Intel Starts Shipping N280 Atom Processors, New Netbooks on the Way

Santa Clara, California-based Intel is said to have started shipping its next-generation Atom N280 processor, designed for low-cost portable computer systems such as netbooks. The news comes to confirm the upcoming netbook systems that will be based on the new processor. There's still no official shipping date for any of these netbooks, but we might see a range of new products being released in the next months.

Intel initially launched its Atom processor as a product designed for devices that are capable of supporting apps such as Web surfing and office applications. However, these devices, also known as netbooks, have grown apart from their initial purpose, as some users see them as smaller versions of fully-fledged computer systems, providing support for HD video rendering, through the help of improved graphics capabilities. The new Intel Atom processor brings just that, as it is paired with a new GN40 chipset that includes a hardware-based high-definition video decoder.

In comparison with the first Intel Atom processor released, the N270 designed for low-end, low-cost computer systems, the new N280 runs at a clock speed of 1.66GHz, but with a power draw that is similar to that of the N270, namely 2.5watts. This enables the chip to provide an enhanced performance level, while keeping battery consumption to a minimum. In addition, the new GN40 appears to provide a better support than Intel's first 945GSE chipset.

The low-performance levels achieved by the 945GSE chipset gave NVIDIA a window of opportunity, which the chip maker took by introducing its Ion platform, which enables netbooks to display 1080p content, also providing better overall performance for Atom-based systems. However, NVIDIA's Ion is still to make its way into an upcoming netbook, by which time we should see some comparative tests between Intel's new GN40 chipset and NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M graphics chip.