Intel rolls out the new Atom N550 Processor

Intel has launched the first dual-core mobile processor, “Atom N550″, which has the potential to improve the performance of netbooks while retaining longer battery life.

Atom 330 was the first dual-core Atom processor which was based on a desktop processor design. But, Atom N550 is the first dual-core Atom processor based on the mobile platform, which gives a better battery life.

Netbooks have been around for a couple of years now, running on a single core until today. The Atom N550 processor is indeed a big upgrade for netbooks. Operating at a speed of 1.5GHz and having 1MB of cache, this processor will be far more responsive than single-core Atom processors, according to the hardware giant.

Since netbooks are made primarily to surf the Internet, they are designed to be low-cost and ultra portable. As such they can not replace the regular PC or a laptop. The processing power of all the Atom chips, including the new N550, are not adequate for heavy usage and they cannot match the mainstream processors.

However, as the netbooks are gaining more popularity over the low-end laptops, Intel’s Celeron processor could be hit hard. The Celeron processors are typically found in low-end laptops.

“Netbook performance could catch up with that of laptops as a result, but may also temporarily create confusion among buyers… Intel has to improve the performance of its laptop chips to effectively separate the categories.” said Dean McCarron (principal analyst at Mercury Research), adding that it will ultimately happen.

The Atom N550 will be made using a 45-nanometer manufacturing process and it will support the faster DDR3 memory. But the maximum memory capacity will still be 2GB and the same old Intel GMA 3150 graphics accelerator will be in use.

According to Intel, several new netbooks will hit the market soon, equipped with the new Atom N550 processor. Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba will be the first ones to rollout.

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