Next-gen Atom N470 to relax netbook spec restrictions slightly further

Netbook specs have been held in check by Microsoft and Intel’s dizzying array of rules and restrictions for low-cost machines, but now that Windows 7 is out and Intel’s getting ready to release the next generation of Atom chips it sounds like things are about to get slightly better. Microsoft has already started allowing netbook manufacturers to load Windows 7 Home Premium on machines without restrictions, and now Fudzilla says Intel will lift the 1GB RAM limit from Atom machines when the 1.83GHz N470 Pine Trail chip hits in March. That means we’ll start to see more of a range of netbook specs going forward, but the low-end will probably still be dominated by Windows 7 Starter and the Atom N450, which will still be limited to 1GB of RAM, so don’t expect to be happy with the cheap stuff anytime soon.

[Via Slashgear]

Filed under: Laptops

Next-gen Atom N470 to relax netbook spec restrictions slightly further originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This post is tagged: atom, atom n470, AtomN470, Intel, Microsoft, n470, Netbook, nettop, pine trail, PineTrail, starter, windows 7 starter, Windows7Starter