Windows 7, new laptop designs to converge

A rip-out-the-carpet PC refresh of both software and hardware is in the offing as Microsoft's latest operating system and new laptop designs converge later this year.

Intel's Mooly Eden, general manager, Mobile Platforms Group, speaks at the Intel Technology Summit in San Francisco

(Credit: Brooke Crothers)

At the Intel Technology Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, an executive described the imminent mobile future, including a major refresh of Netbook silicon, better-designed "ultrathins," and turbo-powered high-end laptops.

Netbooks may undergo the biggest change. Models that appear after Windows 7 ships in October will see the most significant overhaul internally since the Netbook category debuted back in the spring of 2008. Intel's new "Pine Trail" Atom silicon will collapse most of the core chips onto one piece of silicon, improving the power efficiency and boosting performance.

"There will be integrated graphics inside the same (processor) core so you get better performance," said Mooly Eden, general manager of the Mobile Platforms Group at Intel, describing how the graphics processor and main processor will be grafted onto the same chip--an Intel first.

The segment just above Netbooks is ultrathins. These sleek, sub-$1,000 laptops should appear in greater varieties from more PC makers later this year, according to Intel--about the same time Windows 7 hits the streets. Aesthetics will be crucial. "You can't sell a keyboard and a screen," Eden said, describing the ideal ultrathin laptop design. "You have to sell something that somebody will desire. We need to go beyond the great CPU, great performance...to something that a normal consumer can look at say 'I want that.'"

One of the challenges for Intel is making sure these sub-one-inch-thick designs don't overheat. Eden described the use of laminar air flow technology to cool a laptop's outer skin. "This is the difference between thin comfortable and thin uncomfortable," he said.

Intel is also designing new fans that are better at getting hot air out faster. "We are putting a lot of effort into designing fans," said Eden. Intel demonstrated the fan technology at the conference Wednesday.

Intel described laminar air flow technology to cool the skin of ultrathins

(Credit: Intel)

And how does Intel see these segments breaking down into screen sizes? Netbooks will have 10-inch class displays, while the "sweet spot" for ultrathins will 13.3-inch, though some larger ultrathins may have 15.6-inch screens, according to Eden. He also said there may be "some experimentation" with 11.6-inch designs.

Higher up the laptop performance scale are Core i7 mobile processors, also due around the same time that Windows 7 hits the streets. Eden showed how the gigahertz speed--or "clock speed"--of individual mobile processor cores will instantly spike in performance to accomplish a task then, in the next instant, go idle--what Intel calls HUGI or Hurry Up and Get Idle.

HUGI is a power-saving technology: the faster a task is accomplished, the faster the processor can return to idle mode--a state that uses only the bare minimum of power. Along these lines, Eden did a demonstration of Turbo Boost technology.

In the demonstration, one of the cores (inside, let's say, a mobile quad-core chip), would jump well over the processor's rated speed. For example, a processor rated at 2.0GHz, for example, may run one of the cores at 2.60GHz (or higher) while the other cores are idle. In the gaming world, this is referred to as overclocking.

A common theme of all these laptop designs was power efficiency, above and beyond Intel's traditional message of performance. All-day computing--on battery power only--seems to be one of the major rallying cries within Intel.

[Sausagebiscuit]

This is great and all in theory, until the market gets flooded with thousands different cheap designs by all of the OEMs and we are right back where we are now.... An overly saturated market relying on mass production of cheap designs to profit based on volume of sales. Who loses in the end? Consumers.

[wanorris]

So go buy a ThinkPad?

[empirestatebuddy]

It's about time PC-makers started focusing on aesthetics, and not just power and speed.

[lw09]

HP has been making aesthetically pleasing laptops for a while now.

[RMarch]

To each his own I guess. HP laptops are gaudy at best. Big etched pieces of plastic do not an Apple make.

[mclaurin10]

agreed

[monkeyfun14]

Call me weird but I buy my computers based on the things they do not based on how eye pleasing they are to other people O-o

[El_Segfaulto]

Seriously? Who gives a damn what it looks like? The question is will it do what I need it to do in an efficient manner. I'll take substance over style any day. I haven't been a teenager for quite some time, I no longer give a damn about trying to impress people.

[artistjoh]

Excuse me Monkey Fun and El Segfaulto you both seem to have a teenagers view of aesthetics in that you think aesthetics are there to impress other people. Industrial design (for that is what we are talking about here) is where engineering and art intersect not because of mere appearance but to optimize several practical aspects of a device or object.<br /><br />A very thin laptop for example may well have the added benefit of being attractive to other people but the primary benefit lies in the reduced weight that you no longer have to carry around and the smaller space taken up in your bag. The environment also benefits due to smaller amounts of materials used. <br /><br />On the other hand good aesthetics, because it is attractive has the practical benefit of increasing the desirability of an object and thereby increasing sales of an object for the manufacturer.<br /><br />Companies that invest a lot in industrial design do not do that because of teenage desires to impress friends, but for very real benefits to the consumer which in turn return them bigger profits. Sneer all you like but aesthetically pleasing devices are a very good thing for good reasons.

[kelmon]

@El_Segfaulto<br /><br />Well, surely a better question is, who doesn't care what it looks like? Appearance, of course, is a subjective discussion but it is an important factor nonetheless. Given 2 devices that are equal in all respect but one is more appealing in its appearance to you, which would you choose? Somehow I doubt that you are simply going to flip a coin to make the decision.<br /><br />The appearance of something is ALWAYS important because humans are inherently visual in our nature. Heck, art is one of the things that truly separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

[Seaspray0]

@rmarch. stark white pieces of plastic that apple does make isn't asthetically pleasing. I can get plenty of color choices in a dell.

[Rolker]

Ultra thin laptops sound very interesting and practical. If they have good performance, they can be a nice choice for people who want a big screen while keeping it portable. <br />Their advantage over netbooks seems to be their full functionality as laptops.

[Hokulea]

While lighter weight and longer battery life are certainly desirable in a laptop, certain compromises will have to be made to accommodate an ultra-thin form factor. Higher performance typically requires more power and generates more heat.<br /><br />Obviously, any ultra-thin laptop will face immediate comparison with the MacBook Air. While I truly admire its aesthetics, I am put off by a lack of an internal optical drive and its built in battery. Even though the external SuperDrive addresses the optical drive issue, there is no getting around the limitations of an integrated battery. While it can be replaced for a reasonable price comparatively, I prefer the convenience of being able to swap out batteries when necessary.

[elllroy]

if you have to bring a secong battery for say long travels anyway, an second external battery is pretty much the same thing. it is even more convenient to plug in the external battery in say your plane seat and leave it in the bag underneath your seat then to swap it out and change it in such a situation. this whole " i need a replacable battery" is plain stupid. it is just a talking point with no real life relevance.

[Hokulea]

@ellroy<br />"this whole " i need a replacable battery" is plain stupid. it is just a talking point with no real life relevance."<br /><br />It may not be relevant to your "real life" but it is to mine. I use a laptop for field research where AC power is usually not an option. I also have a good deal of experience with both Li-Ion and LiPo battery systems so I'm a little more aware than most when it comes to their shortcomings. <br /><br />I don't play with my laptop at the local coffee shop that has public WiFi, nor do I use it while flying unless I absolutely must. In those situations I prefer the real life relevance of a good book or periodical.

[kelmon]

The sooner the optical drive goes away in all computers, the better. What do we need them for now that cannot be achieved better via other interfaces? The optical drive is a legacy device that should no longer be necessary and its removal from PC designs will enable the computers to be made smaller, lighter, or with more storage capacity and battery life.

[sanjayb]

I don't see the optical drive going away anytime soon now that putting Blu-Ray drives in laptops is increasing.

[gary85739]

Most just hook up a dead battery laptop to a wall wort and though it's not wireless/portable, it still works for YEARS...<br /><br />Our old Sager 5640 laptop battery died 5 yrs ago, but we still use it daily...

[gary85739]

Most just hook up a dead battery laptop to a wall wort and though it's not wireless/portable, it still works for YEARS...<br /><br />Our old Sager 5640 laptop battery died 5 yrs ago, but we still use it daily...

[assman]

That's what I'm doing right now.. my laptop's only a year or two old, but the battery is useless and can only go for about 20min before dying. I plug it in everywhere..

[tipoo_]

Wow, how did the battery loose that much capacity in only a year or two?

[Vegaman_Dan]

OEM's only warranty the battery for one year regardless of what the laptop warranty itself is. This is true for the majority of the OEM's out there unless you buy a specialty warranty, but those typically cost more than a replacement battery.

[gwailo247]

Solving one problem always causes another one. Not enough power, crank up speed. Speed good, causes heat. Add fans to get rid of heat, now you have noise. On a laptop this is all multiplied. <br /><br />As far as aesthetics are concerned, it really depends what you want to use your laptop for. If you're a casual computer user: e-mail, word processing, internet, then the low performance needs won't require a beast under the hood. If you're using the laptop as primary computer for CPU intensive tasks - gaming, video, music, then your concern will probably be performance. Sitting a waiting for a computer to finish something sucks, no matter how pretty your computer looks. I personally prefer performance, but to each his own.

[peterpulmonary]

this winter will be wild for touch screen laptops and single piece (all contained in the screen) desktops

[zyxxy]

"&gt;&gt; describing how the graphics processor and main processor will be grafted onto the same chip--an Intel first."<br /><br />An Intel first, as in, this is the first time that Intel has done this. Others have already done this before. I really wish writers would try to be more clear about sentence structure. Someone could easily read this as saying that "Intel is the first company to put a graphics processor and main processor on a single piece of silicon". Which of course is completely wrong.<br /><br />Where are the editors?

[mooreoftom]

When I read that statement, I clearly understood what he was referring to which was that it was a first for Intel, and not the industry.

[martin_l_77084]

I think Cnet decided the editors were an unnecessary expense when it came to downsizing.

[texaslabrat]

It's not the editing..it's your marked lack of reading comprehension. "An Intel first" clearly means the first time Intel has done something to most of the literate, English-speaking world. "An industry first", as but one example of possible wording, would mean the first time it had ever been done by anyone in the industry.

[elllroy]

ultrathin laptops with less than 1" in thickness? 13" screen sizes the sweet spot? ...hmm ... sounds familiar. i remember there was one introduced about 18 months ago. forgot the name ... something like sky or breath ... ah ... forgot.<br /><br />"Aesthetics will be crucial. "You can't sell a keyboard and a screen," Eden said, describing the ideal ultrathin laptop design. "You have to sell something that somebody will desire. We need to go beyond the great CPU, great performance...to something that a normal consumer can look at say 'I want that.'"<br /><br />LOL<br /><br />apple leads, the rest follows. as always.

[Emiwolf2009]

ONLY IF YOU WANT A COMPUTER WITH LOW POWER ,SMALL HARD DRIVE AND MEDIOCRE GRAPHIC CARD PLUS ALL FOR A VERY HIGH PRICE . ABSOLUTELY NO WAY FOR ME. NO NO THANK YOU .

[monkeyfun14]

Apple isn't the leader in performance trust me not by a long shot.

[pcho892]

Oh yes, because osx is the first 64bit OS right? Stop being stupid.

[kelmon]

@monkeyfun14<br /><br />Performance is only one measure of the computing experience - raw specifications mean very little without the software to make use of it, although this is a very subjective debate. However, as I have said before, software and not hardware is the most important component of a computer system. Buying simply based on hardware specifications is not a wise course of action.

[dukeoconnor]

All of these fanboy talking points aside, @ellroy makes a valid point. Judging from recent statements, Microsoft/Intel seem to be patterning these thin laptops after the Macbook Air, and the OEMs no doubt see this as an opportunity to do lower cost versions of the Air, which should offer some interesting options for computer buyers. Microsoft needs this type of computer -- runnning Windows 7 -- because netbooks with XP have been killing their bottom line.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I'm not sure the Macbook Air is one that OEM's should be trying to mimic. It's not exactly set the world... or Apple's bottom line, on fire. It came out and seems to have largely been forgotten about even by Apple. It's right up there with the Apple TV for products that are in the forefront.

[montex66]

I really, really want to buy a Macbook Air.

[Seaspray0]

@ellroy. "ultrathin laptops with less than 1" in thickness? 13" screen sizes the sweet spot? ...hmm ... sounds familiar. i remember there was one introduced about 18 months ago." <br /> <br /> I remember there was one introduced about 10 years ago. It was brought to you by the people who pioneered portable computing... the compaq M300.

[slickuser]

Windoze 7 has nothing to do with any new designs.. bunch of crap

[Seaspray0]

It will, simply because it is already made to support touch screen.

[assman]

I see the author didn't bother with a grammar check on his article..

[yacahuma]

thinner laptops? I call for the end of the CD and DVD. We already have 32GB SD cards. Let me download the content and put it there. Movies? Netflix will send me an SD card with 3 or 4 movies.<br />Seriously. The only thing we are using DVDs is for movies, if we move to SD cards we can throw those away. Laptops will be cheaper and lighter.

[bithaze]

I actually like this idea. I use multiple laptops and even on the ones with optical drives (as opposed to my netbook) I often mount an ISO to a virtual drive instead of getting the physical disc. I don't miss a DVD drive in my netbook as much as I thought I might when I first got it, and the habits carried over.

[kelmon]

+1 for me on this - there is no need for optical drives anymore. Remove them and either save the space or use that space to hold something more useful, such as another hard drive or a larger battery.

[sanjayb]

Although I agree I don't see this happening anytime soon. Blu-Raydrives are becoming more popular in laptops. Plus as a storage medium Blu-Ray offers more storage space than SD.

[miniyak6]

sanjayb can break the story when blu-ray starts making sense in the sub $500 web browsing and office usage net/notebook market.<br /><br />blu ray or any optical format will never be as convenient as flash for everyday removable data task, and by the time blu-ray becomes(or if ever) mainstream, flash capacity will be affordably surpassing 25gb probably even 50<br /><br />optical formats are only sticking around for software/Media distribution purposes. With the internet distribution creeping up here I only see it making sense for large games in the future

[fshea]

I have ViewTi Golf &#38; Golfshot GPS on my iPhone 3G. <br /> <br />After doing the upgrade on Saturday I went out and played a round of Golf this morning. <br /> <br />I stared with Golfshot GPS and the phone kept going to the black screen with the Apple on it. I had to reset it 4 times by the 3rd hole. I gave up on it and tried ViewTi Golf. Not nearly as good of a GPS app but it was the one I bought first. <br />This app made it through 2 holes before giving me the same experience. I finally got the phone to start and turned off GPS and the phone has been fine the rest of the day. <br /> <br />Way to go you Slack ass developers at APPLE. Wait until the 13th hour and put out an untested POS firmware update. <br /> <br />So now you have to decide update your phone to be safe or have it cripple your phone. <br /> <br />I've got a buddy that has not done the upgrade and both Apps worked great as they had on mine in the past (less the lousy batter the iPhone has).

[kelmon]

Are you on the right article?

[jrei94]

Yeah, man... really? You're trying to compare a companies second or third attempt at a cellular phone to their years of experience in the computer industry?<br />That would be like criticizing Google's search engine because you don't like something about their Android OS.

[dkknght2]

Sony Vaio has been making thin laptops for a while that are very good on battery life, are powerful yet very style concious. Check out the Z and TT series. If the new technologies will make the end result a price drop everyone wins,

[shellcodes_coder]

Windows 7 will RULE!!

[Vegaman_Dan]

.... and doesn't really pertain to this story, does it? <br /> <br />Win7 is an ideal OS to put on a netbook or even low power laptop. I'm sure there will be other alternatives to look at as well for these new products. Give it time.

[cosuna]

Of course it will rule... it's 8 to 10% market share (along with Vista)....<br /><br />The other 80% will be all XP and the rest will be Mac or Linux... in other words, after Windows 7: Mac OS X, Linux and post-Windows (Vista/7/8) will have an equal slice of the market... while the rest of us, will still use XP...<br /><br />Good job Microsoft... lost against your own kind...

[Seaspray0]

@cosuna. What are you talking about? It hasn't even been officially released to the public yet. lost in your own world, are you?

[iconoclastt]

What about USB 3 ? have heard no mention of "USB 3." When will it be availabe on new computers and laptops??????? New processors and new Operating Sysems are not much without higher bus speeds!!!!!!!!

[iconoclastt]

I will not be purchasing a new computer until "USB 3" is a common feature of computers. I am tired of buying computers that are obsolete in the same year of purchase. Pundits will say it is years away, and as soon as i give in and buy a new box, it will hit the shelves. I am sick of this game.

[miniyak6]

I was of this same school of though untill i looked at the history of how the usb spec always comes up short in real world applications<br /><br />I also couldn't torture myself any longer will my 6 year old dell, but that is another story.<br /><br />If i want speed i have eSata for now ( external space is the only place i see speed being useful) eSata will probably still have better real world speeds then usb 3.0 any how. So basically for usb 3.0 you are waiting for have power over the same wire...<br /><br />obsolete same year of purchase is more of a operating system/ software/ geek bling thing. As far as losing out on usefull things goes... put linux disto of choice on "obsolete" PC = "gee wiz! internet works again" or more recently "wow, this computer i bought with vista works fine"

[Urban Terrorist]

Heh. And what does Intel and Microsoft do when the 13" screen ARM chipset models running Ubuntu hit the street? Panic, that's what.

[miniyak6]

wow! look, and example where the operating system allows for changes laptop design. I almost though i wasn't going to find that here...

[cosuna]

I wonder in what point in time will american authors will concede to the world. I read this paragraph and smiled:<br /><br />"Netbooks will have 10-inch class displays, while...ultrathins will 13.3-inch, though some larger ultrathins...15.6-inch screens...may be "some experimentation" with 11.6-inch...".<br /><br />Why not write it as it should be:<br /><br />"Netbooks will have 10-inch class displays, while...ultrathins will 34cm, though some larger ultrathins...40cm screens...may be "some experimentation" with 30cm..."<br /><br />As you can see, only old LCD screen sizes are measured on inches, most modern designs are metric based. Converting them to inches, creates funny numbers and inaccurate facts.

[Seaspray0]

that's because the english measuring system is used in america. The metric system is slowly being adopted. I wish it was a faster adoption because I believe the metric system is much better.