Looking to get a low cost, ultraportable laptop, but don’t want to settle for a single core processor? There’ve been rumors for a while that Intel would be releasing a dual-core version of its popular Atom CPU. Now Fudzilla is reporting that Intell will launch the low-cost, low-power, dual core chip on September 21st.
According to the report, the dual-core Atom chip will cost about $43. Currently a single-core Atom 230 CPU costs $29. But the 230 is the version of the Atom designed for desktops. Intel charges $44 for the laptop version, which is designed to run cooler in cramped spaces. So I’m guessing that the $43 price tag applies to the desktop version of the dual-core chip, not the laptop model, which will presumably cost a few bucks more.
The dual-core processor will run at 1.6GHz and will have a 533MHz FSB speed, and 512KB of cache per core, for a total of 1MB. It will be designed to fit in the same motherboards as the current Atom processor, so it should be a relatively painless process for manufacturers like Acer, Asus, Dell, and MSI to swap out the old chip for a new one.
[via Electronista]
