New Atom Processor = High Def Netbooks

Intel has confirmed that it's shipping its new N280 Atom processor to PC makers, marking the dawn of netbooks capable of playing HD video.

The N280 is a single-core Atom running at 1.66GHz and is intended to replace the current 1.6GHz Atom N270.

Though the speed boost may sound negligible, the real improvement lies in the front side bus, which jumps from 533Mhz to 667MHz, and the new GN40 chipset which includes a hardware-based high-definition video decoder that allows users to watch 720p HD video content.

Despite this performance increase, Intel claims the package will draw the same power as its predecessor.

The new pairing is slated to make its debut in Asus's 1000HE, which the company claims can offer up to 9.5 hours of battery life. Pricing and availability have not been confirmed.

Originally conceived as tools for simple applications such as web browsing and tapping out documents, netbooks are increasingly moving closer to their laptop brethren with larger screen sizes and capabilities.

The next stage of this evolution is Nvidia's Ion platform. Ion offers full support for DirectX 10, PhysX, CUDA and even contains dedicated hardware for 1080p video playback.