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Intel’s Atom processor is no powerhouse, but inside a netbook with a 10″ screen it can handle web surfing, general office-like duties, and give you 5-8 hours of productivity between charges.
The single-core version of the chip seen in most netbooks does struggle if you want to do anything more than basic everyday tasks, though. A dual-core version of Atom does exist giving you more processing power while still using very little power as my nettop build proved. But that chip has been used mostly in nettops, and not netbooks.
During an earnings conference call on Tuesday Intel CEO Paul Otellini detailed how the Atom situation was going to change this year. A new dual-core Atom chip is coming in the 2nd quarter of 2010, and it is aimed squarely at the netbook market:
The next innovation coming out on Atom is dual core, which comes out in the second quarter. I still think there will be significant growth in the Netbook business year-over-year. Features and integration (of silicon) are the technical knobs to twist here.
We can therefore expect a number of manufacturers to refresh their netbook line-up post-June to include a new dual-core Atom chip.
