14 DAY TRIAL // Intel did say it wasn't going to drop the Atom brand and, sure enough, a couple of D-Series Atoms based on a more advanced manufacturing process have now made their debut.
The Atom brand is one that Intel has used for quite some time, with the netbook and nettop market being the main one responsible for all the attention it got from the media.
Now though, netbooks and nettops have lost much of their thunder, and there were even rumors that the Santa Clara, California-based company would drop the Atom brand altogether.
Intel was quite fast in coming forth and dispelling those rumors, and the arrival of two new, Cedar Trail chips from the series underscores its statement.
The new chips go by the names of Atom D2500 and D2700 and are constructed on the 32nm manufacturing process technology.
They are aimed at nettops (low-end desktops, hence the D) and will be followed by the mobile N2600 and N2800 at some point in the future.
Both newcomers are dual-core units with prices of $42 (31 Euro) and $52 (38.39 Euro) in quantities of one thousand.
The major difference between the two, besides the clock frequencies, is the fact that the D2700, being the stronger of the pair, boasts hyper-Threading technology.
Speaking of clocks, the D2500 has the core and graphics working at 1.86 GHz and 400 MHz, respectively, while the D2700 works at 2.13 GHz and 640 MHz, respectively.
The rest of their specs are mostly identical, with a cache memory (L2) of 1 MB and a TDP (thermal design power) of 10W.
Users that buy systems powered by one of these items, or make one themselves, can expect to enjoy HDMI and DisplayPort connectivity, on-chip decoding of HD video formats, fast memory access and DirectX 10.1 support.
The upcoming N-series will feature the above as well, though a significantly lower TDP, although it does come at a cost of slightly lower frequencies. The NM10 chipset was preserved.