[mythtv-users] Intel Atom...Myth worthy?

[Marc Randolph]

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 4:36 PM, Matt Emmott <memmott at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 5:08 PM, Kevin Kuphal <kkuphal at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> So I saw an article today about Atom motherboards and saw this as an
>> example:
>>
>>
>> http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=8602751&oext=1038A&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=8602751
>>
>> With the Intel chipset and Intel's support for XvMC across their product
>> line, does this make a worthy option for a frontend now?
>> _______________________________________________
>
> I saw that as well and did some Googling for performance benchmarks. I found
> this random note:
>
> "Now, Intel demonstrated the 1.6GHz model, Z530, running CINEBENCH 9.5 with
> and without hyper-threading enabled. The non-HT CPU returned a benchmark
> score of 103, and the HT-enabled model one of 158, as shown above. Putting
> that into some kind of context, an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ benchmarks at 256,
> and, on the other end of the scale, an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 at 1,327
> marks, in a test which is heavily compute-intensive."
> - From
> http://forum.ncix.com/forums/index.php?mode=showthread&forum=101&threadid=1671819&pagenumber=1&msgcount=7&subpage=1&product_id=30092
>
> Some anecdotal comments put it in the realm of the PIII for CPU power, which
> I think would be too slow for an HD FE. Engadget tells me that there will be

The problem isn't the CPU, it's the chipset that is surrounding it.
The linked board on the OP has an old 945GC, so I suspect you're
right.  In the future, however, my understanding is that the hardware
offloading of the new System Controller Hub (SCH) (northbridge +
southbridge), is specifically designed to handle 1080i and H.264[1].

> a dual-core version of this CPU soon, so it may have promise in a few months
> once it matures. The other question I have is about the GMA 950 video - I've
> heard that Intel has opened their code dramatically and we can hope for
> better XVMC support at some point? Is it ready now or would we want to drop
> a Geforce card in that slot (Assuming the CPU could handle HD)?
>
> Seems like a hacked $199 AppleTV is still the sweet spot for an HD FE at the
> moment, IMHO.

But it's limited to MPEG-2, isn't it?

   Marc

[1] http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/embedded/SCHUS15W/index.htm