Asus Eee PCs upgrade to Intel's Atom

Asus's low-cost sublaptop, the Eee PC, is to incorporate Intel's recently-announced Atom processor, the laptop manufacturer's chief executive has revealed. However, there remains some confusion as to exactly when the new Eee PCs will go on sale in the UK.

In an interview with Laptop Magazine published on Saturday, Jerry Shen also said that Asus may at some point incorporate hard drives, rather than solid-state storage, into the popular machines.

Asked in the interview whether Asus might go with Atom -- previously code-named Diamondville -- or Via's rival Isaiah processor, Shen said Intel's offering was "the better choice, because it uses the 45nm processor [and] is very competitive". Via's Isaiah chip uses the 65nm manufacturing process. "In my planning I will continue to use Intel's Diamondville," continued Shen, adding that it had superior power management.

The Atom brand will incorporate two of Intel's new processors, the other previously having been code-named Silverthorne, but it is Diamondville that is targeting the low-cost, low-powered market that the Eee has done so much to kick-start.

Shen said that Atom-bearing Eee PCs would be "hitting the market" in May, which appears to be the first indication yet as to when Intel's new processor will make an appearance in-store. Intel had not responded to a call for confirmation of this date at the time of writing.

The Asus chief expanded further on his company's announcement last week that the Eee would be coming with optional pre-installed Windows, saying Microsoft's operating system would be available on the lowest specification of the upcoming Eee 900: the version with 8GB of storage. The higher-specified versions, which could have as much as 20GB of storage depending on "guidelines we have to follow", will come with Xandros Linux.