Photos: Atom-based mobile Internet devices
(Credit:
Intel)
You can't buy these little gadgets yet, but Intel certainly hopes that starting this summer, you'll buy them in droves.
The gadgets in question are what Intel calls "mobile Internet devices," built upon the diminutive Atom processor that was the star of the chipmaker's IDF Shanghai event this week. Pictured here is a prototype MID from Asus, best known these days for its Eee PC.
Other hardware makers that marched to the beat of Intel's marketing drum at IDF included Lenovo, LG, BenQ, and Panasonic. What they're getting their hands on is a low-cost, low-power processor that might in turn produce some relatively inexpensive gadgets for surfing the Web.
The Atom chip--which is smaller than a penny and ranges in power from 800MHz to 1.8GHz--is due to be officially released in June. Will it turn out to be "as important to Intel as the launch of the Pentium," as Intel's CEO Paul Otellini crowed this week?
It depends, in part, on whether you decide that your notebook PC is already enough of a mobile Internet device for you. Take a look at News.com's gallery to see if something grabs your fancy: "Photos: Atom chip breeds wee gadgets."
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon. 
