Intel's new integrated, dual-core nettop Atom 330 solution has launched; the updated motherboard/CPU combo should be available from retail outlets in the immediate future. Atom 330 ships with an improved version of Intel's original Atom board; the D945GCLF2 includes support for DDR-2 667 (up from DDR2-533), adds six-channel HD audio, and features gigabit Ethernet instead of the 10/100TX solution that its predecessor offered.

Atom 330 and Atom 230 share the same feature set and clockspeed, but Atom 330 is a HyperThreading-enabled dual-core part. The performance difference between the two processors could be significant—Atom 230's performance in any given benchmark varies by up to 50 percent depending on whether or not HT is enabled. Adding a full second core should improve performance by an even greater amount, though the exact benefit will always vary from scenario to scenario. It's safe to assume, however, that Atom 330 will generally outperform Atom 230 while consuming only slightly more power (as measured at the wall).

As we've mentioned before, the Atom 330+D945GCLF2 motherboard is strictly a desktop/nettop solution. Intel will undoubtedly release a low-power dual-core Atom N370 (assuming Intel keeps to its current naming conventions) at some point, but it may not do so for some months yet—netbooks, it seems, will continue to use the single-core, low-power N270 up through Christmas. As far as the netbook market is concerned, Intel's N270 has no current peer, but both the Atom 230 and Atom 330 could face significant competition in the coming months. Sales of systems in this space only comprise a small fraction of total Atom sales, but for the two companies in question (AMD and VIA) even a fraction of sales in a fraction of a given market can translate into meaningful revenue.

In order to effectively compete against Atom—even desktop Atom—both AMD and VIA must overcome challenges of their own. VIA's Nano outperforms Atom 230 (we've not compared it against Atom 330), but we've yet to see even one Nano-powered device, motherboard, or system. VIA initially indicated that such systems would be on the market late in the third quarter; if the company intends to keep that goal it has precious little time left in which to do it. As for AMD, it reportedly intends to fight back against Atom with a series of ultra-low-power Athlon 64 processors. The question, in this case, isn't whether AMD can manufacture and supply said processors, but to what degree OEMs and motherboard manufacturers will choose to back AMD's nettop/desktop solution over Intel's.

As things stand today, the only company with a shipping, available solution in this market area is Intel, and Atom 330 should offer significantly improved performance over Atom 230. To date, Atom has exceeded all expectations; Intel always thought the chip would do well, but the company has repeatedly revised its estimates for total Atom shipments in 2008 upward as the netbook craze has shown no signs of slowing. These new chips may not directly drive netbook sales, but they could prove strong (and cheap) enough to entice buyers who were put off by Atom 230's low performance.