This week, Intel has launched the new Atom CPU. These low power CPU's come in five different flavours and are targeted for mobile internet devices. The biggest advantage of these CPUs is their low power consumption: The fastest Atom CPU has a TDP (thermal design power) of only 2.4 Watts. The Atom CPU's are the smallest Intel CPU's on the market today, as they measure only 13 by 14 mm. The cheapest one, the Z500, will have a clock speed of 800 MHz and a fsb of 400 Mhz. The price of this CPU will be around $45,- . The Z510 will run at 1.1 GHz, the Z520 at 1.33 GHz, the Z530 at 1.6 GHz and the Z540 at 1.86 GHz.

Intels commitment has added much to the low power market, which has been dominated by VIA the last few years. For schools that is very good news: More competition means that they will be able to have low cost computers, which are cheap in purchase and cheap in running them.