Details on Intel Atom N280 begin to surface, are short on excitement

Sure, the Atom N270 has done great things for humanity during its brief tenure powering pretty much every netbook that comes down the pipes, but it's time for a change, and it looks like the N280 from Intel -- already slated for a couple Eee PCs -- could provide just the sort of marginal boost we're looking for. The single core chip bests the N270's 1.6GHz clock with blazing 1.66GHz speeds, and a 667MHz bus over the original's 533MHz. What could perhaps be much more interesting is the promised Intel GN40 chipset that accompanies the N280, which there's currently very little info on, but hopefully does a little bit towards competing with NVIDIA's ION -- or at least pepping up that game of solitaire we've been working on.

[Thanks, Jagslive]

Read - N280 shows up on some new Eee PC models
Read - N280 netbooks to hit the market between 2Q09 and 3Q09

[stevenfbchi @ Jan 14th 2009 10:33AM]

Wha... Wha. What!!!!

They have performed the sacrilege rite!

They have put a DVD drive in the eee computer!


NOOOOOOOOOO.....OOOOOOOOOO

[IrishGandalf @ Jan 14th 2009 10:39AM]

usb 3? swwwweeeeeet!!!!

[404 @ Jan 14th 2009 10:46AM]

Isn't that USB*3, i.e. 3xUSB ports? Looks like that's what they've done with the rest of the ports.

USB 3 would be nice, but I doubt an EEE will be the first machine to get it.

[Kris120890 @ Jan 14th 2009 10:44AM]

I think intels emphasis here will be on the new chipset. Which is easily outdone by the Nvidia ion platform.

[Verythrax @ Jan 14th 2009 10:47AM]

I don't think it's supposed to be the "new" Atom. It's just a revision, as it seems.

[Kris120890 @ Jan 14th 2009 10:57AM]

Its a revision of the processor but a new chipset.

[Like_A_Glove @ Jan 14th 2009 11:12AM]

Not a new chipset, just a revised processor on a revised (trimed) chipset.

[baipai @ Jan 14th 2009 11:06AM]

Please please let it be Nvidia ion platform.

[Temmy @ Jan 14th 2009 11:11AM]

ExpressCard! DVD-RW drive! LED Backlighting! 667mhz FSB!
The savings start now.

[Like_A_Glove @ Jan 14th 2009 11:25AM]

And ends tomorrow.



I don't have anything against eee, but don't you think it's better to wait for an Ion version with 1333 FSB.

[Temmy @ Jan 14th 2009 11:52AM]

Find me DDR3 running at that 1333mhz, let alone DDR2.
Plus I can only imagine the battery life horror with that fast of an FSB.

[Dave Chappelle @ Jan 15th 2009 4:24AM]

Get a Vaio P.

[Dustin Howett @ Jan 14th 2009 11:30AM]

That SATA DVD MultiDrive is definitely "ODD."

[Like_A_Glove @ Jan 14th 2009 11:54AM]

That's funny, but I think ODD stands for Optional Dated Drive, since SuperMulti drive is so dated now.

[Fanfoot @ Jan 14th 2009 12:56PM]

Hopefully the new chipset has (a) support for DisplayPort (and VGA/HDMI dongles), (b) SATA interfaces, (c) 2GB of RAM, (d) MPEG-2 and h.264/DivX/Xvid decode acceleration for HD playback, (e) lower power consumption.

[ilh @ Jan 14th 2009 1:08PM]

Doesn't the current 1 support 2Gb of RAM? Doubt they'd take it out.

Aye to the others.

[Fanfoot @ Jan 14th 2009 5:10PM]

Yeah, it does. But the Poulsbo chipset that works with the Z-series is limited to 1GB...

[Luffy @ Jan 14th 2009 1:12PM]

ASUS, can you please put a real shift button on this one! I'll buy one if you do, promise!

Sincerely,
Fotenks
-Right Shift Button Consortium

[Kit @ Jan 14th 2009 1:48PM]

I think it's more like a typo, since that spec paper looks kind of doggy with lots of changes.

[Bradford @ Jan 14th 2009 2:04PM]

I thought the title read "Details on Intel Atom N280 begin to surface, are short on excrement"

[d889 @ Jan 14th 2009 3:14PM]

meh screw the atom part, i am LIKING the optional disc drive, netbooks are really starting to form now.

[GingerFox @ Jan 22nd 2009 5:20PM]

60 more MHZ fantastic....