Intel’s Atom processor is the beating heart at the center of nearly every netbook on the market today. Now Intel says its working on bringing the Atom to handheld devices.

According to the Register, Sean Maloney, executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer, said that the Intel’s purchase of Wind River last week was part of the company’s effort to drive a low-power, full-fat PC architecture into non-PC environments. The Reg quotes Maloney as saying that as well as devices like MIDs and smartphones, the company was targeting the full-one handset market, something that would be easier if it can offer potential partners a complete package of software, hardware and a development package.

"We're not into handsets yet, but we're just moving into that, that'll be the next few years," Maloney said, adding that we can see handset-sized devices much sooner.

While the idea of an Atom processor in a smartphone seems like a dream come true (imagine what your phone could do with that kind of power), one of the bigger things we’d be worried about is the drain on battery. That said, this whole thing is still a few years off, so they’ll have ample time to work on it.

Check out the full story on the Reg.