Dual-core Atom from Intel boosts netbook prices

19th May, 2010 by adina
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Plans to launch Intel’s next-generation dual-core Atom processors dedicated to netbooks during this summer is said, according to new information, to bring up notebook prices. Current netbooks based on Atom 1.6GHz N455 or 1.83GHz N475 are meant to cost from $250 to $350 in the near future. The new N550 with 1GB of DDR3 RAM and larger 20-32GB SSDs or with a 250GB hard drive will push suggested netbook prices to $350 and $400.

A part of this increase is due to minor specification boosts, because existing netbooks have 16 to 32GB SSD drives or hard drives from 160 to 250GB and 512MB to 1GB of RAM. They run Windows usually and use Linux at the very low end.

The N550 processor should have a clock speed of 1.5GHz and 1M of cache memory, but would only require 8.5W of power at its thermal peak. This would make it require only slightly more battery power than single-core Atom architecture. The N550 will equip typical netbooks that have screen sizes up to 10.2 inches.


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