Intel announces new thinnest Ultrabook PCs

PanARMENIAN.Net - Intel announced plans for a new class of thin and light laptops at the Computex trade show on Tuesday, May 31, its latest move to improve its competitiveness in the mobile computing market.

The new class of Ultrabook PCs will have "thin, light, beautiful" designs and be priced for the mainstream market, as opposed to high-end buyers. Intel expects the new systems to account for 40 percent of consumer laptop sales by the end of next year, it said.

It will take time for the systems to evolve, however. An initial crop of Ultrabook PCs will go on sale from PC makers in time for the holiday shopping season at the end of this year. Based on Intel's existing Core processors, they will be less than 20mm (0.8 inches) thick and priced under US$1,000, Intel said.

A second wave of Ultrabooks will appear in the first half of next year, based on Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors. A final wave is due in 2013, based on a new Core processor design, code-named Haswell. Haswell will half the power consumption of Intel chips compared to today's laptops, Intel said, enabling thinner designs and longer battery life.

The systems due later this year don't sound very different from the thinnest laptops available today, PCWorld reported.