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Intel’s Trio of Atom Processors
Smaller and more Efficient. That’s how they call it. This is Intel’s trio of new Atom processors. The new chips will enable hardware vendors to create smaller, cooler and more power efficient netbooks. This doesn’t include the desktop equivalent of netbooks – nettops.
The three Atom processors include Intel’s integrated graphics functionality in the CPU, as well as the memory controller functionality, which eliminates the need for one of the two chips that make up the traditional motherboard chipset. The new Atom CPU’s are 60 percent smaller than their predecessors, and consume 20 percent less power–50 percent for the nettops processors.
The actual power consumption ratings of these new processors are actually higher than its predecessors. But taking into considerations the additional functions, the overall power consumptions is still less.
Drawing less power also means generating less heat. And less heat means cooler system that manufacturers may be able to leave out the cooling fan. Combined with more energy efficient SSD drives, the resulting netbook hardware could run virtually silent and extend battery life at the same time.
Intel has already been shipping the new Atom processors and motherboard chipset to hardware manufacturers. Systems built on the new architecture will be available the first week of 2010 from a variety of vendors including Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, and others.
