HP is kindly asking Intel to ease restrictions imposed on Atom based systems, which are hampering further development of bigger, more powerful netbooks. According to Digitimes, HP is hoping that Intel will eventually allow it to use Atom series CPUs in 11.6 and 13.3-inch units.

Currently, Intel isn't letting vendors do what they please with its Atom platform, limiting screen size and prohibiting the use of dual-core Atoms in netbooks. Almost all currently available Atom based netbooks have 10.2-inch, or smaller screens, and the only exception is Dell's Inspiron Mini 12, which boasts a 12-inch panel and a Z-series Atom CPU.

Apart from Intel's restrictions, vendors also have to limit the amount of RAM to 1GB on XP machines, as Redmond isn't willing to offer a discounted XP license for machines with more than 1GB of memory. Should Intel loosen up the restriction, HP will introduce an 11.6-inch netbook in Q2 and a 13.3-inch unit in June 2009. We're not sure if the 13.3-inch qualifies as a netbook, we'd rather call it a notebook. The talks should reportedly be concluded sometime in January, and HP apparently has a good chance of changing Intel's mind.

As we reported earlier, AMD is also planning to launch a series of power efficient single and dual core CPUs which could be used in thin and light notebooks/netbooks with slightly larger screens than current Atom based netbooks. If AMD manages to execute its plans, there's a good chance Intel will change the Atom restrictions to counter upcoming AMD based products.

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