The Atom's primary competition, VIA's Nano, has received a bit of negative press due to it apparently underperforming and being bested by the Atom in many categories. This was seen in actual benchmarks, and was surprising to some as the Nano is supposed to be a well-developed, efficient platform.

Apparently the platform's shortcomings weren't due to just the Atom being a superior CPU. According to Fudzilla, VIA has actually admitted that there was a manufacturing defect in some boards. The flaw was in part due to the Nano being part of an older board that had been retro-fitted, not one that would see the market. The actual boards that will reach retail, they claim, don't have any defects and will show much better performance.

I would like to see updated benchmarks for these new boards posted once they are in the hands of reviewers, especially since VIA for so long has prided themselves on being a big name in the embedded PC market.