Intel first made mention of its upcoming dual-core Atom for netbooks back at Computex, and now it’s making good on its promise with the ready-to-ship Atom N550. The chip operates at 1.5GHz, with 1MB of cache and support for DDR3 memory, and ” similar” battery life to the Atom N450. Intel is billing it as a more ” responsive” experience, that may make sense as a selling point to anyone who has attempted any serious multitasking on a netbook. YouTube and Hulu also get first paragraph billing in Intel’s press release, and we’ll feel free to discover out those claims after we get our hands on a netbook with the N550 under the hood. Unfortunately, while Intel claims that netbooks based on the processor are available ” in stores today,” we don’t know of any shipping just yet — naturally, we have our eyes peeled. MSI and Lenovo actually denied plans for the chip to us, despite their inclusion in Intel’s PR, but we do know the upcoming ASUS 1015PN (which is also packing NVIDIA ION graphics) will pack the N550 when it hits. Hardly a landslide so far, but we’re sure we’ll eventually see enough N550 to be sick of it, in traditional netbook fashion. In semi-related news, Intel is also proud to announce that it’s shipped over 70 million Atom netbook chips since it started on this crazy ultraportable journey back in 2008. PR is after the break.
Sales from Acer, ASUS, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI, Toshiba and others start today and through end of the year.
Intel has shipped more than 70 million Intel® Atom™ netbook chips since its 2008 launch.
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 23, 2010 – Intel Corporation announced today that a dozen of new netbooks based on its new mobile dual-core Intel® Atom™ processors come in stores today. The netbooks – available now and through the end of the year from manufacturers including Acer, ASUS, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba – enable new levels of support for applications like games, as well as Adobe Flash* technology for access to a number of Web pages including online hotel booking systems and multimedia sites such as YouTube* and Hulu*.
” Acer strives to continually improve on our customers’ total mobile experience, whether it is increased responsiveness or extended Internet interactivity through longer battery life,” said David Lee, associate vice president of Acer’s Mobile Computing Business Unit. ” We are pleased to select dual-core Intel Atom processors for Acer netbooks, helping to empower netbook users achieve even more – both at work and at leisure.”
With the dual-core Intel® Atom™ processor N550, consumers can enjoy Internet access on the go with a more responsive experience in the same compact form factor, DDR3 memory support and similar great battery life as the single-core Intel® Atom™ processor N450.
” In their short history, the netbook category has experienced impressive growth,” said Erik Reid, director of marketing for mobile platforms at Intel. ” Having shipped about 70 million Intel Atom chips for netbooks since our launch of the category in 2008, there is obviously a great market for these devices around the world.”
New netbooks based on dual-core Intel Atom chips arrive in stores today and are available in at a variety of consumer-friendly price points. For more information, visit www.intel.com/products/processor/atom.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.
Intel, Atom and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation within the United states of america and other countries.
* Other names and brands could be claimed as the property of others.
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