Since day one, Intel’s Atom chips have come in two flavors: desktop and mobile. While the desktop chips have come in dual core and single core versions, the Atom chips designed for netbooks and other portable devices have traditionally been single core only. But it looks like that could soon change.

PC Inpact reports that Intel may be working on a dual core Atom chip for netbooks. It will reportedly be called something like the Atom N500, which makes sense, since the latest dual core chip for desktops is called the Atom D510 — and most of the company’s netbook-specific chips have started with the letter N, such as the Atom N270, N280, N450, and N470.

Up until now, any PC maker that wanted to build a laptop with a dual core Atom processor had to use a desktop chip such as the Atom 330 dual core CPU found in the Asus Eee PC 1201N. But those chips tend to draw more power and generate more heat than chips designed forВ  netbooks.

Bear in mind, even with two cores, an Atom chip is an Atom chip. They’re designed as low cost, low power alternatives to beefier processors. As such, I’d expect the Atom N500 to be a little faster than a single core Atom processor and better at multitasking and other tasks which can benefit from multiple cores. But don’t expect miracles.

There’s no word on how much the Atom N500 would cost or when it would be released. And right now, this is just a rumor, although PC Inpact reports that the information comes from companies that work with Intel.

via Blogeee

As expected, Intel has officially introduced a slightly faster version of its Intel Atom Pine Trail chipset. While the Atom N450 clocks in at 1.66GHz, the new Atom N470 processor has a clock speed of .83GHz. It has 512k of L2 cache and supports DDR2 667 memory. Like the Atom N450, the new platform combines graphics and memory functions onto a single chip.

What’s interesting is that some netbooks on display at CeBIT this week are apparently using even newer chips such as Atom N455 and N475 processors. What’s the difference? As far as I can tell, these chips will be compatible with DDR3 memory. But I wouldn’t expect any speed boost.

Engadget’s Joanna Stern is in the process of reviewing a Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t with an Atom N470 processor. And she reports that it doesn’t feel noticeably faster than a netbook with an Atom N450 processor in day to day performance, and it didn’t score significantly higher in benchmarks. But if you’re of the opinion that every .16GHz counts, it sounds like most major netbook makers will beВ  launching products based on the new chipset very soon.

Word on the street is that Intel will officially introduce the Atom N470 Pine Trail chip on Monday. And when I say Street, I mean that’s what CNET and PC World are reporting, stealing a little bit of Intel’s thunder. Of course, there wasn’t much thunder left in the bag after Lenovo, Gigabyte, and other PC makers started showing off products with the N470 chip, only to later remove those product pages.

The Intel Atom N470 will clock in at 1.83GHz, making it a bit faster than the 1.66GHz Atom N450 chip found in a wide range of recently launched netbooks. Like the N450, the Atom N470 platform will combine the CPU and graphics controller on a single chip. It’s a single core processor, but it supports hyperthreading.

While the Atom N470 will offer a slight performance boost over the Atom N450 chip, I imagine it will also draw a little more power, which could take a toll on battery life. But the Pine Trail netbooks I’ve played with so far tend to get stellar battery life of anywhere from 6 to 11 hours of run time. So a little bit of extra power drain probably won’t be the end of the world.

PC World suggests that Atom N470-based netbooks could begin shipping as early as next week.

Intel’s Atom processors all have a few things in common. They’re low power, low cost chips designed for low cost, low power devices. Intel recently rolled out its “Pine Trail” Atom N450 and N470 chips which replace the N270 and N280 processors that had been powering netbooks for much of 2008 and 2009. But Japanese web site PC Watch reports that Intel might also have a new Atom platform code-named “Oak Trail” up its sleeve.

The idea is that Oak Trail would replace the Atom Z5xx series processors found in a handful of mobile devices including the Sony Vaio P mini-laptop and Asus Eee PC T91MT touchscreen tablet. The Z520, Z530 and other Z-series processors tend to use less power than the Intel Atom N-series processors, and have GMA 500 graphics, which offers HD video acceleration, but overall more sluggish performance.

According to PC Watch, Oak Trail chips would consume less energy than Pine Trail processors. But unlike the Intel Atom Moorestown platform which is designed only for tablets and smartphones such as the OpenTablet 7 and LG GW990, Oak Trail chips could power netbooks running Windows.

At least, I think that’s what PC Watch is saying. Google Translate is no substitute for lessons in Japanese.

via Netbook News.de and Heise

While there are plenty of folks working on netbook-specific operating systems (a la Google Chrome OS, Moblin Linux, and Eeebuntu), the Jolicloud team seems intent on ensuring that their OS works on every netbook in the known world. A few weeks ago the Jolicloud team announced it was working on support for netbooks with VIA C7-M and Intel Atom Pine Trail processors. Today Pine Trail support is official.

Current Jolicloud users can install the new version by performing a system update and rebooting their computers. New users can grab Jolicloud from the download page.

Jolicloud has added a number of new Pine Trail netbooks to its compatibility page, including the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3, Asus Eee PC 1005PE, MSI Wind U135, and HP Mini 210. Oh yeah, and one of the coolest features? Jolicloud now supports 1080p HD video playback on netbooks with Pine Trail processors.

It looks like Intel’s new Pine Trail processors will be getting an update in the third quarter of 2010. But don’t expect a major change in speed, power consumption, or overall performance. The only real difference is that the new chips will support DDR3 RAM while the current Intel Atom N450 and N470 chips can only handle DDR2 RAM.

Fudzilla reports that the new processors will bear the N455 and N475 names. Since they’re due out in the second half of the year, it’s reasonable to assume we may see a number of new netbook models released in the third quarter. But I was kind of expecting that anyway.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about support for DDR3 chips. Fudzilla had a similar report in December. But at the time there was no mention of a launch date.

Over the past month or so we’ve seen a number of PC makers introduce new netbooks with Intel’s latest Atom N450 Pine Trail processors. But what about the desktop equivalents? Asus, MSI, ASRock, Zotac, Shuttle, and a number of other nettop makers are still selling mini-desktop PCs with Intel Atom 230 and 330 processors which are starting to look a little dated.

But according to Sascha at Netbook News.de, we should start seeing new nettops from major PC makers soon. Sascha spends a fair bit of his time talking to the Taiwanese companies that make these products, and he thinks he knows what they’re all waiting for: NVIDIA ION 2.

While NVIDIA pushed its Tegra 2 platform pretty hard at CES in January, the company hasn’t really been talking about ION 2 yet. And that’s largely because PC makers wanted to give existing ION netbooks and nettops a little more time on the market before bringing out something new. But NVIDIA is widely expected to introduce its next generation ION platform at CeBIT in March, and that could open the floodgates.

Until we have more details about ION 2, it’s a bit too early to say how the new nettops will perform in terms of graphics capability, overall performance, and energy consumption. But if you’re looking for something with a little more oomph it might be worth waiting a few months. On the other hand, there are plenty of nettops available today for under $400 that would make excellent home theater PCs or inexpensive gaming machines.

The folks at Jolicloud are pretty serious about making sure that their netbook-centric operating system works on every mini-laptop on the market. The team already has an impressive list of compatible devices. And it’s about to grow longer.

Jolicloud posted a message on Twitter this morning indicating that the developers are working on compatibility with the VIA C7-M processor found in a handful of early netbooks such as the HP 2133 Mini-Note and Everex Cloudbook. Support for the Intel Atom Pine Trail chips found in many of the newest netbooks is also on its way.

Jolicloud is a Linux-based operating system that blurs the lines between desktop and web applications by allowing you to run web apps like Gmail, Google Docs, Twitter and Facebook as if they were desktop apps. You can also run some Windows applications using WINE, as well as native desktop applications including Boxee and Skype.

Asus has been pumping out netbooks for longer than anyone. And in a lot of ways, the Asus Eee PC 1005PE is just an incremental update over previous models. The laptop still has a 10 inch screen, chiclet-style keyboard and Intel Atom processor. But as the first Eee PC with an Atom N450 Pine Trail CPU, the Eee PC 1005PE represents the biggest change in the Eee PC line since the jump from 7 inch screens to 9 and 10 inch models in 2008.

Fortunately, Asus got a lot of things right in the latest update. The laptop is thin and light, and while it gets stellar battery life, the battery doesn’t jut too far out from the bottom of the laptop. The keyboard is very easy to use, and the textured touchpad supports multitouch gestures.

As for the new processor, it’s a mixed bag. It doesn’t offer much of a performance boost, and the PC actually feels like it might be slower at some tasks than one with an Atom N270 or N280 processor. But Intel’s goal wasn’t so much to boost performance with the new CPU, but to improve power consumption. And the Asus Eee PC 1005PE gets the kind of battery life that will let you use your laptop on a cross-country trip from New York to LA… twice.

The demo unit Asus sent me to review came equipped with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, GMA 3150 graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, and Windows 7 Starter Edition. It has a 6 cell, 5800mAh, 63Whr battery. You can pick one up for under $370 from Amazon.

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