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Intel ships first dual-core Atom processor
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 22nd September 2008
Intel has announced that it is now shipping the dual-core 45nm Atom processor that was quietly introduced at the Intel Developer Forum in August.
The chip giant says that the Atom 330 processor is specifically designed for nettops, which means we’re unlikely to see one shoehorned into a netbook.
Indeed, Intel sells the chip as part of an integrated package, which includes an Intel 945GC chipset for desktop use. With that said though, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one manufacturer has already thought about making a new, slightly bulkier netbook based on the Atom 330.
The Atom 330 is clocked at 1.6GHz and features 1MB of L2 cache (512KB per core), support for DDR2-667 memory and an 8W thermal design power. The chip also supports Intel HyperThreading technology, meaning the processor can handle up to four threads simultaneously.
According to Intel’s pricelist, the processor will cost $43 each in 1,000 unit quantities – that’s about 50 percent more than the single-core Atom 230 that shares the same basic feature set (aside from doubling the core count).
Does an Atom 330-based system sound enticing? Let us know in the forums.
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Desktop Atom processor and board combos are in the order of ~$75, so compact notebook versions aren't much costlier. Sooo with features scaled down - no optical drive, integrated graphics, small or solid state HDs, linux OS, small screens, mini-notes/nettops are quite cheap. BUT they're also not intended for heavy duty work or regular computer replacement, so they're dubbed 'nettops' since their implied usage is for brief or on-the-go internet access, as well as other light tasks such as emailing, word processing, etc.
"The chip giant says that the Atom 330 processor is specifically designed for nettops, which means weâre unlikely to see one shoehorned into a netbook."
I think you're explaining the latter. I've no idea what a nettop is either.
Nettop is basically a desktop-based Internet browser.
asstop? assbook?
All fun and pun aside does anyone know of any benchmarks yet? I'm waiting anxiously to see if this will kill off the Via Eden or not. Then I might actually have a candidate board for a new home server.
Which draws 10x the power of the Atom CPU itself.
The Atom NEEDS a low power chipset to call its very own!
Chips in the fish
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=165
But I doubt it will be long before they go into Netbooks, it would be stupid not to.
Saying that though, I love my netbook. Boots quick, does what it says on the tin. And with everything being SSD, I can fling it about the room without any worry of damaging the HDD. Only issue I've found with it so far is that windows doesn't like the SSD, so it won't install (got the version with Linux because it was cheaper, and the only one they had with a SSD).
Not that the idea of a dual atom with hyper threading, simulated quad core in a netbook isn't intriguing.