Intel's new Atom could be passively cooled. This is the going claim from Intel and one that would be an impressive leap forward,...um or is that backward.

CPUs have been generating more and more heat as they ramp up speeds and performance. It has been a very long time since we have seen a passively cooled x86 CPU that amounts to much.

We will see if the new boasts of 50% lower TDP on the Atom is true or if we will be hearing the whine of fans in our new nettops.

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We just got a confirmation that Pineview D with both single an dual core Atom CPU can be passively cooled. Intel claims to its partners that the thermal dissipation is about 50 percent lower than the Atom 2008 original platform.

Due to this, the fanless systems are desirable and possible and Intel believes that this will result with a lower build of material cost and since the system without moving parts is possible, this will be the opportunity to save a dollar or two on the future repairs as fans, do break after some time.