Jerry Shen, the president of ASUS' AOOP Business Group, has revealed some of its plans for the company's Eee ultra-mobile PCs. The first models are scheduled to ship to unidentified markets in the latter half of September, but will initially come with just a 4GB solid-state drive, in contrast to suggestions of storage up to 16GB. System RAM should be capped at 512MB. Any memory upgrades may have to wait until April of next year, when ASUS intends to release a second-generation Eee with several enhancements.

Chief among these is an upgrade to Intel Merom processors, the company's mobile Core 2 Duo platform. They should at the same time see improved battery life, dropping from 11W of thermal design power (TDP) down to 7W. The move may also grant ASUS the ability to remove the fan, saving extra power and cutting noise. [via DigiTimes]