If there is one thing Intel has always had problems with, that is the power consumption. Intel has always had more or less important difficulties in successfully integrating particular processors in portable devices.

Over its long history, the company has constantly built various processors for these specific uses. However, the latest generation of Atom chips is by far the peak of this technology. It has a new build and was specifically updated to deal with the power use reduction. The first models built for this reason were the 80386 devices. They came to reduce the power use and were more advanced than the popular 386s. The system was also implemented for 486, as well as Pentium I and Pentium II. With all these, the architecture was quite similar to the old models, so the differences were insignificant. The same rule applied in the more recent releases. Pentium M was released in 2003 and came with a clear upgrade over Pentium 4. These days, Intel Atom completely changes the unsuccessful history of the company. The new processor has a specific and new architecture, an amazing design and can easily reduce the power use.

The changes for the new Intel Atom were announced at the end of the winter season in 2008. The new chips were known before with the code names Diamondville and Silverthorne. The plans announced 45 nm chips, with a varying TDP between 0.6 W and 2.5 W. The maximum working frequency was 1.8 GHz. However, this was one of the aspects the customers had control over. The working frequency could be adjusted according to the requests. Soon after the announcement was made, a few major names already announced their decisions to implement the new processors in their devices. One of the most important ones was Asus Eee PC. According to the same announcement, the new Intel Atom processors were supposed to be integrated in the Intel Centrino Atom platform, along with a powerful chip that could provide a reduced power use and integrated graphics. The architecture was compatible with the Intel Core 2 Duo specifications, but integrated in a 25 square mm chip. Intel also stated that the first implementations would be released by the end of 2008.

Almost four years later, in the beginning of 2012, Intel comes with a new similar announcement. The company has recently announced the availability of some new Intel Atom processors. Prior to this announcement, the processors were known as Cedar Trail. The latest platform integrates a few new characteristics, aside from the ability to develop dynamic low sized devices with an extended battery duration. At the same time, the prices are said to be very affordable. Multiple companies have already claimed the will to implement the new systems – Samsung, Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer and HP. The changes are supposed to be done in 2012, after the new chips will be released.

Now, what should you expect as a regular customer? The new graphical abilities allow the customers to view 1080 p and blu-ray videos. Besides, the new system will include an additional digital display, as well as outputs like Display Port or HDMI. The Intel Graphics Media 3600 / 3650 accelerator will “work” in a tight collaboration with the integrated memory controller only to provide a high performance and an amazing speed of the system. At the same time, the graphical performance is two times better compared to the previous platform.

The systems that will integrate the new Intel Atom processors will end up with at least 10 hours of autonomy. In the standby mode, the battery will resist for up to a few weeks, giving the customers the possibility to use the systems for a whole day without having to recharge it. To make things even better, Intel has worked on the performance as well, reducing the power use with up to 20%.

Due to the 32 nm processors, the platform integrates some specific characteristics, such as Intel Wireless Display or Music. Combined with the wireless devices, these characteristics will allow the users to sort and trim their images and videos from the netbook to the television set, not to mention about the audio streaming. Other than that, Intel Smart Connect allows you to connect the netbook to the Internet as soon as you turn it on, with applications like Twitter or RSS automatically starting. The Intel Rapid Start option provides a quick turning on ability from the standby more, which automatically helps to increase the battery lifetime. Finally, the new Intel Atom platform is compatible with multiple operating systems, including Windows, Tizen or MeeGo.