SANTA CLARA, Calif.--The popularity of the Netbook caught Intel by surprise--more than once.
The initial demand for Netbooks caught Intel--and almost everyone--by surprise.
(Credit: Asus)Shipments of this category of inexpensive, ultra-light, handy laptops--almost all powered by Intel's Atom processor--are set to hit at least 20 million units this year, about twice the number shipped in 2008, according to IDC. But if an analyst had suggested these numbers to Intel in March of 2008, executives would have dismissed the forecast out of hand--or laughed.
This failure, by many in the industry, to grasp the significance of the Netbook, forced Intel into perpetual catch-up mode at the beginning. "I'm the one who had to explain to our factory--I'm really, really sorry I miscalled the demand," said Noury Al-Khaledy, general manager of Nettop and Netbook Computing at Intel in an interview last week. "And the next month, I didn't quite get it right either," he said.
"I think we under-called how easily people would comprehend how useful the device was," he added. For the record, Asus launched the phenomenon with the Eee PC in late 2007, followed in 2008 by Hewlett-Packard, Acer, and Dell, among others.
Al-Khaledy continued. "I think there was sort of this pent-up desire for an affordable, portable, Internet-access light editing sort of device and many of our customers--with our help--nailed it. They helped us so much."
One of the distinct advantages that Intel Atom-based Netbooks have over other similar devices--such as those based on ARM processors--is Windows. ARM-based devices today don't run Windows XP or Vista--and won't run Windows 7. Intel-based Netbooks can run all of these operating systems and versions of Windows 7 may run as well, or better, than XP on Netbooks.
"People bash (Microsoft) all the time. But then what do you really want to buy?" Al-Khaledy asked. "People really do want Windows...the XP attach rate was really, really good." Though Al-Khaledy praised Asus' initial Eee PC and its Linux operating system, some consumers were disappointed when they found out that it wasn't Windows.
"The Linux thing wasn't clear to people. If you think you're getting Windows and then you get home and it isn't (that's a problem)," he said.
And what impact will Windows 7 have on the Netbook market? Pricing will be critical. Unless Windows 7 is priced aggressively, Al-Khaledy doesn't see it as a catalyst necessarily for a spike in Netbook sales. "I don't see it as a big tipping point. It's all about pricing. If you have to pay $30 more for Windows 7, it might make (consumers) pause. There's just not a lot of margin in the box," he said. "(But) if Microsoft prices Starter and Basic aggressively, why wouldn't you?"
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Remember those first 7-inch Asus Eee PCs advertised with kids tapping on chicklet keyboards? Well, Intel apparently wants us to return to those Netbook glory days.
HP Pavilion dv2 laptop starts at about $700: Will upcoming cheap ultra-thin notebooks kill the Netbook?
(Credit: CNET Reviews)In short, Netbooks are not for adults, according to Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, speaking during a keynote speech at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, streamed on Intel's Web site.
"There are things that you would do on a notebook you wouldn't dream of doing on a Netbook...For a kid, a Netbook is fantastic, as an adult you probably want a notebook. So, there are very simple ways of positioning and thinking about it."
(Hmm...what about all those big people with Netbooks? I guess it's time to trade it in for a grown-up computer.)
Now, contrast this with what Stu Pann, vice president in Intel's sales and marketing group, said back in November of last year at a Raymond James IT Supply Chain Conference.
"We originally thought Netbooks would be for emerging markets and younger kids, and there is some of that. It turns out the bulk of the Netbooks sold today are in Western Europe, North America, and for people who just want to grab and go with a notebook," Pann said.
And Pann added: "If you've ever used a Netbook and used a 10-inch screen size--it's fine for an hour. It's not something you're going to use day in and day out."
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Samsung's NC20 Netbook shows that Via Technologies' Nano processor can keep up with the Joneses. But will Nvidia be given the chance?
CNET Reviews' Dan Ackerman reviewed the new Samsung NC20 Netbook and found it not wanting in a matchup with the Asus Eee PC 1000HE, packing Intel's latest and greatest Atom N280.
Samsung NC20 Netbook packs a Via Nano processor--not an Intel Atom.
(Credit: CNET Reviews)Though Nano is a necessary industry antidote to Intel's grip on the Netbook market, in the scheme of market share numbers, Via's chip is a blip at best.
I find it almost amusing when Intel lists Via as one of two competitors (Advanced Micro Devices being the other) in its Form 10-K filings. It's a fair analogy to say it's like a mom-and-pop coffee shop among a dense cluster of Starbucks stores. You may draw a few customers but 99 percent of the market is going to go to Starbucks.
Via helped pioneer the Netbook market in early 2008 by powering one of the earliest high-profile products, the Hewlett-Packard 2133 Mini-Note. In fact, Via was already supplying the inexpensive, low-power Via C7M--Nano's predecessor--in 2005 when the Atom concept was just a glimmer in Intel's eye.
The Netbook market vacuum didn't last long, however. Within months of Atom's arrival, the Via C7M was squashed by the Intel juggernaut, not to rise again. (Largely due to the fact that the C7M was slow, as one reader points out.)
The sober reality is that Via faces the same daunting challenge that Nvidia does: competing with Intel. The largest Netbook vendors--Asus and Acer--are wedded to Intel processors and chipsets, as are most of the other major players. An incremental increase in processor performance from Via won't necessarily tempt PC makers to drop Atom.
Nvidia's predicament is even more difficult because the GPU supplier can offer something that Intel can't: great graphics performance in a Netbook.
Nvidia faces a Catch 22. It needs a lot of Netbook design wins to make decent profit margins but customers won't sign up for Nvidia's Ion in the face of Intel's bundling incentives.
Alas, Nvidia's Ion seems destined only for tiny desktops for now. Nvidia has been shopping its Ion platform (Atom + Nvidia 9400M graphics) around and has had some success with top-tier PC companies looking to design diminutive desktops. But not any success to date in the Netbook space (although some smaller Asia-based Netbook makers are expected to announce Ion-based Netbooks at Computex in June).
Then there's Tegra. This Nvidia chip platform may have more success in the category of so-called "$99" Netbooks that are more akin--in the way they are offered to customers--to cell phones than laptops. These Netbooks, as depicted by Qualcomm, would be always-on and not part of the WinTel (Windows-Intel) ecosystem.
Nvidia went out of its way this week to demonstrate a concept device at CTIA in Las Vegas running Windows CE. Nvidia basically tore out the guts of an Intel-based HP Mini 1000 Netbook and replaced it with Tegra parts, according to a Nvidia spokesman Derek Perez, who attended CTIA this week.
Intel's Atom is proving to be a very popular chip. But is it too low-rent for Apple?
First the news. iSuppli reported Monday that Intel gained share, based on revenue, in the global microprocessor during every quarter of 2008 to finish up with 80.5 percent of the total processor market--a 1.6 percent gain over rivals--partly due to the success of its Atom chip in Netbooks.
Would a hypothetical Apple Netbook be a high-end product like Sony's Vaio P line?
(Credit: Sony)"Intel's low-priced Atom has become increasingly popular as the Netbook market has gained steam," Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms research, for iSuppli, said in a statement.
Worldwide unit shipments of Netbooks soared by more than 2,000 percent in 2008 and are expected to rise by about 68 percent in 2009, iSuppli said.
Not surprisingly, every major computer maker has announced a Netbook--some, like Toshiba, begrudgingly--and others, like Dell, seemed, at least initially, to put a product out there just in case.
Hewlett-Packard--one of the early leaders in the market--came out (back in April 2008) first with an upscale business-class "Mini-Note" Netbook, but since then HP has added a lower-cost consumer-focused HP Mini 1000 series too. All HP Netbooks now use the Atom processor after a brief flirtation with a Via processor (used because HP developed its Mini-Note before Atom was available).
Sony finally chimed in this year with the a luxury Netbook--the Vaio P series, which ranges in price from $900 to $1,499 with a 128GB solid-state drive and 2GB of memory--both atypical for an Atom-based system.
But not Apple. Now about a year after Intel rolled out the Atom brand. A Russian magazine has posted a pretty compelling mock-up of what an Apple Netbook could (should?) look like. The magazine even proffered some believable specs that were slightly off-kilter--a typical Apple product strategy: a 1.86GHz Atom Z540 (typically not used in Netbooks, most vendors default to the 1.6GHz N270), a 64GB solid-state drive (not unheard of in Netbooks but certainly not common), and, most interestingly, an Nvidia chipset and Nvidia graphics.
One of the challenges Apple faces with a luxury Netbook configuration like this is that it comes uncomfortably close to its pricey MacBook Air, which also offers Nvidia graphics and solid-state drives. This, of course, could change if Apple updates the Air with a more upscale configuration.
Or Apple could bring out an un-Netbook (Apple, of course, will dare not speak the name "Netbook") like Sony but trump Sony by using an inexpensive Intel Core 2 ultra-low-voltage (ULV) processor (due by early summer) that keeps it up-market but far enough below MBA territory.
That said, if Apple goes the Atom-based Netbook route, it will not be immune from the inevitable cannibalization that Atom brings with it.
Some potential MacBook Air buyers would look at a 10- or 11-inch Apple Netbook and say why pay the $1,000 premium? Maybe too many for Apple's taste. We'll see.
A little more than a year after the launch of the MacBook Air, a new luxury laptop has arrived from Dell. This calls for another look at the notebook versus Netbook argument, the computer equivalent of bourgeoisie versus proletariat. In this case, Air versus Aspire; Adamo versus Eee.
Lightweight luxury laptops have been around for a while (think Sony Vaio and Toshiba Portege ultraportables), but the age of head-turning, ultrathin designs dawned with the 13-inch light-and-wide MacBook Air, the HP Voodoo Envy 133, and the ThinkPad X300.
Dell Adamo luxury laptop joins the MacBook Air in the conspicuous consumption computing category
(Credit: Dell)Now the Dell Adamo joins the stable of conspicuously consumed luxury laptops. The Adamo soars along with Apple's Air in the rarefied pricing altitudes of $1,799 to $2,699.
At the other extreme are Asus and Acer, down-to-earth working-class designs which offer portability for a lot less. Though both companies offer expensive laptops too, they have gained prominence with their inexpensive Netbooks: the Eee PC and Aspire One, respectively. These typically fall into the sub-$500 range.
Dell's entry into the luxury laptop market was replete with all the trappings of a high-end product rollout, including a lavish, overdone Adamo Web site (as in, I couldn't click on "skip intro" fast enough) of beautiful people clutching computers. (And viewing the site, this question comes to mind: Is the Adamo meant more as a Dell showcase item--like a piece of finery set in a vitrine, to be admired but not purchased?)
Juxtapose this with what's happening in the Netbook space: inconspicuous but slow-but-steady creep into a higher-performance bracket. This trend is being driven by better Intel graphics (the GN40 is now capable of 720p HD video), with some Netbook designers entertaining the idea of adding even higher-performance Nvidia graphics. Reports also claim the Atom processor will be ratcheted up to 2.0GHz.
Will one design philosophy eventually prevail? Gravitating to a sweet-spot somewhere in the middle?
Let's do a little comparison shopping.
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That Eee PC Netbook too slow? Well, it probably won't get much faster in 2009, according to reports, proving that Intel is not keen on revving up Atom to compete with itself.
Both Digitimes and Engadget are reporting that the Atom N280--an update of the 1.6GHz N270--will appear by the third quarter of this year and run at 1.66GHz.
This is a whopping 0.06GHz jump in speed--very underwhelming and very different than the performance fast track that consumers are used to with higher-end Intel Core architecture chips. It highlights a theme that will be repeated often in 2009: As Atom gains in popularity, Intel will have to manage the Atom platform so it doesn't imperil more lucrative processor lines.
Another theme that's emerging in 2009 is the Netbook--typically priced below $500--as the computer for the sinking economy, tailor-made for shrinking household budgets. In fact, a recent report from Forrester Research exhorts Netbook vendors to discourage this, saying they should "avoid the temptation" to tap into this sentiment.
"This cannibalization is bad for industry pricing," according to a report by Forrester analyst J. P. Gownder, citing statistics that say 23 percent of consumers say they are interested in buying a Netbook in lieu of "a more expensive laptop." (See chart.)
About 23 percent of U.S. adults say they are interested in Netbooks as a replacement for a more expensive laptop
(Credit: Forrester Research)To be clear, Intel has always been quick to say that Atom is not designed as a high-performance processor and ardently tries to dampen excessive expectations. CEO Paul Otellini and other executives have stated clearly in many forums (regularly in earnings conference calls, for example) that Netbooks are a "complementary" device to a notebook and meant for casual Internet usage only.
And Intel is going to take this a step further later this year by plugging the hole between cheap Netbooks and pricey ultraportables with a new processor for less-expensive ultraportables. More than anything, this chip is meant to send a message: Netbook performance will be capped. Want something more than a Netbook? You will need to buy an ultraportable with a chip from Intel's more mainstream Core architecture lineup.
So, what are Intel's plans for Atom in 2009? Aside from tiny frequency improvements to the processor, Intel will increase the front-side bus--a data path between the processor and other silicon--from 533MHz to 667MHz, which will boost performance more than the teeny uptick in processor clock speed.
(Let's not forget the Atom Z540, which is targeted at handheld-size mobile Internet devices. This has been around since April and runs at 1.86GHz, a faster clock speed than the upcoming N280.)
The biggest improvement, however, will come in graphics. The Atom upcoming GN40 chipset will offer improved graphics performance and will be HD playback compatible, though there will be no Blu-ray logo.
Will this ability to handle HD discourage Netbook vendors from going with Nvidia's Ion processor? That may also be a theme that repeats itself in 2009. Nvidia's Ion platform, aimed at Netbooks, can do Blu-ray. Whether this will provide enough incentive to Netbook makers to include Ion--which appears to offer better graphics performance overall than the GN40--won't be clear until at least summer.
It also isn't necessarily a slam-dunk that Netbooks will rule in 2009. Remember the UMPC? I didn't think so.
Move aside, Intel. New chips from Advanced Micro Devices, Freescale Semiconductor, and Qualcomm may redefine the Netbook and ultraportable market next year.
To date, Intel has pretty much defined Netbook performance and features with the popular Atom processor. "We're very comfortable with our product leadership but we don't take anything for granted. And we expect competition in this space. Stay tuned," said Bill Calder, an Intel representative.
Stay tuned indeed. As the Netbook market grows, other chip heavyweights want a piece of the pie. Netbooks--which typically weigh less than 3 pounds and have screens under 11 inches diagonally--got a lift this week when they became one of the top sellers at resellers on "Cyber Monday."
Qualcomm's Netbook prototype using its 3G Snapdragon silicon
(Credit: Natasha Lomas/Silicon.com, a CBS Interactive site)At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, AMD is expected to introduce its ultraportable platform. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker is targeting "Yukon" technology at consumers that want "smaller, sleeker, and lighter notebook form factors that offer great performance," the company said.
AMD is hoping to one-up Intel by focusing on ultraportables that would have larger screens (ranging up to 13 and 14 inches), bigger keyboards, better graphics horsepower, and ultimately dual-core processors. (Though Netbook vendors are expected to come out with dual-core Atom designs, Intel says its current dual-core offering is targeted at Nettops, not Netbooks.)
Yukon, which AMD first discussed at a November analyst meeting, comprises the Huron single-core processor, RS690E graphics, and the SB600 chipset. A dual-core Conesus chip (as part of the "Congo" platform) with RS780M graphics silicon would come later.
In addition to standard 802.11n Wi-Fi, the Yukon platform also includes 3G broadband wireless, according to AMD slides.
And 3G may be the next big leap for Netbooks. A source at one large chipmaker said that a Japan-based telecommunications company may roll out a subscription-based "$1" Netbook with 3G. And this may also be the next big feature included on Netbooks in Europe where the form factor has proven to be popular.
Enter telecommunications chip giant Qualcomm, which comes at these devices from the opposite direction of PC chipmakers Intel and AMD. Qualcomm has been making and designing highly integrated chips for cell phones since it was founded in 1985.
The San Diego, Calif.-based company has been showing off a Netbook-like design based on its Snapdragon chip. (See photo.) While Snapdragon supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it is designed from the ground up as a 3G platform. And Qualcomm does this all on silicon that can fit inside a smartphone. Like a cell phone, Snapdragon-based Netbooks would have always-on connectivity.
In November, Qualcomm introduced a 45-nanometer chip (Atom is 45nm too) with "two integrated computing cores" running at speeds up to 1.5GHz. The dual-CPU Snapdragon single-chip QSD8672 offers long battery life and a full range of 3G mobile broadband options.
Sampling of the newest Snapdragon chip is scheduled for the second half of 2009.
A Qualcomm spokeswoman said Thursday that the company is working with end-product Netbook manufacturers including Acer, Toshiba, and HTC, with products expected in the first half of 2009 using current Snapdragon technology.
The 3G wireless broadband technology uses integrated multi-mode modems including HSPA+ for up to 28 Mbps when downloading data and up to 11 Mbps when uploading. Other features include support for Linux and Windows Mobile, GPS, Bluetooth, 1080p high-definition video recording and playback and support for Wi-Fi and mobile TV technologies such as MediaFLO, DVB-H and ISDB-T.
The integrated 2D and 3D graphics support display resolutions up to WSXGA (1440 x 900).
Freescale--formerly Motorola's chipmaking arm--also plans to get in on the Netbook act. It plans to announce its entry into the Netbook market at CES with an addition to its i.MX application processor family.
Freescale says its processor will be the "only one in the space that offers a dual-core graphics engine targeting OpenVG and OpenGL, which enables 2D and 3D graphics as well as Flash and SVG." (SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics.)
The new i.MX processor is based on a highly-advanced, GHz-class ARM core, according to a representative.
The Netbook, take two: When Advanced Micro Devices said it wasn't going to focus on Netbooks, as Intel and its partners defined them, maybe it was on to something.
Intel is re-evaluating the Netbook market as possibly not The Next Big Thing. This from the company that makes the Atom processor and accompanying silicon that go into most of the Netbooks sold today.
HP Mini Netbook 1030NR: the next big thing?
(Credit: Best Buy)At a recent Raymond James IT Supply Chain Conference (streamed via this Intel page), Stu Pann, vice president in the sales and marketing group at Intel, said his company sees the Netbook differently now.
"We originally thought Netbooks would be for emerging markets and younger kids, and there is some of that. It turns out the bulk of the Netbooks sold today are Western Europe, North America, and for people who just want to grab and go with a notebook," Pann said. "We view the Netbook as mostly incremental to our total available market," he added.
And the most revealing statement? "If you've ever used a Netbook and used a 10-inch screen size--it's fine for an hour. It's not something you're going to use day in and day out."
Though this may simply reaffirm some people's view of the Netbook, it may also be surprising to others who thought the Netbook was potentially a laptop replacement for highly mobile users looking for a lightweight design. Or at least a design that was bearable beyond one hour.
Enter AMD and its take on the market. Though it won't resist if computer makers use its upcoming Huron and Conesus CPUs (one of these is due early next year) for Netbook-like designs, its focus is on ultrathin laptops similar in build to the 13-inch MacBook Air (and even 14-inch designs) but at a much lower price point.
AMD Chief Executive Dirk Meyer said earlier this month that "we're ignoring the Netbook phenomenon--just thinking about PC form factors above that form factor." And Bahr Mahony, director of notebook product marketing at AMD, said at that time that there are "a fair number of people" who are not satisfied with the experience they're having with Netbooks.
Mahony added that the dissatisfaction with Netbooks "has been exhibited by the high return rates that have been seen on these mini notebooks" in Europe. (AMD uses the terms "Netbook" and "mini notebook" interchangeably.)
AMD believes that the Netbook screen size is too small and the performance disappointing.
The coming year should show whether the Netbook has legs or whether it was just another marketing flash-in-the-pan like the UMPC (ultramobile personal computer) before it.
Looking for signs that netbooks are catching on? And even morphing into notebooks? Here's a few.
Netbooks were the big end-user gadget on display at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference that ended Friday.
And all the Netbooks at a Microsoft booth were running Windows 7, Microsoft's next-generation operating system due next year.
A Microsoft person on the floor said that a lite version of Windows 7 will run on 1GB of memory and 16GB of (solid-state drive) storage. Higher-end Netbooks will have a 160GB hard disk drive, according to Microsoft "guidance."
Microsoft displayed Netbooks running Windows 7 at WinHEC
(Credit: Brooke Crothers)This person also said something surprising. Dual-core Atom processors will be used in Netbooks. I tried to disabuse him of the notion that netbooks would get dual-core Atom processors. No, I said, it was Nettops (Atom-based desktops) that would get dual-core. But he assured me that vendors were planning to bring out dual-core Netbooks.
So, I contacted Intel. There are no immediate plans for dual-core Atom chips designed specifically for Netbooks, according to Intel. But what's stopping a netbook supplier from using a dual-core Atom 330 (designed for nettops) in a Netbook? Answer: nothing.
At 8 watts, the chip has a higher power envelope than single-core Atom processors, but 8 watts is still low compared with a mainstream Core 2 Duo processor. Other specifications for the Atom 330 include a core clock speed of 1.6GHz, 1MB of level-2 cache, and support for DDR2 667MHz memory.
Beginning to sound more like a low-end notebook? I think so.
Netbook market share appears to be growing too. A little more than 5 million Atom processors shipped in the third quarter of 2008, according to Shane Rau of IDC, a market researcher. "Will it add to the total market or will it eat into the total market? Another question might be is Atom eating into another processor brand such as Celeron (Intel) or Sempron (AMD)?"
Rau says that the total market can grow while Netbooks eat into notebook market share. "The TAM (Total Available Market) can grow even as Atom eats into another brand. But we don't know how it's shaking out yet," he said.
And here's evidence of Netbooks penetrating the consumer consciousness. Best Buy now has a separate category for Netbooks on its Web site. Right under laptop computers you'll see "Netbooks". Interestingly, the Netbooks category is ranked above desktops and most other "computer" categories.
Other signs. Dell has a 12-inch laptop, the Inspiron Mini 12 based on the Atom processor. Is this a Netbook or notebook? You tell me.
Solid-state drives, if not yet ubiquitous, have arrived. You can find them in laptops big and small and as a high-octane storage option for gaming PCs.
Alienware 128GB SSD option adds $550 but on the Dell XPS M1530 this option adds only $450.
(Credit: Alienware)SSDs made their mark by appearing in the trendiest ultraportables like the Apple MacBook Air and Asus Eee PC--typically as stratospherically priced options, fashion statements rarely seen in the real world.
These drives are now coming off their rarefied shelf space and appearing across a wider range of laptops and ultraportable computers.
Any new, lightweight enterprise laptop worth its salt comes with a large-capacity solid-state drive option now. Hewlett-Packard recently introduced the 3-pound EliteBook 2530p with an Intel 80GB solid-state drive option and Dell this month announced the 2.2-pound Dell E4200 with a 128GB drive.
Dell E4200 ultraportable can be configured with 128GB SSD
(Credit: Dell Computer)Dell also offers solid-state drives on more mainstream laptops such as the 15-inch XPS M1530 laptop. The SSD option on the M1530 is twice the capacity and half the price of drives offered to date: 128GB for $450. The first generation of solid-state drives in the MacBook Air, for example, added almost $1,000 to the cost for only 64GB of storage. Dell lists it as an "Ultra Performance" M1530 option.
Solid-state drives are almost synonymous with the new category of tiny laptops called netbooks. And the category continues to grow. Lenovo is the latest high-profile entry. Earlier this month the China-based company introduced the IdeaPad S10 with a 4GB solid-state drive option.
More notable is the 10-inch Asus Eee PC 1000 that comes with a 40GB solid-state drive and that's priced at just under $700.
HP VP Keith LeFebvre holds a new EliteBook 2530p ultraportable. The laptop comes with an Intel 80GB SSD. Larger 160GB drives from Intel are expected in the fourth quarter.
(Credit: Intel)In the gaming space, solid-state drives are just beginning to be aggressively marketed as the ultimate high-performance storage option. Last week at the Intel Developer Forum, Chris Saleski from Intel's Storage Technologies Group demonstrated an Intel 80GB X25M solid-state drive crushing 7,200-rpm, 500GB Seagate Barracuda drives in benchmarks. The single Intel drive hit 44,000 IOPS (input-output operations per second), while the Seagate array did under 550 IOPS.
If this benchmark holds up in the real world, solid-state drives could catch on at game PC makers like Falcon Northwest, which demonstrated its FragBoxes at the Intel forum also beating high-performance hard-disk drives.
Dell's Alienware game PC unit currently offers a 128GB solid-state option for $550 on its Area-51 M15x laptop. "Solid state drives are the best performance options Alienware offers hardcore gamers," Alienware said in a statement. "These drives offer them shorter load times and faster access rates that put them at a much higher level of performance than traditional hard drives."
Alienware currently offers up to a 256GB SSD in a "RAID 0" configuration.
