According to CPU World, leaked documents indicate Intel plans to launch a new quad-core Atom variant dubbed "Silvermont". When released, the 22nm-based CPU will be the first Atom-based processor to sport more than two cores. Silvermont is intended to supplant Intel's current generation of 32nm Saltwell chips and is expected to arrive in Q4, 2013.

Journalists were first tipped off about the new CPU after Silvermont benchmarks were submitted to computerbase.de (German-language website). Documents with detailed information about Silvermont and ValleyView were discovered at wenku.baidu.com (Chinese-language).

Also according to the report, Silvermont architecture will be an integral part of ValleyView, Intel's upcoming system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution. ValleyView is expected to arrive in four flavors: VV-T for portable devices, VV-I for industrial use, VV-D for desktop systems and VV-M for netbooks. Although Silvermont will be quad-core, ValleyView SoCs will come in single and dual-core flavors, as well as quad-core.

With ValleyView SoCs, says the report, we'll see "4x-7x better" graphics performance when compared to existing graphics solutions provided by the current-gen Atom E600. The new SoC will feature "four, 7th-generation graphics engines" and will include hardware decoding support for a broad variety of video codecs. The document claims that 1080p video should run smoothly at 60fps and require less than 5 percent of CPU usage when coupled with its GPU-based video decoding.

The new system-on-a-chip will include support for up to 8GB of DDR3L-1333 or LPDDR2-800, USB 3.0, HD audio and various other connectivity options. ValleyView packages will also come in two miniscule sizes: 27mm x 25mm and 17mm x 17mm.