Intel Atom

And we wouldn't disagree: in our benchmarks it performed pretty similarly to a Celeron-based Eee PC, with an overall score of 0.32 underlining the fact that this is primarily an embedded device rather than a home PC processor.

It didn't do too badly in the individual tests, far outperforming the Eee in graphical applications, for example (0.34 to the Eee's 0.28). But it's clear that multitasking stretches the single-core Atom too far - our multiapps test took a whopping 38 minutes to complete, compared to an already painful 26 on the Eee.

Similarly, our Office test - which opens Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint simultaneously - took the Atom more than 20 minutes, despite its HyperThreading; even the VIA C7-D-based MSI Titan 700 managed that in less than 13 minutes. It's worth remembering, though, that the Eee and MSI had XP installed, while our Atom tests were run in Vista, which usually performs 5-10% slower.

But that comparison with the Eee is an important one, as that system's ultra-low-voltage Celeron M has a TDP of 5W, compared to just 2-4W for the Atom, and can't begin to match the 30mW idle power consumption.

If we look to more powerful processors, the 1.9GHz Athlon 64 X2 BE-2300 in the recently reviewed Very PC Treeton, has a TDP of 45W - more than 20 times that of the Atom - yet only manages to boost that benchmark score to 0.80.

Conclusion
Before you get your wallet out, don't plan to simply drop an Atom into your existing PC. The chips are surface-mounted, so you'll need a dedicated motherboard. Intel clearly isn't marketing Atom as a consumer processor, and our results bear that out.

Rather, Intel's major focus for the Atom is the mobile market. The company has been touting its vision of the "mobile internet device" or MID for over a year, and with Atom it plans to make that a reality.

Indeed, we're already seeing the first signs of this. Today, Acer announced the Aspire One, which is based on an Atom processor.

Expect to see many more Atom-based devices over the coming months. And, naturally, we'll be certain to review the most interesting products here.

Author: Darien Graham-Smith and David Bayon