Intel Outline Atom N550 Netbook Expectations: Sub-$399 For Dual-Core Ultraportables

Details of the upcoming Intel Atom N550 processor – and the sort of netbooks Intel reckon their dual-core 1.5GHz chip should end up in – have emerged, and according to Fudzilla the platform will sit alongside, rather than replacing, their single-core Atom line-up.  Intel have supposedly been telling manufacturing partners that they should be aiming for the $349 to $399 price bracket for machines using the new N550, pairing the CPU with either a 20-32GB SSD or 250GB HDD.

Screen sizes, meanwhile, are between 7- and 10.2-inches, and the first machines are expected in Q3 2010.  They'll sit with single-core Atom N455 and N475 based netbooks with 512MB to 1GB of RAM, 16-32GB SSDs or 160-250GB HDDs, and Linux or Windows 7 OSes priced between $249 and $349.