Intel launches chips for low-cost, thin laptops

Intel is launching its line of processors for thin, inexpensive laptops at the Computex tech conference in Taipei. Intel marketing chief Sean Maloney talked about this in a phone interview.

"It's clear that people like devices to be thin and light," said Maloney, who was speaking from the Computex conference in Taipei where he will be giving a keynote on Tuesday.

"We've really taken that to heart and come out with a complete top-to-bottom range of microprocessors that enable radically longer battery life and much smaller designs," said Maloney, referring to Intel's new lineup of consumer ultra-low-voltage (CULV) processors.

Maloney continued. "There are a lot of computers being announced here (Computex) that look like conventional notebooks in terms of how wide the screens are, but they're super-thin, the performance is very good, and they get up to nine hours battery life without a big, fat battery at the back," he said.

MSI X340 X-Slim laptop is one of the first CULV laptops

(Credit: MSI)

"It's a big change for industry. It means the technology weaves its way into your life more because you're going to have all-day notebooks," Maloney said.

The new processors will encompass the Core 2, Pentium, and Celeron processor architectures, according to Maloney.

Prices for these new laptops will start at $399 and range up to $2,000 in some cases, Maloney said.

And will laptops based on these chips impact the sales of Netbooks? "I don't think so," Maloney said, but added: "It's a loser mentality to not develop one segment because you're worried about the other."

Maloney continued. "The demographics (for Netbooks) that's completely untouched is kids between the ages of 7 and 12. So, the Netbook market is still at a very early stage," he said.

In addition, Intel unveiled the Mobile Intel GS40 Express Chipset for the new ULV-based laptops. This "value" chipset enables ULV-based laptops to support HD (high-definition) playback, Windows Vista Premium support and native support for integrated HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface).

Wireles options will include embedded WiMAX or Intel "My Wi-Fi" technology. My Wi-Fi transforms a laptop into a WiFi personal area network, connecting directly with up to eight Wi-Fi-certified devices, according to Intel.

Though a crush of new thin laptops are expected, the MSI X340 is one of the first. The X340 has a 13.4-inch screen, weighs 2.86 pounds, and measures .78 inches thick.

[slickuser]

Bring it on!

[Seaspray0]

I have no doubts that these "inexpensive" notebooks will be called "cheap" by one particular company. I also have no doubts they will sell well after seeing what's happening in the netbook market.

[bakedpatato]

wonder if the MBA is gonna switch back to the fully Intel platform; this and the Nvidia video card snafu will make Intel look even more attractive...unless the GS40 has really really bad graphics performance...below the Ion's 9300 would be the lower bound, I guess as Ion can barely do 720p. As much as Atom is not that fast, I doubt these CPUs will hugely faster, perhaps enough to make 720p play,but nothing more.

[ikramerica--2008]

I don't think so unless the GS40 supports OpenCL and how well it implements it. Snow Leopard will be optimized for OpenCL, which is one reason for the wholesale switch to NVidia, who they've been working closely with.

[pithenumber]

If the current trend continues, the GS40 will have horrid graphics performance

[codynews]

I play HD movies now (well, compressed .mkv files) on my cheesy weak netbook today.

Cody

[ikramerica--2008]

Not at 1080p you don't. The Intel 950 GPU combined with the ATOM is not capable of such a thing. People had trouble with this chipset and 1.83 GHz Core Duos and even 2GHz Core2Duos at 1080p.

[Seaspray0]

@ikramerica. If I was watching it on a 40+ inch screen, I might care. With a 15 inch screen, the resolution is just fine.

[Bill_I]

Lets have the Dynabook as soon as technology makes it possible.