INTEL ATOM

Newly designed from the ground up, the Intel® Atom™ processor is based on entirely new hafnium-based 45nm microarchitecture. Representing Intel's smallest and lowest power processor yet¹, the Intel® Atom™ processor enables a new generation of powerful and energy-efficient Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and a new category of simple devices for the internet called netbooks and nettops that will be available at affordable prices.

Delivering new design possibilities due to its remarkably small size and performance-per-watt advantages, the Intel Atom processor provides:

* Performance for a great internet experience in a range of sub 1 watt to 4 watt thermal power envelope based on industry leading benchmarks (EEMBC) and web page rendering performance
* Greater energy efficiency for mobile devices enabled by incredibly low average power and idle power, scaling performance from 800MHz to 1.86GHz
* Power-optimized front side bus of up to 533MHz for faster data transfer on demanding mobile applicationsΔ
* Scalable performance and increased power efficiency with multi-threading support²
* Improved performance on multimedia and gaming applications with support for Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSE3)
* Improved power management with new Deep Power Down (C6) enabled on the Intel® Atom™ processor Z5xx series for MIDs, and extended C4 states enabled on Intel® Atom™ processor N270 for netbooks, in addition to non-grid clock distribution, clock gating, CMOS bus mode, and other power saving architectural features
* Low TDP enabled by improved power management technologies delivering high performance to run the real Internet and a broad range of softwar
Intel apparently doesn't want its Atom processor --- commonly used in low-power, low-cost netbooks -- to become too popular and cannibalize sales of its faster, more profitable chips.

So the chip maker is deliberately holding upgrades to the Atom processors to a minimum to try to steer consumers to regular laptops:

To be clear, Intel has always been quick to say that Atom is not designed as a high-performance processor and ardently tries to dampen excessive expectations. CEO Paul Otellini and other executives have stated clearly in many forums (regularly in earnings conference calls, for example) that Netbooks are a "complementary" device to a notebook and meant for casual Internet usage only.

And Intel is going to take this a step further later this year by plugging the hole between cheap Netbooks and pricey ultraportables with a new processor for less-expensive ultraportables. More than anything, this chip is meant to send a message: Netbook performance will be capped. Want something more than a Netbook? You will need to buy an ultraportable with a chip from Intel's more mainstream Core architecture lineup.

Well, okay, if Intel wants to try to undermine its own customers' requests, that's certainly its prerogative.

But Intel may not have the market for netbook processors to itself much longer, as other processor makers are getting in the game. There are particularly high hopes for the Nano netbook processor from Via.

That chip is proving a little longer to get to market than many had hoped, but it is coming. And if consumers want more performance out of their low-cost netbooks, and Via is able to supply that extra boost while Intel is not, well, I'm guessing most Intel fans will be happy to "think different."