Today DigiTimes broke a story that Lenovo and Samsung violated Intel’s restrictions on usage of their Atom N270 processor by releasing 11.6 and 12-inch netbooks.

Likely as a measure to prevent Atom sales from cannibalizing the more profitable Core 2 lineup, Intel requires PC manufacturers purchasing Atom on a “preferential pricing” plan to keep the display size more in the “netbook” range. Apparently 11.6 or 12 inches is too much for Intel, as there is a report circulating that Intel has revoked Lenovo’s and Samsung’s preferential pricing status around the Atom N270 netbook processor.

If you look at Samsung’s planned 11.6-inch netbook and Lenovo’s already released IdeaPad S12, you’ll also notice another thing in common: both offer NVIDIA’s Ion platform. Ion stands to offer far superior graphics & video performance than the anemic 945 chipset included with Atom, while offering competitive battery life. NVIDIA has already complained that Intel prices the Atom chipset bundle cheaper than the CPU by itself, and the lawsuit between the two companies certainly isn’t making things any easier. Is Intel targeting some of the first manufacturers to offer NVIDIA’s Ion platform, or are they enforcing bulk pricing rules to help keep margins on their higher end products? Either way, is it ethical? We’ll be sure to bring you the latest news around this issue.

Source: [DigiTimes] via [Lilliputing]