Intel Ships New Atom N280 Processor

Intel has begun to ship their spanking new 1.66GHz Atom N280 processors to PC manufacturers, making the super popular netbook market even more attractive as these tiny machines will now be able to handle HD video with ease without cranking the processor too much. While the 0.06GHz jump over the N270 processor might not amount to much, it is the 667MHz front-side bus and partnership with its GN40 chipset that makes all the world of difference, couple with its hardware-based 720p HD video decoder – offering users the opportunity to view HD videos without consuming too much power. How will this stack up against NVIDIA’s Ion platform? Interesting times are ahead…