Intel has announced its new generation of Atom processors, which it says offers a 20% improvement in power performance.

 

The chips, targeted at netbooks and entry-level PCs, contain integrated graphics built directly into the CPU, enabling a more energy-efficient design, Intel said.

 

Major OEMs have committed to having systems on the new Atom processors and a new companion chipset available within the next few weeks.

 

Since announcing the first Atom processors in June 2008, Intel has shipped more than 40 million Atom chips for netbooks to every major OEM worldwide.

 

“In the same timeframe, netbooks ramped faster and sold more units than Apple’s iPhone or the Nintendo Wii,” Intel said. According to ABI Research, Atom shipments for all segments are expected to continue to grow into the hundreds of millions by 2011.

 

The integration of the memory controller and graphics into the CPU - a first on x-86 chips - means cuts the number of chips from three to two.

 

This will help boost an average 20% improvement in power and a smaller package size over the previous Atom platform, resulting smaller and more compact system designs and longer battery life.

 

“The Intel Atom processor has fueled an entirely new category of computing over the last year and a half and we think the growth will continue for devices like netbooks and entry-level PCs built around basic computing and internet usage models,” said Mooly Eden, an Intel vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group.

 

ASUS, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, MSI, Toshiba, Samsung and Fujitsu have already committed the new Atom, Intel said.