Intel's Valleyview Atom SoC to Have Multiple Versions

We learned about the Valleyview system-on-chip devices from Intel a few days ago, but the information was sparse, to say the least. 

VR-Zone managed to provide some actual details on the product series, starting with the correct spelling of the brand name. 

At least, we guess it is the correct spelling. Initially, the SoCs were called Valley View but now the report writes the name in a single word: Valleyview. 

Then again, this is not all that important in the end, since the chips will still be called Atom. 

Valleyview (really Valleyview 2) is actually the name of the Atom core, not the SoC itself. The latter is named Bay Trail in fact. 

There will be two versions of Bay Trail, neither of which is intended for consumers. 

There might eventually be a third, user-friendly one somewhere down the line (Atom N or Atom D), but that is pure speculation now. 

One of the planned SoCs is optimized for in-car infotainment systems, while the other is for standard desktop-style applications (and we don't mean standard PCs here). 

Two or four cores will be available, all of them created with the 22nm manufacturing process technology. 

The performance will be about four to seven times superior to the Atom E600, which wasn't really much to be honest. The PowerVR SGX 535 core only reached 400 MHz after all. 

Still, it's a leap and it also bears noting that many chipset features have been integrated into the Valleyview as well. 

Intel will even develop some versions of the SKU with the MIPI-DSI display interface and the MIPI-CSI camera interface. 

This all boils down to a healthy spec list: four PCI Express 1.0 lanes, two SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, SDIO support, four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 connectors, Gigabit Ethernet, DisplayPort, eDP and HDMI. 

Finally, though most SKUs will handle DDR3L memory (up to 8 GB) and even ECC (error-correcting code, only in single-channel), the ones for battery-based electronics will only support LPDDR2. Once Valleyview start shipping, the Santa Clara company may decide to phase out its Celeron series.

Posted in: Hardware, News, Preview