Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Intel Atom x86-64 support

Several Intel Atom models support x86-64 architecture, such as the D400 and D500 series. Upon closer inspection, these models support "only" 36-bits physical address, which translates to 64GB. To me, this seems like the PAE mechanism supported by x86 processors since the Pentium Pro era. In contrast, Intel Core i7 (and other Nehalem derivative) as well as AMD Family 10h CPUs(Phenom II, Athlon II, and others in the same generation ) supports 48-bits physical address.

Anyway, a lot of interesting stuffs are in the Intel Atom datasheet volume 2, which can be downloaded from:
http://www.intel.com/products/processor/atom/techdocs.htm