Intel Releases New Faster Atom Netbook Chips

Chip giant Intel has announced the release of its latest Atom processors, codenamed Cedar Trail, and consumers can expect to see netbooks powered by these chips and featuring instant-on, instant-connect capabilities early next year.

The company issued a statement on Wednesday stating that its Cedar Trail processor will run on netbooks produced by OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) such as Acer, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba. These devices will boast up to 10 hours of battery life and weeks of standby time, as power consumption has been reduced by 20 percent than the previous Atom iteration, Oak Trail, it added.

These new netbooks will also have instant-on, instant-connect features due to its Rapid Start and Smart Connect technologies, Intel noted. Rapid Start allows for quick resumption from standby mode and battery life conservation, while Smart Connect gets users connected to the Internet as soon as they open up their devices. The device will also automatically update e-mail, Twitter and RSS feeds even in sleep mode, the statement said.

Additionally, users will be able to wirelessly stream videos and photos from the netbook to a television, or stream music to speaker sets, the chipmaker pointed out.
Beyond netbooks, though, Intel has been focusing its energies on promoting a new category of laptops called ultrabooks, and had even set up a US$300 million fund to create buzz around these devices.