14 DAY TRIAL // According to the latest news in the industry, Intel's consumer ultra low voltage (CULV) platform will be powering some of the upcoming ultra-thin notebooks, which will be displayed at CeBIT, next month. The CULV platform will be at the base of some ultra-thin systems, designed by companies such as ASUSTek, Micro Star International or leading PC vendor Hewelett-Packard. These new notebooks should become available for purchased later this year, before June, according to sources cited in a recent news article on Digitimes.
MSI has already showcased its new ultra-thin laptops, part of the company's X-Slim range of portable computer systems. The X-Slim X320, X340 and the X600 laptops will be powered by Intel's CULV platform, and all three will adopt one of Intel's single-core Celeron, Core 2 Solo or Dual-Core Centrino 2 processors, depending on laptop size and targeted market. These three systems will be showcased at the upcoming CeBIT show in Hanover, Germany, starting on March 3, 2009.
There isn't any info on specific systems coming from ASUS or HP, but according to details on Digitimes, such notebooks should become available for purchase before June this year. Apparently Intel has about 20 different configurations for its CULV platform, so we should see a rather decent number of different systems coming from at least three different PC vendors.
In related news, it appears that PC vendors are hoping that the market for ultra-thin laptops will soon increase as the profit from their netbook business segment isn't all that considerable. After more than a year since netbooks have made their debut on the market, vendors are already seeing a fierce competition. This, in addition to a short product life cycle, makes vendors point their attention towards the new market for ultra-thin laptops.
AMD will likely compete with Intel in this market segment, as the Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker has already introduced its new Atlhon Neo platform, specifically designed for ultra-thin portable computer systems.