Intel Plots Plan for Super-thin Ultrabook Segment

Intel plans for an entire legion of MacBook Air-like laptops by 2013.

Intel's Executive Vice President Sean Maloney kicked off Computex with an opening keynote that touched on some the new ground that the chipmaker would cover over the next couple of years.

Maloney revealed a new category for portable computer that Intel has trademarked as "Ultrabook™" that the company believes will be 40 percent of the consumer laptop market segment by the end of 2012.

Intel's vision for the Ultrabook is a marriage between the performance and capabilities of today’s laptops and tablet-like features in a highly responsive and secure experience, in a thin, light and elegant design.

The Ultrabook, as Intel sees it, won't be powered by any mobile ARM chip or Atom. Instead, it'll start with the 2nd Generation Intel Core processors. Intel is plotting for form factors that are no more than 20mm (0.8 inch) thick, and mainstream price points under US$1,000. Systems based on these chips will be available for the 2011 winter holiday shopping season. Asus has already jumped on the Ultrabook bandwagon with its UX21 offering.

Intel's stretching its future Ultrabook vision to beyond even the next-generation of chip technology. Maloney said that, following “Ivy Bridge,” “Haswell” is the third step toward achieving the Ultrabook and reinventing the capabilities of the laptop in ultra thin and light, responsive and secure designs. With “Haswell,” Intel will change the mainstream laptop thermal design point by reducing the microprocessor power to half of today’s design point.