ASUS Eee PC 1005PE: Pineview Arrives
by Jarred Walton on December 21, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
ASUS Eee PC 1005PE: Pineview Arrives
Way back in the day (Fall of 2007 to be exact), ASUS launched a little device called the Eee PC. It was very light and portable and it could do basic computing, but that was about it. Some people loved the original Eee PC, but I wasn't one of them.
The Eee PC would eventually grow up to deliver 9.1", 10.1", 11.6", and even 12.1" models. The larger chassis sizes allow for a few additional features, but the core concept remains largely the same: deliver a small laptop that can run the software people need, along with some of the software they want. If your needs include gaming or computationally complex tools, you'll still want to look elsewhere, but for basic office and Internet use a netbook will suffice. What's more, netbooks can achieve all day computing on a single charge, so many are willing to trade performance for battery life.
One of the other changes in the netbook market has been improved CPUs. The original underclocked Celeron found in the Eee PC 2G/4G was very limiting, and for the performance offered it wasn't very efficient. When Intel released the Atom CPUs, netbooks received a dramatic boost in performance and battery life. Today marks the launch of the newest Atom CPUs, previously code-named Pineview.
As we have already discussed, Pineview isn't designed to provide a radical improvement in performance, but instead it focuses on the mobility factor. At the same clock speeds, Pineview should be about 10% faster than the previous Diamondville processors, give or take. The more interesting aspect of Pineview is that the GPU and memory controller are now integrated into the CPU package. Where previously Atom had to get by with outdated chipsets manufactured using a relatively archaic 90nm process technology, now the entire package is manufactured using Intel's latest and greatest high-K 45nm technology. The result as you might imagine is a significant decrease in power requirements, so if nothing else Pineview should improve battery life on netbooks.
The integrated graphics are updated from the old GMA 950, although the upgrade isn't particularly noteworthy. The new part is dubbed GMA 3150, which is similar to the GMA 3100. That makes the 3150 a DX9 part with SM3 provided via software rather than being built into the hardware. The only significant difference between GMA 950 and 3150 appears to be support for OpenGL 1.5 with the 3000 series parts, plus slightly higher clocks. Most of the 10% performance increase with Pineview is going to come from the integrated memory controller (IMC). Gaming and HD video decoding are sadly still neglected.
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JOEyGADGET - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
I bought a 100PE thinking I could use eeectl to boost the screen brightness to the ultrabright setting the way I boosted the brightness on previous ASUS netbooks. However eeectl ultrabright setting has no effect. Anyone know how to force the 1005PE to turn on or activate ultrabright setting? At its brightest setting the 1005PE is simply too dim for my eyes. Suggestions welcome and appreciated. Thanks, JOEyGADGETProDigit - Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - link
I totally stopped reading after page 4, where the results became opposite of tomshardware results, and opposite of logic.The memory controller is on chip, and yet it's slower than a separate?
Don't make me laugh!
Really, for benchmarks you don't need to be with anandtech, for they just paste some stupid numbers there that won't make any sense whatsoever!
Then again, tomshardware is only interested in running 3D mark and Crysis tests!
whatthehey - Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - link
You, sir, are a moron if you are going to compare the THG article with this one. Unless I'm mistaken, the only Pine Trail article is this one:http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/atom-d510-d510...">http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/atom-d510-d510...
See the problem? One, they're testing D510, not a netbook. Two, they don't have results for old Atom N280 and new Atom N450. Three, you're trusting THG, a site known to have sold out on too many occasions to even begin to count, just like HardOCP.
Which results in this article are wrong? PCMark is all over the map, which as they point out is pretty much par for the course. Don't trust PCMark05, and there aren't any meaningful points of comparison for Vantage. They would need to show other netbooks with Windows 7 Starter, and they don't have that here.
In short, to be "opposite" of some other site, they actually have to compare the same sort of hardware. AnandTech has a separate D510 article, but D510 isn't a netbook. Looks to me like the N450 has no reason to be faster. Same cache instead of the desktop, where the D510 has twice the cache size compared to 330.
Please take the THG trolling and go elsewhere. THG ceased to be relevant right around the time that Thomas Pabst stopped being the head honcho.
foolsgambit11 - Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - link
It looks like in the next couple years, we'll see Atom-derivatives relegated to MIDs and CULV-derivatives taking it's place for netbooks/nettops. I think this was Intel's stated objective for Atom from the beginning, right?geok1ng - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link
The very simple reason that Pineview sucks soo much is that Intel want to push the crappy GMA 3150 and the sluggish 4500HD down our troats. Another point for the Asus UL80vt, Dell 14z, Ions. The consumer cant have both products:a good GPU and a good enough CPU.Fanfoot - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link
I'm surprised that Intel had the GMA 500 core available to them, yet the GPU they've paired with the N450 is still so anemic. The battery life is certainly nice, but the inability to play HD Flash is seriously questionable.piroroadkill - Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - link
GMA500 is a decent product with godawful driver supportShadowmaster625 - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link
Sempron M100 is lurking about out there. And I cant find much of any info on it. Can you guys try to find and review a Sempron M100 notebook with HD4200 graphics and a decent size battery? If you do can you play around with underclocking/undervolting it?JarredWalton - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link
I've been trying to get *any* of the 45nm AMD laptops. I'll continue working on it, as I'm quite interested in seeing what they can do for power reqs. Turion II Ultra + HD 4200 seems like it should at least be competitive with dual-core ION (i.e. ASUS 1201N), but I'm not sure AMD is going to get power requirements down low enough.MamiyaOtaru - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link
"When Intel released the Atom CPUs, netbooks received a dramatic boost in performance and battery life"Battery life, yes. Performance, not so much. In single threaded apps, the Celeron was faster than the Atom. Overall, having that second thread was nice, but raw performance wasn't helped so much