Intel’s Atom set to give Windows 8 tablets long life

By the end of October, Microsoft will have a new operating system on the market and the world of PC laptops will finally have found a way to property connect the tablet and laptop environment. We’ll see Intel’s Core range working in tablets and they’ll be fast, multimedia friendly, and should make Ultrabooks better, but that’s not all Intel is cooking up.

Announced this week, Intel will not only be providing the third-generation Core technology known as Ivy Bridge to computer makers, but will also be reviving the Atom name, a chip type that was previously used in the Netbook range.

Acer's Iconia W510

Some of the new tablets will in fact be using the Z2760, a chip model that has been designed specifically for Windows 8 products and manages to be a “system on a chip,” supporting dual-core technology, built-in graphics, and a battery life expected to last roughly three weeks of standby time or up to ten hours of high definition video playback.

Multimedia support will cover cameras up to eight megapixels, with the wireless Near-Field Communication technology, 3G and 4G support, and of course, WiFi.

There aren’t many laptop computers we can cite that have standby or functional life as strong as what Intel is suggesting here, and while we’re not sure if the performance of Intel’s new Atom will equal that of the Core chips, we’re keen to see a tablet go without charging for a week, which is something we can’t really do on our iPad or Android tablets.

One of Samsung's ATIV Smart PCs

Intel also took the time to announce some of the products that will be featuring the Atom chip, and now we know that at least one product in Samsung’s recently announced ATIV PC range will likely use the processor, as will devices from Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and Dell.

Pricing is yet to be announced for any of these products, but with Windows 8 being released in the last week or October, it shouldn’t be too long before the computer makers tell us more.