First there was the laptop. Then the notebook, and the netbook. Now Intel proposes a new category-- the "Ultrabook", debuting at Taipei's Computex 2011.
The ultrabook category should combine laptops' performance with "tablet-like features", all in ultra-thin designs reaching anorexic thickness levels of 20mm or less.
Asus already has one such ultrabook at the Taipei show-- the UX21 Ultrabook, which reaches 17mm at its thickest and has a Macbook Air-like metal finish.
Similar models from other manufacturers should be hitting the market in Q4 2011, and will all carry Intel's Sandy Bridge Core i7 chips (or variants thereof).
Future (or rather in Q2 2012) models will have with Intel's "Ivy Bridge" chipset, the first mass-produced "3D" transistor using Intel's 22nm process. The following year will see "Haswell" designs, which Intel says will use half the power today's processors use.
Intel is confident that ultrabooks will take over more than 40% of the market by 2012-- a market we all know is hit by consumers' preferance to tablet devices. Not that Intel doesn't have a finger or two in that pie--Computex also sees the company's "Oak Trail" tablet processor debut, as seen in 10 different tablet models at the show.
