At the moment Chipzilla’s Atoms have their work cut out for them supporting heavy lifting tasts like 4K video. However Apollo Lake, Intel’s a next-generation system-on-a-chip that promises to sort out a few of those problems.

It is compact and efficient enough for PC makers can afford to slim things down without as many compromises. The more inclusive design could mean that OEMs can spend more on more RAM and better displays, for example.

Apollo Lake uses Skylake’s graphics technology which enables full hardware-based 4K video playback and an overall boost to visual performance. It'll will also provide better support for newer technology like the USB-C.

Chipzilla is saying nothing about clock speeds or pricing but it's promising Celeron- and Pentium-branded processors in the second half of 2016.