Monday, August 22, 2011

What Is the Ultrabook?

"Since May there has been a nearly constant, subcellular buzz on the Internet about something called an Intel Ultrabook. But what, exactly, are we looking at here?

First, let’s understand how Intel “releases” notebooks. Intel makes chips. That, in general, is all they do and all they ever want to do. However, the company often releases reference designs or plans for future products. These reference designs have included embedded systems for machinery (using Intel chips), point-of-sale systems for stores (using Intel chips) and low-power “in-vehicle infotainment systems” (using Intel chips.)

In short, Intel builds something, gives manufacturers the plans (and guidelines), and then sells them a few million chips that will go inside the hardware. That’s why most laptops are, inside, essentially the same: they’re based on a reference design passed along from chipmaker to manufacturer like holy writ."

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