Intel, AMD ramp up chip game

“System builders take PC type products and build PC solutions and some vertical solutions off of PCs. I haven’t seen a lot of them want to go down to the board level in terms of programming the CPU for specific I/P and services and whatnot,” Dallman said.

“We’re seeing so many designs right now, including 3,800 different engagements and 1,500 design wins. System builders will resell products that these Atom products are in.”

Dallman added that Intel had only reached the “tip of the iceberg” as far as the possibilities for its Atom product lineup.

It may, in fact, be too early to tell how far down the iceberg sits, as many system builders haven’t had a chance to get their hands on it yet, even though it stands to reason that an improved economy will make it easier to resell any product.

“We have not worked with Sandy Bridge at all yet,” said Michael Rathburn, senior technical specialist at Applied Systems Associates.

“We have used Atom processors in some industrial panel PCs that we have sold. They worked well and did so at a low voltage and stayed fairly cool, which was important. All of Intel’s offerings will prob- ably do better this year as the economy improves.”

Despite the anticipated success of Sandy Bridge, one Intel partner offered a long term corrective to a problem that may be caused by Intel’s adherence to a “tick-tock” strategy, whereby products are brought to market based on a strict, fast-paced road map that may not be suited for a bearish economy.

“If Intel were to launch a series of Sandy Bridge-based Atom platforms that are available for two or more years, as they do on some of their server and workstation platforms, and with a better price-to-functionality ratio, they will definitely do well in the channel,” said the partner, a system builder who asked not to be named.

Sees Energy In The Channel Behind Fusion

Compared to other integrated graphics solutions such as AMD’s Fusion and Nvidia’s ARM-based Tegra 2, both of which launched at CES along with Sandy Bridge and were featured inside several consumer devices, Intel’s channel chief says the product itself will make the difference regardless of the surrounding strategy.

Dallman said that the graphics capability on Sandy Bridge is strong for an integrated CPU-GPU platform and that with its video and media capabilities, Sandy Bridge will offer a much-needed refresh for a lot of graphics applications in the near future.

“Intel’s got a lot of work cut out for them,” Stromquist said. “They’ve been taking steps by forming a netbook and tablet divi- sion to get some design wins. I think they’ll be a player in these devices one way or another.”