Intel Intros Atom N470 CPU Ahead Of CEBIT2010

Semiconductor giant Intel has officially unveiled the newest addition to the Atom family, the single-core N470, which is clocked at 1.83GHz, slightly higher than the 1.66GHz N450, the other member of the Pine Trail family.

Intel said of the new chip that "This faster Atom processor for netbooks has integrated graphics built directly into the CPU to help enable improved performance and smaller, more energy-efficient designs or the popular netbook category".

As expected, it integrates the GMA3150 graphics controller (with support for MPEG-2 but not H.264), has 512KB L2 cache, supports DDR2-667 memory (up to 2GB), 64-bit extensions and comes with Hyperthreading.

Interestingly, Techreport says that the new N470 is now officially the most expensive Atom member with a wholesale price tag of $75, a tad expensive compared to the N450 which cost $64 and has disappeared from the latest Intel pricelist.

In comparison, the dual core Atom 330 which comes with 1MB cache and runs at 1.6GHz sells for a mere $43 but shouldn't perform half as bad especially when paired with a Nvidia ION chipset.

Despite integrating a graphics controller, OEM will still need to pair the new Pine Trail processor with the NM10 Express Tiger Point Chipset which acts as the southbridge and brings onboard all I/O features needed.