Intel Atom vs VIA Nano - Early Benchmarks

Both the VIA Nano and Intel Atom processors and platforms have their own positives and drawback but it was really the VIA Nano L2100 processor that impressed me the most. Coming from a very small CPU design team here in the US, the Isaiah architecture is able to outperform Intel's similarly priced and placed Atom processor while offering a much more open platform design. In theory this should allow OEMs and end-users to be much more creative with their Nano implementations than Atom - we'll be eager to see what retail products form around this very potent product. As for VIA, they are basically betting it all on the Nano - it's all or nothing from here on out.

When it comes to a sheer performance comparison, the VIA Nano rules and the Intel Atom drools. The Nano is simply superior in so many ways when side-by-side with Intel Atom, but that is more from our “power geek” perspective. From our experiences here, the VIA Nano looks to be much better choice than the Intel Atom in the “mini-note” or notebook market. Conversely, the Intel Atom looks to be best equipped for what it was truly designed for and that is Mobile Internet Devices and Ultra Mobile PCs that are not Windows based. The Atom pulls much less power and is smaller in die size due to its forward-looking 45nm fabrication process and less transistors. The Nano we looked at here consumes up to 5X more power (25 watts TDP is spec) and is huge compared to Atom (63mm² vs. 25mm²). As you can see on the linked slide though, VIA has plans for Nano all the way down to 5 watt TDP power envelopes so it will be very interesting to see how Atom and Nano compare at lower speeds and wattages.