Intel's third Atom desktop processor based on the Cedarview architecture

Mar 6, 2012 00:01 GMT  ·  By

A little bit more than two months after the introduction of its first 32nm Atom processors based on the Cedarview architecture, Intel updated its product portfolio to include another such chip, dubbed the Atom D2550.

The processor, which was first spotted at the beginning of this year, was recently added by the chip maker to its ARK product database, indicating that this SKU is now launched.

According to CPU-World, the newly introduced Atom D2550 comes as a hybrid between the Atom D2500 and the D2700.

This means that the CPU works at the same 1.86GHz clock speed as the D2500, but unlike its less powerful sibling it also includes support for Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology and a more powerful on-board GPU clocked at 640MHz.

All these, together with 1MB of Level 2 cache memory, fit inside a 10 Watt TDP.

Despite detailing its specifications, Intel still hasn’t listed the price of the Atom D2550, but this should be placed somewhere between the $42 (about 32 EUR) Atom D2500 and the $52 (39 EUR) Atom D2700.

Intel Cedarview processors are the first Atom chips to be built using the 32nm fabrication process and feature a unified architecture that packs both the computing cores and the graphics core on the same die.

The computing cores use the same design as their predecessors, but the operating frequencies have been increased in order to allow for better performance.

More important changes were brought on the graphics front, where the CPUs have gained hardware decoding support for MPEG2, VC1, AVC, and H.264 Full HD content, as well as other formats.

The first low-power devices based on Intel’s Atom D2550 processor are expected to arrive in retail in the coming months.