> The first Atom processors actually had extremely competitive power characteristics. The only supporting chipset, however, was a) a power pig, because Intel ju

> The first Atom processors actually had extremely competitive power characteristics. The only supporting chipset, however, was a) a power pig, because Intel just didn't bother despite it being a much easier task than making a processor To add some numbers: The most popular first generation Atom, the N270, had a TDP of 2.5 W. The accompanying chipset and I/O controllers however had a combined TDP of 9.3 W. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnell_%28microarchitecture%29#First_generation_power_requirements http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnell_%28microarchitecture%29...