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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 be  launching products based on the new chipset very soon.