First generation Atom processors were based around a very simple x86 core with a 512K L2 cache designed to focus on power savings rather than raw speed. The N270 clocked at 1.6GHz was able to do a very good job for many companies in their Nettops and Netbooks. Power consumption was reduced significantly, but the problem was that more demand was being placed on the core than it could keep up with. Even simple video play back would cause problems if you attempted to do any multi-tasking on them and HD video playback? Don't even bother trying. Neither the CPU nor the IGP could handle the amount of cycles needed for decoding.

Atom has now got a boost to its design. Originally it was designed with a single core using hyper threading; the same technology Pentium 4 used to turn a single physical core into two logical processors. But it still wasn't enough. It seems that there is no real substitute for a true second core. Atom 330 is Intel's answer to a dual core low power CPU based around the Atom architecture.