MANILA, Philippines ? With the Atom chip basically defining the entire ultra-small form factor computer business, chip giant Intel is ramping up its product line with the launch of a new set of Atom chips designed to integrate many separate components found in motherboards.

The new Atom N450 for netbooks and D410 and D510 for entry-level desktop computers were announced globally last Monday. It is still based on the 45 nanometer manufacturing technology that was used for the first generation Atom processors.

The N450 and D410 will both be single core processors while the D510 has two cores.

The new Atom processors will integrate several key motherboard-based features ? the most notable is an integrated graphics and memory controller. This is further improved with the replacement of the outdated 945 chipset from previous Atom-based motherboards with the NM10 express chipset.

With separate components being integrated into the processor, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) can produce motherboards that are smaller and more energy efficient. This could also result in even smaller devices that perform better than previous generation Atom netbooks and nettops.

Another notable feature of the new processors are their thermal design power, which can be 20 percent lower than previous models. This means that it takes lesser energy to dissipate heat from the processor, which heats up as it does more operations.

The integrated graphics can also process up to 1080p high definition videos. It can also run Blu-ray optical storage drives.

More choices for the consumer

During an Asia-wide teleconference for the launch of the new Atom processors, Intel Client Platform Marketing Manager David McCloskey said the direction for the Atom processor is to provide users more choices when choosing a computer for specific needs. The new manufacturing designs are also low cost, which results in cheaper units.

?We're expecting demand for netbooks and other small form factor units to grow as these will become more affordable and more efficient. New users will have different needs and that's what we're trying to address,? McCloskey said.

Intel will officially announce next month OEM partners that will carry the new Atom chips, according to Intel Philippines Marketing Manager Jerome Matti.

Matti said some of the units may be more or less at the same price as previous generation Atom-based netbooks and nettops. He said these will already run Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, though other models can also run current Linux operating systems, as well as the Intel-designed Moblin operating system.

Intel's dominance in the netbook segment ? which it invariably created when it produced the Atom ? has resulted in nearly 50 million netbooks sold worldwide. ABI Research forecasts over 100 million netbooks will be sold to the market by 2013.