We asked Intel if its possible to buy Atom chipset without CPU and the answer we got is yes. If you check Intel's price list you can find that many Atoms are listed as available for purchase without a chipset. They start at 20 USD for Z500 at 800MHz and Z510 at 1100MHz while more popular Z530 at 1.6GHz is selling for $65. These are all mobile chips.

The funny thing is that the desktop version of Atom branded as 230, clocked at 1.6GHz sells for $29 but we are pretty sure you cannot put one in netbook. This is the solution for desktops and you can easily see that they come much cheaper.

Theoretically, someone who wants to build Ion can buy CPUs from Intel and MCP79 Ion chipset from Nvidia, and build the Ion based solution itself. At the same time, if you buy a CPU and chipset from Intel, you get some rebates, or market development fond as they call this these days, which definitely gets your profits up.

Ion is still tough one, but it has a good chance of showing its face officially, in the next few weeks.