Intel Fourth-Gen Core Processor Ultrabooks Expected at $799-$899

LAS VEGAS -- Amid a mobile computing market in serious need of a recharge, Intel said Monday at its CES news conference that Ultrabooks based on its fourth-generation Core processors will hit the market from $799-$899 when they ship later this year. Calling the next generation of Intel Core-backed computers “the notebook reinvented,” Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Mobile and Communications group, said the fourth-gen processors are set to deliver the “biggest increase in battery efficiency generation-on-generation in company history.” He described “all-day battery life where you absolutely don’t have to bring your power brick at all."

The fourth-generation of Core processors due later this year will be “game changers,” Skaugen said. It’s the first product Intel has designed from the ground up with Ultrabook in mind, compared with previous processors that were already in development and retrofitted for Ultrabook, he said. The fourth-gen line will interact “naturally with touch and voice,” he said, and will have a “mandatory” touch requirement. Fourth-gen Ultrabooks will turn on instantaneously within a couple of seconds with “always-fresh data,” including email and social media feeds, the company said.

Mandatory in the new generation will be Intel Wireless Display (Wi-Di) that will enable “millions” of TVs from LG, Samsung and Toshiba already in the market today to be compatible with the next generation of Ultrabooks, Skaugen said. Wi-Di enables consumers to send video wirelessly from a Wi-Di-enabled laptop or Ultrabook to a compatible TV.

Additional features of the future Ultrabooks include anti-theft security that can tell users where their PC is if it’s lost or stolen, Skaugen said. There will also be Intel identity protection technology and mandatory anti-virus and anti-malware solutions “with more announcements from McAfee coming,” he said. He showed the first internal reference design called North Cape, with batteries under the screen and the keyboard that deliver power for 13 hours on a single battery charge. Weight was given as 1.9 pounds at 10 millimeters thick. A one-finger detach mechanism separates a tablet from the keyboard and Intel’s Smart Frame technology increases the 11.6-inch form factor to a 13.3-inch “screen experience” due to manipulations in graphics drivers, he said.

Skaugen predicted more innovation in 2013 than in all of the last decade in the notebook market, due to convertibles, dual-screens, flip, slide and swivel designs that combine the “best of a notebook and best of a tablet.” He said an example of innovation is the Lenovo IdeaPad yoga 11S that will ship in June starting at $799. He also showed an NEC 12.8mm, 15-inch screen Ultrabook to be launched this week that’s less than half an inch thick. He compared it with a three-year-old notebook that was roughly twice the depth. “We've gone from inches to millimeters in the transition to Ultrabook,” he said. The company’s low-voltage 17-watt product has grown five times in volume from 2011-2012 because “the entire market has gotten thinner.” At its developer conference in September, Intel engineers targeted a 10-watt power design for the new SoCs; Skaugen said Monday that the company has shaved power requirements for its third-generation Core processor line to 7 watts, allowing for thinner, lighter designs.

More than 140 Ultrabook platforms are in the market, with dozens below $750, Skaugen said, saying by year-end 40 touch-based Ultrabook systems will touch the $599 price point. Eighteen months ago, the lowest price for a touch-based Ultrabook was $999, he said.

In the all-in-one PC arena, Intel announced a new category called “adaptive AIOs” that enable multi-user interaction for videogames, board games, music mixing and other collaborative activities. Users can interact with the screen from any side, and the systems interact with smartphones, the company said. The video demo showed people playing poker on the horizontal screen and using a smartphone to look at their individual card hands. Lenovo announced a tabletop PC Sunday and Panasonic, HP, Dell, are among the companies that have announced support for the platform, Skaugen said.

Intel said Comcast is announcing this week its home video gateway based on Intel’s Puma 6 technology. The Intel Atom-based gateway from Comcast’s Xfinity service enables premium TV services via a home video gateway without the need for a set-top box. The service is set to launch later this year, Intel said.

For the smartphone market, Intel announced a platform for emerging markets called Lexington. The low-power Atom-based processor is designed to deliver a “no-compromise” fully functioning smartphone experience, said Mike Bell, vice president and general manager of the Mobile and Communications group. Bell said the “value” smartphone segment could reach 500 million units by 2015. The company also discussed perceptual computing that will appear this year, enabling users to interact with content using eyes, ears, emotion and touch.