Atom N550 slips into new Eee PCs, outruns CULV
updated 03:05 pm EDT, Wed June 16, 2010
Atom N550 outruns CULV, Atom D510 in benchmarks
At Computex, the first netbook with the new dual-core Intel Atom N550 was shown off and proved to be much faster than anticipated. The ASUS Eee PC 1015PN at the show also sported the next-generation NVIDIA Ion GPU and played a 1080p HD movie without hiccups. While the movie was playing, the system showed the processor resources were only at 20 percent of use.
NotebookItalia staffers then tested the netbook using benchmark testing in 7Zip, which was set to 8MB memory usage and four threads. The dual-core N550 supports Hyperthreading and is potentially faster even than some of Intel's CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) processors.
Appropriately, the test findings showed better performance than the single-core Atom N450 as well as the Atom N330 and Atom D510; the feat is considered impressive as the D510 is rated at 1.66GHz, while the N550 is rated at just 1.5GHz. CULV was represented by the 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Solo, though this chip was hamstrung by its lack of multi-thread support.
