Intel Welcomes 'Ultra Thin Era' With New Low-Voltage Chips
"Intel's leadership in 32nm high-k metal gate process technology, combined with breakthrough architecture and design has enabled thinner, lighter and faster notebooks than previous models, with terrific battery life,” said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group, in a statement.
Intel, the world’s largest x86 CPU manufacturer, is not alone in pushing out ultra-thin notebook platforms for a product category the company sees growing within the 13-inch-and-smaller segment of the total notebook market. Rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices launched its own updated ultra-thin notebook platform in mid-May.
Intel’s new ultra-low voltage consumer laptop CPUs include the Core i7-660UM (dual-core, 1.33GHz, 18W, 4MB cache), Core i5-540UM (dual-core, 1.20GHz, 18W, 3MB cache), Core i5-430UM (dual-core, 1.20GHz, 18W, 3MB cache), Core i3-330UM (dual-core, 1.20GHz, 18W, 3MB cache), Pentium U5400 (dual-core, 1.20GHz, 18W, 3MB cache) and Celeron U3400 (dual-core, 1.06GHz, 18W, 2MB cache).
All but the new Pentium and Celeron processors feature Intel’s Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading technology. Pricing was not available for the new chips, but Intel lists them as “launched” and available for ordering and sampling on its product Website.
Intel’s new platform for ultra-thins also includes its recently released Mobile 5 Series chipset with expanded support for video and audio, as well as built-in data protection and anti-theft technology. The full ultra-thin platform, including CPU package and chipset, is 32 percent smaller than Intel’s standard-voltage mobile platform, according to the company.
The new hardware also consumes about 20 percent less battery power than the standard-voltage counterpart, while enabling notebooks that are about 30 percent thinner than standard-sized mobile PCs.
Intel claims that its OEM partners are ready with more than 40 new ultra-thin designs for notebooks that are less than an inch thick and between two and five pounds based on the new platform. These include the Acer Aspire 1830, the Asus UL30 and UL80, Gateway’s EC19 and EC39, Lenovo’s U160 and U460, and the MSI X350.