In a Monday announcement, bigwig chipmaker Intel declared that netbooks based on its latest dual-core Atom N550 processor – which promises enhanced performance for games, video, and entertainment applications - has hit the retail stores.

The N550 processors sport a 1.5 GHz clock speed; 1 MB of L2 cache; speedier DDR3 memory; and the same battery life as the single-core Atom N450 CPU – a feature particularly appealing for Hulu and YouTube. In fact, in case Intel can back up the battery life claim of the processor, the N550 may soon dominate the high-end netbooks.

In addition to the above features, the N550 processors are equipped with hyper-threading technology from Intel, which indicates that the processors can theoretically support for up to four concurrent execution threads.

The N550 marks Intel’s response to low-power ‘Ontario’ chip from its rival, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The shipping of the AMD chip, along with CPU and graphics processor, will commence in the last quarter.

The Intel N550 processors will be a part of the netbooks from manufacturers like Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba. However, the configurations of the N550-equipped netbooks will vary among manufacturers - with Asus intending to pair the new Intel processor with Nvidia Ion graphics.

According o Intel, netbooks equipped with N550 are available now, though it may take a few days for the retailers to display them onto their shelves.