well, i guess it's time to ask.....

["C. Bergström"]

Gary Kline wrote:
> ok guys, 
> i have been waiting for [a] a better/faster/more generally useful
> computer as well as =mostly= cheaper unit.  i figured i would wait
> until fall to ask, but it's close enough.
>
> can i watch a streamed movie on am atom [[[1.6ghz intel]]] chip.
>   
(Disclaimer I work for a commercial compiler company)

If you experience problems with performance of Atom I would generally 
not blame the processor.  There are *zero* very well tuned compilers for 
Atom that I'm aware of.  Most are content that the compiler works good 
enough(tm) and it's difficult (impossible) to get the low level timing 
data details out of Intel.  Unless you're hand writing inline asm 
(*cough* ffmpeg) then it's certainly possible the code isn't optimized 
well enough.  Depending on what else the processor is busy with, codec 
type and video size it should certainly possible to stream an "average" 
sized movie with no problem.  Now can it handle Blu-ray I doubt it...