Ultra-thin laptops show up at Computex

Jake Widman
Wednesday, 03 June 2009 01:20

Your IT - Home IT

Intel introduces new CULV chips and shows off a smattering of thin, light notebooks based on the platform.

The Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage (CULV) chips have been touted by Intel as the basis for the next trend in portable PCs.

Some of the anticipated "thin and light" notebooks are on display at the Computex show in Taipei, in conjunction with the announcement of another chip in the CULV line.

The Asustek UX50V, for example, has a 15.6-inch screen but is only .73 to 1.13 inches (18.6-28.6 mm) thick and weighs 5.7 pounds (2.6 kg). For gaming, it also includes an Nvidia GeForce G105M graphics chip that can be switched off to save power.

Asustek's UX30, with a 13.3-inch screen, is only 0.27 inches (23 mm) thick and weighs 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg). Both notebooks run on Intel's Pentium SU2700, Core 2 Solo SU3500, or Core 2 Duo SU9600 chip, all of which are in the CULV category.

The two notebooks are expected to be available this year at prices ranging from $800 to $1,100.

Acer, Lenovo, and other Chinese and Taiwan-based laptop vendors also showed their CULV wares. Intel said it knew of more than fifty CULV laptops being developed by different companies.

Intel had some announcements of its own, as well -- for more, see Page 2.