EBXB202-BLK-X0056 - Asus Eee Box Atom Black 1Gb, 160GB, XP Home, Keyboard, Mouse

The Intel Atom is a small, inexpensive, energy-efficient microprocessor that is found in the majority of netbooks shipping today. Designed by Intel Corp. from the grounds-up and to be introduced into a wider range of computing environments, Atom and its derivatives will power many of the low-power computers to be sold in 2009, and beyond. This TekSpek explains what Atom is, and how it's changing the market.

Stating basics, every personal computer that's currently sold requires some form of CPU, motherboard, memory, storage, and graphics that output to a display. These components are common to both desktop and laptop computers.

What makes a PC tick? Is it the processor, graphics card, RAM, or a plethora of other peripherals. It’s all those and more, but none would be much use without a means of connecting said components in an efficient manner. That’s where your humble motherboard comes in. Its job is to ensure that all devices can communicate correctly, and the beating heart of any motherboard is the chipset it’s based upon.

Our love of multimedia is ever growing. So much so that we want access to all forms of media on our computers, from music and radio to video and television. Watching DVDs is enjoyable, but what people really want is to see and record TV using a PC. The means to do this has been available for a while now, but with the advent of home theatre PCs and media centres, the popularity of TV on the PC is increasing.

This TekSpek explains the essentials required to run a 64-bit operating system and native 64-bit applications on a modern 64-bit capable PC system.