Intel’s Atom is a favourite of prety much all of the big netbook manufacturers, as it’s a fantastic little processor with low power requirements and a lot of capability – certainly a lot more than the 800MHz Celerons used in the original EeePC. Some people, however, crave even more power, and the trend of multi-cored CPUs that has recently taken off in the high-end desktop world may soon be catching on in the world of much more modest systems.

Reason is, Intel have started shipping their Atom 330 Processor. It’s pretty much the same Atom we know and love, but with two cores on board, giving it roughly twice the processing power under certain situations. Intel also took the opportunity to bump the cache up from 512KB to 1MB, and the 330 also runs on a 533MHz FSB with support for 667MHz DDR RAM. The chip is built using the same 45nm technology used in the original Atom.

Of course, there’s a price to pay with all this extra power, and the main price seem to be heat. The thermal envelope of the older Atom 230 is a very respectable 2.5 watts, however the new chip pumps out over 3x that amount at 8 watts. That will mean a need for faster fans, which, coupled with the higher power requirements of the chip to begin with, will lower battery times. This means that Intel is marketing the chip towards low-cost desktops (AKA “nettops”) rather than the traditional netbook market, however I’m pretty sure we’ll see it crammed into a netbook, coupled with a big battery, by at least one of the big names before too long.

The new chip uses the Intel 945GC chipset, offering GMA950 accelerated graphics support and high definition audio. The processor can be had for as little a $43 per unit if purchased in quantities of 1000. That’s a very good price considering that the N230 goes for $29, and the N270 can be had for $44, if buying the same quantity.

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