![\"Intel](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Intel-Silvermont-feature.jpg\")
<\/a>Intel Silvermont improvements<\/p><\/div>\n
Silvermont improves a lot of things in the Atom lineup, bringing the ageing 2007-era design up to modern standards thanks to Intel’s lessons learned with Sandy and Ivy Bridge processors and the Atom chips that have been powering smartphones. Bay Trail will change a lot of things for low-power devices but one thing that no-one anticipated was Intel’s plans for the budget desktop market.<\/p>\n
In the interview with PC World, Gill said that, “because of the advancements and flexibility of the Silvermont micro-architecture, we can customize the Bay Trail feature sets and develop variants of Bay Trail that will power a new crop of computing products at a variety of price points.” Many took that to mean that Atom simply has uses in other markets like servers but what if its going to the desktop instead?<\/p>\n
Its possible that in future Intel can scale up the clock speed and power profile of the Atom and turn on a few features to make a new, more powerful product for the desktop. Intel could use it to power the Celeron and Pentium lines, which are currently based on Ivy Bridge.<\/p>\n
If this surprises you, consider that Intel hasn’t made desktop processors for quite some time – LGA 2011 products are from the server market, while LGA1155 Sandy and Ivy Bridge-based processors are scaled up chips from designs originally made for laptops. The last proper desktop processor the company made was the Pentium 4.<\/p>\n