Intel Pine Trail M Netbook Platform Officially Launched

Intel Corporation officially released today the next generation Atom CPU-based netbook platform, formerly known as “Pine Trail M”.

Along with the new Intel Atom N450 processor that integrates the CPU, the memory controller, and the graphics chip on a single piece of silicon, the platform features a new low-power Intel NM10 Express Chipset. Therefore, the Pine Trail M consists of two chips, CPU and chipset, instead of three (CPU, chipset, and I/O controller hub) in the previous “Diamondville” Atom N270/N280 generation.

According to Intel, the new Atom platform provides a lower TDP of 7 watts in total, as well as substantial reductions in cost and overall footprint.

“The netbook platform features a 20 percent improvement in average power and a smaller package size over the previous Atom platform. This translates into smaller and more compact system designs and longer battery life. Because of the integration, the total footprint for the netbook platform has decreased by approximately 60 percent,” the press release says.

Regarding the Atom N450 itself, it has a single core with a 1.66GHz clock speed and 512k of L2 cache. It is based on the 45-nanometer production technology.

The N450 is accompanied by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150.

Pricing and availability of the Pine Trail M-based netbooks, including those by ASUS, Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Samsung and MSI, are expected to be announced in January.

(UPDATE: The platform also includes the Atom N470.)

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Note: This article was published on 09/09/2009 and updated twice on 12/21/2009.