Intel's CULV to soft launch April 20?
updated 02:40 pm EDT, Thu April 9, 2009
Intel CULV Apr 20 Launch
Intel is poised to launch its first Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) processors on April 20th but won't necessarily include shipping hardware, an insider leak would claim. The Inquirer claims that the formal introduction will be a "paper" or soft launch, where the actual products won't be available until sometime after the public debut. When the products would be readily available isn't known, though Acer just recently launched its Timeline ultraportables with a near-term launch in its plans.
Such an introduction would potentially contradict leaks of a summer launch but is also understood to be getting a different marketing approach than suggested at the time. Rather than simply promote the cost of the ultraportables, which will often cost half or less the price of previous systems, Intel is instead expected to push battery life and note that many of these systems will run for between 6 to 8 hours on a large 8-cell battery.
Multiple system builders are expected to use CULV as a bridge between Atom-based netbooks and regular Core-based notebooks and should include at least the Dell Inspiron Mini 11 as well as others from multiple large manufacturers.
