Intel ships first dual-core Atom processor
Update on September 21 at 9:10 a.m. with pricing correction.
The single life for Atom is over--or at least one version. Intel said it has begun shipments of the first dual-core version of the Atom processor.
Tranquil PC T7-HSG Home Server uses the dual-core Atom 330
(Credit: Tranquil PC)Atom 330 pricing information and data sheets for customers will go live Monday, according to Intel.
The chipmaker indicated at the Intel Developer Forum in August that it would be shipping the dual-core chip this month.
The power-efficient processor will be targeted at Atom-based desktops called nettops. Currently, Intel offers the single-core Atom N230 processor for this category of small desktops.
At 8 watts, the chip has a higher power envelope than single-core Atom processors. The N230 is rated at 4 watts, while Atom processors for mobile devices such as the Eee PC and Acer Aspire have a thermal envelope of 2 watts.
Other specifications include a core clock speed of 1.6GHz, 1MB of level-2 cache, and support for DDR2 667MHz memory.
It's available as either a package with the Intel 945GC Express chipset (which includes built-in graphics) or as part of the Little Falls2 motherboard, Intel said.
"This is not for Netbooks," an Intel spokesperson cautioned.
But caveats aside, computer makers will do with the chip as they please. And a few may venture to put the chip into a netbook or notebook design. One of the more compelling reasons would be the 8W thermal envelope--far below the standard 35W power envelope of mainstream Intel-based notebooks.
Another reason is price. At $43 in 1,000-unit quantities, this makes it the least expensive dual-core Intel processor, along with the dual-core Celeron processor, also priced at $43.
Note: the price was originally stated as $40. Intel lists the price as of September 21, 2008 at $43.
Tranquil PC, a U.K.-based PC supplier, has already been taking pre-orders for a home server based on the Intel Atom 330.
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, among other endeavors, including co-manager of an after-school math-and-reading center. He writes for the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
- by The1egend September 21, 2008 2:47 PM PDT
- When you multitask you're already taking advantage of two cores. It's dependent on the OS, so when you use XP, your processor load is balanced across the two cores if you are using two or more programs. If the program itself is programmed to be multithreaded, then there can be an additional speed increase. Media playback is really more of an IGP and chipset problem, which won't be solved until the get a newer chipset out than the horrible 945GC. Why it can't or shouldn't be used for netbooks is beyond me. Probably because Intel thinks netbooks are supposed to have extremely long battery lives, and this would hinder that to some degree.
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