding a more recent chipset with a better equipped onboard graphics would be a great improvement. Throw in a HDMI connection and you have a killer Media Center mainboard.
Business is booming for Intel thanks to the little cpu they’ve thrown on the market. It’s cheap to make, has a very nice margin (I suspect) and the computer manufacturers are lining up to use the cpu in their products. Intel is even working on a variant of the cpu for usage in cars.
Yes the Intel atom has a bright future ahead for itself.