We’d been hearing rumors for a while that Intel was going to insist that PC makers only use the company’s upcoming Atom N550 dual core processor in netbooks with 10 inch and smaller displays. But DigiTimes reports that the folks at Intel have had a change of hear and are lifting that restriction.

That means we could see notebooks with 11.6 and 12.1 inch displays and dual core 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550 processors. The laptops will likely have 1GB of DDR3 memory and either a 250GB hard drive or a solid state disk up to 32GB.

We probably won’t see the N550 chip used in computers with displays larger than 12.1 inches, as that space tends to be reserved for machines with faster, more expensive, and more power hungry processors.

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5 replies on “Intel may be cool with 12 inch, dual core Atom notebooks”

  1. Any time an oem tells the manufacturer what they can and can’t put in a computer is bad news. Like MS telling some they can only use one gb ram in a netbook even though we might what Linux and 2 gigs. Let US decide what we want in our products and don’t limit the manufacturer in what they can build.
    More arrogance and greed, I surprised they changed there mind.

  2. IMO, the term “netbook” should just simply apply to less powerful, low power processor notebooks that use 12″ and smaller screens. These processors can be anything from Intel CULV and Atom processors to AMD Neo processors, sometimes with mutitple cores. Anything that uses 13″ or larger screen and/or a more powerful processor should be called a notebook or laptop. Isn’t that simple enough? I think we all realize that the virtues of netbooks were simply longer battery life and portability. Now, 12″ rides the edge of portability, and dual core Neo and Atom processors don’t have quite the battery life, but relatively speaking, they just fit into the criteria.

    BTW, I think Apple has opened Intel’s mind for them. Honestly, Intel is worried about iPad dominance and the Atom processor becoming a non-player in the market.

    1. I totally agree with you. I feel that the terrm ‘netbook’ deserves a finite meaning and be to that.

      Any device with lower power / cheaper at cost should be termed as a netbook.

      No need to limit the size of the screen as it might change at times to larger screens.

  3. With all due respect, your headline uses “notebooks” but the original story is “netbooks”. Not to nitpick, but the Intel rep in the original story is talking about netbooks and you are using notebooks and laptops in your story. People need to realize that it’s Intel talking about 11 and 12 inch netbooks. So in fact it’s no longer Intel that is using this fake 10″ criteria for “netbooks”. I think bloggers on the subject need to help endorse the term and not confuse the public further. Yes I get the SEO game, but this is a big story and you really haven’t done “netbooks” justice in your depiction of the story. If Intel says netbook when talking about 10, 11, 12 inch computers with… Atom processors then I think the bar has been set.

    I do think this is great news and Intel is at least giving the public what they want. 11 and 12 inches is better than 10 inches. Do people realize that Intel were the ones limiting the actual size? I barely realized this, and the general public obviously isn’t aware of the barriers on the manufacturers. Face it, 11 inches isn’t going to add more than a couple ounces to a netbook and isn’t going to drain your battery faster. It’s going to give you a larger touchpad and keyboard and likely a higher resolution.

    So the cats out of the bag now. It wasn’t so much that 10 inch netbooks were the ideal size, it was just that Intel wouldn’t let people make them 11 or 12 inches. Interesting. This brings me a lot of hope for this upcoming year of releases.

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