MSI Touchscreen Netbook First to Blaze the Pine Trail

While Intel figures to release the next Atom platform before the end of the year, it will still take time for manufacturers to get it into their products. MSI plans to be the first to offer a Pine Trail netbook, says Joanna Sterns at Gizmodo. The company confirmed a CES launch event for Intel’s Pine Trail, which it will use in the U150 netbook. And since MSI is hoping to make a big splash with the first netbook running on Pine Trail, why not make it an even bigger splash? The U150 with Windows 7 is expected to offer a convertible touchscreen display.

Since the next-generation Atom isn’t readily available for testing, all we have to go on are specifications at the moment. But we do know that Intel is moving from a three-chip solution to a two-chip architecture to reduce power consumption and increase performance. Sounds like it’s working at the early stages; an MSI representative tells Giz, “Pine Trail is showing improved graphics performance and at least 20 percent better power consumption.”

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