The year in processor technology has so far seen a new focus on energy efficiency and portability with all the Intel Atoms and Nvidia ION systems making the rounds. For people who need a little more power from an ultraportable–at least more so than what a netbook processor can give you–Intel’s Ultra Low-Voltage line of processors have been updated.
The ULV Core 2 Duo/Solo processors are based on Intel’s Centrino 2 mobile platform and built around a value chipset (the GS40 Express Chipset) to keep the prices down. Running on a low 10 Watts of power compared to the standard TDP of 25W to 35W, these new chips allows for thinner, cooler laptops with a longer battery life and a mainstream price point to fill a niche between netbooks and standard notebooks.
The new line of processors will be built with a 45nm process, and will run a 1066MHz front-side bus, a 6MB L2 cache, and Intel’s HD Boost technology for HD encoding. Deep Power Down Technology will give systems longer standby times.
The GS40 Express Chipset that the system will run on is a new chipset that was designed specifically for ultra-thin laptops, with improvements that include drivers that are optimized for Vista Premium, improved gaming, features for HD media playback, and integrated video via Intel’s GMA 4500M graphics.
Systems that are based on the new ULV platform will also include Wi-fi n and gigabit networks, and will support switchable graphics for notebooks that pack in a discrete GPU on top of the chipset’s integrated graphics.
