Intel believes low-power, Internet-ready notebooks and desktops are the wave of the future, and what's more, that its approximately 220,000 global system integrator and reseller partners are going to help drive sales of these small form-factor "netbooks" and "nettops" in a big way.



That was the message Tuesday at a channel-oriented press briefing at the fall Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Tom Rampone, GM of Intel's Channel Platforms Group, presented a sneak peak of hardware platforms and new designs like the Classmate Tablet PC (pictured) that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip giant is set to release through its distribution channel in the coming months.