Intel has officially denied reports that it will stop taking orders for its low power Z-series Atom CPUs. The chipmaker told The Register that the rumours are 100 percent false, and it tried to clear up some issues raised in the rumours.

We started hearing rumours of Z-series shipment issues a few weeks ago, and Digitimes also ran a similar story last week. According to the rumour, Intel wasn't thrilled about netbooks being based on a platform originally designed for MIDs and similar devices, and was eager to force vendors to use N270 and N280 CPUs in their designs.

There could be a more down to earth explanation to the whole mess, and there's still a good chance several vendors will EOL some of their Atom Z-based netbooks. Acer, Asus and MSI all use Z520/530 CPUs in 11.6-13.4-inch designs, and this is not something Intel wants to see, as it would rather have vendors use something from its CULV lineup. In fact, it has apparently struck a deal with Microsoft to drop the screen size of netbooks eligible for cheap Windows 7 licenses to 10.2 inches.

So, this could explain why some vendors may drop such designs. Intel won't force them to stop making them by cutting shipments, but it will make them unfeasible with pricier Windows licenses.

More here.