Intel Now Shipping New Dual Core Atom N550

By Marcus Yam
published

Netbooks to get a little bit more capable thanks to an additional CPU core.

The Atom CPU is a bit stronger today thanks to Intel's roll out the a new dual-core version that has found homes in a dozen of new netbooks available in stores.

Intel says that the new dual-core model is better equipped to handle multimedia, especially web technology using Adobe Flash, including online hotel booking systems and multimedia sites such as YouTube and Hulu.

According to Intel, the dual-core Atom N550 will achieve "similar" battery life as the single-core Atom N450.

"In their short history, the netbook category has experienced impressive growth," said Erik Reid, director of marketing for mobile platforms at Intel. "Having shipped about 70 million Intel Atom chips for netbooks since our launch of the category in 2008, there is obviously a great market for these devices around the world."

Acer, ASUS, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba are among the OEMs with new systems based on the new CPU.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
33 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cmartin011
    Oh Boy!!!!
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    ... is this chip x64 capable?
    Reply
  • welshmousepk
    Would have been nice to have not needed to google for the clockspeed.

    anyways, this is pretty cool. hopefully we will se a nice 10 inch netbook with one of these and a 9400m. would make for a reasonable light gaming machine. considering how well i was able to get some stuff running on the single core atom N10j from asus, this could offer a nice boost.

    Reply
  • decode
    I'm waiting for bobcat, It sound's as if to be better than Atom, but only time will tell.
    Reply
  • insider3
    Waiting another year for the quads. It's bound to happen.
    Reply
  • Godfail
    insider3Waiting another year for the quads. It's bound to happen.
    Doubt it. The point of a netbook is efficiency, the point of a quad is power.
    Reply
  • cookoy
    is this chip x64 capable?

    Yes according to Intel website. Seems to be a valid question. Wonder why people flag it down.
    Reply
  • wotan31
    What a pointless chip. The dual-core Atom 330 has been out since 2008. The 330 had a higher clock speed too. This "new" 550 is simply the 330 with a die-shrink, and a slower clock speed. So what? Old technology, no thanks. The reason Netbook vendors never used the 330, is that Microsoft didn't allow them to install Netbook or Tablet Edition of Windows on a dual-core processor. Microsoft demanded single-core only for the those editions, which means the OEM's would have had to use the much-more-expensive Home edition on a dual-core netbook. The whole situation is stupid.
    Reply
  • Aragorn
    The 330 used too much power for a net book. They were used in Nettops with ultra cheap windows.
    Reply
  • Dkz
    I think they should focus a bit more on the chip-set to enhance it's multimedia capabilities.
    I'm not talking about games.. for the easy jumpers out there..
    Reply