Intel will start with mass producing its dual-core Atom processors in the second week of July.

The first dual-core Atom will run at 1.6GHz and support a feature, similar to Hyper-Threading, that allows for up to two instructions per clock in some scenarios. While single-core Atom CPU and chipset TDP adds up to 12W, for dual cores that number will be 16W.

As dual-core Atom has 8W TDP this means that 945 chipset has 8W TDP, which is quite a lot considering that this is a low power platform. SIS chipset for Atom CPU dissipates just a fraction of that power.

Since the CPUs are pin-to-pin compatible, a simple BIOS update will let you swap your single-core CPU for a dual-core one. Still, there are some concerns that this might affect the sales; after all, why stay single, when you can go dual.

More here.

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