Intel drops its Centrino Atom platform & squeeze out lighter SSD for netbooks

Like it's not enough more reasons for all of us to wait and see before buying a new netbook for ourselves, Intel just threw two more reasons on Wednesday.
First, Intel decided to end the confusion of Atom consumers with ending the Centrino Atom platform; and from now on we'll only be looking both Atom processor and platform as one name. "Basically, we are simplifying and coalescing our efforts around 'Atom' as the single brand for Internet devices," said Nick Jacobs, a company spokesman in Singapore.

Sumner Lemon from PC World is reporting that The Centrino Atom brand was mildly confusing to some observers. Intel's Centrino brand is closely associated with laptops, but Atom-based laptops -- sometimes called netbooks. The change comes as Intel prepares to roll out the Core brand for its upcoming Nehalem processor line, eventually replacing the Core 2 brand used with Intel's current top-end chips.

Is this mean we'll be expecting a new and pumped up Atom processor too when the upcoming Core i7 comes out in just few months?

Second, Intel has launched a specially made low cost and thus affordable (says Intel) SSD for netbooks. The new SSD is called Z-P230 and it's based on a miniature card module that weighs just 8 grams, compared to 11 grams for the original Z-P230, which Intel announced in June.

Dan Nystedt from PC World says The new Z-P230 SSDs carry the same qualities as Atom. Netbooks are built to be small, light-weight, low-cost and mobile, so the new mini-card sized Z-P230 SSD is made to take up as little space inside as possible, weigh little and extend battery life. The main difference between the Z-P230 and the company's Z-P140 for MIDs (mobile Internet devices) is a focus on low cost for the Z-P230s.

The Intel Z-P230 comes is already available in 4G byte and 8G byte capacities, with a 16G byte version coming in September, Intel said. The 4G byte version costs US$25 in 1,000 unit quantities, while the 8G byte version is $45 in 1,000 unit quantities.

Great, now our waiting game needs to be revised and seems like will be getting longer than the first plan. Decision, decision...

[blogged with my Treo 750v]