UPDATE: An official for Intel has denied that the company plans to remove screen size limitations from Atom-based notebooks.

Intel Corp. reportedly planned to lift certain limitations it imposed on Atom-based netbooks for machines that are based on the dual-core versions of Atom central processing units (CPUs). This would allow netbooks to further close the gaps with fully-fledged notebooks, something that will inspire further price-war on the market of mobile computers. However, this will not happen, Intel claims.

When Microsoft Corp. released Windows 7, it and Intel imposed restrictions onto computer makers, which did not allow netbooks to feature large screens and storage. However, netbooks adopting dual-core Atom N550 may feature 11.6” or 12.1” screens, 1GB of DDR3 memory, 32GB SSD or 250GB drive, reports DigiTimes web-site. Intel denied that it plans to lift the limitations.

"There is no truth to this," said Suzy Ramirez, a spokeswoman for Intel.

Earlier Intel proposed an option to install discrete graphics processors into netbooks, which substantially closed the gap between them and sub-notebooks. The increase of the screen size would further reduce the number of differences. Considering that netbooks have been increasing in price for some time now, whereas notebooks have become considerably more affordable; dual-core Intel Atom netbooks with 12.1” displays would compete directly with more capable Intel Celeron/Pentium-based notebooks in terms of costs, which will likely inspire the price war between different makers of mobile computers.

"We'll continue to include new features, performance and higher levels of integration in the future and we are committed to innovation in this category," an undisclosed Intel spokesperson is reported to have said.

Tags: Intel, Pineview