News Intel ships first dual-core Atom processor

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/09/22/intel-ships-first-dual-core-atom-processor/1

Intel has announced that it is now shipping the dual-core 45nm Atom processor that was quietly introduced at the Intel Developer Forum in August.

 

Sounds very interesting! I'd like to see this on a netbook definitely!

 

nettops? netbooks? deskbooks? where will it all end?!

 

"Dual-core atom". It should be called "Molecule"

 

The hell does "nettop" mean? Never heard of that term. :S

 

It's actually a very, VERY new classification of mini notebooks. Basically they're mini laptops like the Asus EEEPC and the such. At least half a dozen new products from various brands just launched, using the Intel Atom as their platform.

Desktop Atom processor and board combos are in the order of ~$75, so compact notebook versions aren't much costlier. Sooo with features scaled down - no optical drive, integrated graphics, small or solid state HDs, linux OS, small screens, mini-notes/nettops are quite cheap. BUT they're also not intended for heavy duty work or regular computer replacement, so they're dubbed 'nettops' since their implied usage is for brief or on-the-go internet access, as well as other light tasks such as emailing, word processing, etc.

 

@ Stuey.

"The chip giant says that the Atom 330 processor is specifically designed for nettops, which means we’re unlikely to see one shoehorned into a netbook."

I think you're explaining the latter. I've no idea what a nettop is either.

 

How's this chip perform, any benchmarks?

 

According to this they are the desktop equivalent of the the netbooks. Makes sense now i've seen it written down.

 

Nettop / Netbook - think desktop / notebook.

Nettop is basically a desktop-based Internet browser.

 

Nettop is a Desktop PC only built for Internet Access and viewing files, like the Netbooks, but not mobile.

 

asstop? assbook?

All fun and pun aside does anyone know of any benchmarks yet? I'm waiting anxiously to see if this will kill off the Via Eden or not. Then I might actually have a candidate board for a new home server.

 

This sucks!!! I just got an Intel Atom board for my car computer. Should have waited for the dual-core version!!!

 

It comes with a 945 chipset?
Which draws 10x the power of the Atom CPU itself.
The Atom NEEDS a low power chipset to call its very own!

 

Chips in the fish

 

Ya like what others have said Nettops is a small desktop look at Asus EEE Box
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=165

But I doubt it will be long before they go into Netbooks, it would be stupid not to.

 

I personally don't see any point in this. I've got a netbook with an atom CPU, and I've never once said to myself while surfing the net "Damn, if only I had two cores! I want to play Crysis on my 7" LCD!". I seriously doubt there will be any improvement over a single-core based CPU, with everything else being equal.

Saying that though, I love my netbook. Boots quick, does what it says on the tin. And with everything being SSD, I can fling it about the room without any worry of damaging the HDD. Only issue I've found with it so far is that windows doesn't like the SSD, so it won't install (got the version with Linux because it was cheaper, and the only one they had with a SSD).

 

I agree, netbooks aren't usually in situations where a second core could be needed. Still greatly held back by the GMA950 either way, and the power hungry grandpa 945 chipset.

Not that the idea of a dual atom with hyper threading, simulated quad core in a netbook isn't intriguing.

 

So is this a good candidate for a home server or does someone have a better suggestion? I've debated getting a dirt cheap tower for a server or just using my 2.0ghz single core AMD / 512 mb-ram tower for a server. Haven't decided. (I'd have to rebuy the IDE/power cables as i swiped them for a new build. Stupid OEM parts. )

 

Release it as matx compatible or sameller and it would be massive for htpc