Intel's rumored Atom 300 dual-core chip is authentic and will quickly appear soon, Fudzilla claims in a new but seemingly authentic leak. While less ambitions than the 1.87GHz chip originally suggested in one version of Intel's roadmap, the 1.6GHz Atom 330 processor should otherwise represent twice the theoretical performance with each physical core adding Hyperthreading support, effectively supporting as many as four distinct program threads under ideal circumstances. The Level 2 cache is also doubled to 1MB.

Power continues to be a strong point, the leak suggests: the extra core isn't believed to boost power consumption above eight watts, or just a fraction of the power use of Intel's normal portable chips and significantly less than its low-voltage models. The energy usage is too high for handheld devices but should be suitable for very small notebooks.

A launch for the range-topping Atom is reportedly scheduled for the summer, though whether this will include the 1.87GHz chip or other variants is still unclear. However, Intel is expected to launch its ultra-portable chip refresh in September.