14 DAY TRIAL // As we mentioned before in a couple of articles, Intel's Atom processor has become one of the company's most successful products. And that's mainly because of a number of manufacturers that have announced their intentions of releasing their own Atom-powered, small sized computer systems, most of which are supposed to be competitors for ASUS' Eee PC.
And because the Santa Clara-based chip maker has seen the marketing potential of its low-power Atom chip, it has decided to launch a dual-core version. The new processor will be compatible with current Atom-ready motherboards, which are based on the BGA 437 socket. Built on a dual-core architecture, this Intel processor is expected to provide a maximum core speed of 1.6GHz, running with a 533FSB and equipped with 1MB of cache.
The dual core processor will be dubbed Atom 330 and recent reports have indicated that it will sell for approximately $43. What is interesting about this price tag is that Intel directly sets its Atom chip close to the Celeron price range. But as we reported a few days back, the company's CEO, Paul Otellini said that the Atom will cannibalize the Celeron lineup, as it is designed for a different product category. Even so, some Celeron-based devices are expected to switch to the Atom 330, once the new CPU is released and ready for shipment.
And according to fudzilla, the dual-core Atom 330 is expected to arrive sometime in Q4, rather than Q3 as it was previously planned. Apparently, the new processor will launch on September 21st, but it will not be ready for shipping until Q4. Users should expect the $43 price tag to be a starting point for the new CPU, with the retail price tags to be slightly above that. It will also be interesting to know whether ASUS will be planning some other Eee PC versions with the coming of the new Atom processor.