In case you couldn’t figure out why the new Silverthorne processor from Intel is a reason to celebrate, Gizmodo has laid out several reasons convincing you to smile just a little. As you may already know, Silverthorne is a processor that is built on the 45nm process. Its tiny stature makes Silverthorne an excellent candidate for small form factor devices like UMPCs, smartphones, subnotebooks, and so on. Matt from Gizmodo even throws in a mention for “mystery Apple products.”

Technology is heading in two directions. First, we want our products to be smaller. Second, we want them to be more powerful. Silverthorne satisfies both of these needs, because while it is substantially smaller than the first Pentium M chips (Banias), it is just as powerful. What’s more, the power usage on the “little guy” is a lot lower. Banias idled at 5W and average 24.5W, whereas Silverthorne idles at 0.1W and peaks at 2W. That’s a huge power savings, resulting in much better battery life.

Other nice features include a new quick-wake deep sleep state and up to 2GHz of processing power, not to mention that Silverthorne is a full-fledged x86 chip. I’d expect that the “stiff competition from ARM and TI” can only push this form factor further. Competition is great for the consumer, after all.