14 DAY TRIAL // Hewlett-Packard (HP) is likely to become one of the first companies, if not the first, to deliver a notebook based on Intel's Ultrabook form factor, according to some sources working for Taiwan-based parts and component suppliers.
The Santa Clara chip giant has defined the Ultrabook as a laptop that combines high performance, excellent responsiveness and security, in a slim and elegant chassis.
This concept is expected to be a massive hit among consumers, and Intel wants it to capture 40% of the consumer laptop market by the end of 2012.
In order to achieve this goal, Intel has started a special program that is designed to attract first-tier notebook vendors into developing Ultrabooks and that is said to subsidize a part of the costs involved in developing such a solution.
The first company expected to launch a Ultrabook was Asus, that plans to introduce the UX21 series of portable computers in September of this year, but recent reports suggest that HP is going to beat Asus and release its Ultrabooks before the Taiwanese manufacturer.
According to DigiTimes, the initial launch will include two, or more, models that will be powered by the Core i7-2677M and Core i7-2637M processors.
Both of these feature dual computing cores with support for the Hyper-Threading and Turbo Core technologies, 4MB of Level 3 cache, an integrated HD 3000 graphics unit, while their clock speeds are set at 1.7GHz and 1.8GHz, respectively.
The two CPUs are optimized to feature a low power consumption and their TDP is rated at 17W.
No other details regarding the configuration used by HP's Ultrabooks are available at this point in time, but these are said to be manufactured by Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry).
According to the same sources, Foxconn has already begun shipping Ultrabook laptops to HP, which means that we aren't that far off from their official launch. Both HP and Foxconn declined to comment.