Netbook Review UK

Intel is set to launch its new Pine Trail Atom platform in January and we’ve alraedy heard that the upcoming Intel N450 will clock in at 1.66ghz and the N470 at 1.83ghz.  Also, this new breed of Pineview chips, based on the Pinetrail platform, will be smaller, more energy efficient, and will integrate the CPU, graphics, and memory controllers onto a single chip.

Now, we learn via Fudzilla, that Intel will be adding support for DDR3 memory to the Pinetrail platform later in 2010.  It’s rumoured that the N450 and N470 netbook processors will debut earlier, possibly in January or February of 2010, but with DDR2 memory initially.  The new desktop processors aren’t left out either and the single core Intel Atom D410 and dual core Atom D510 will launch in early 2010 with DDR2 memory, and move to DDR3 like their netbook counterparts.

For instance, there’s the upcoming Intel Atom N470, which Fudzilla says should launch in the first quarter of 2010, possibly in February. While the Atom N450 clocks in at 1.66GHz, the N470 processor will reportedly have a faster clock speed of about 1.83GHz, and a price tag that’s about $20 higher.

Fudzilla also reports that Intel will be adding support for DDR3 memory to its Pine Trail processors later in 2010. Pine Trail chips integrate the CPU, graphics, and memory controllers onto a single chip, which means that you’ll get a new model number when DDR3 support is added. So the single core Intel Atom N450 and N470 processors launched early in 2010 will be updated to N45x and N47x models capable of using faster memory.

Intel is also reportedly adding DDR3 support to its desktop Atom processors, including the single core Intel Atom D410 and dual core Atom D510. At launch, these chips will support DDR2 memory, like their netbook counterparts.