CES 2019 | Intel intros Project Athena and there are no satellites involved
Project Athena is a new initiative by Intel that aims to introduce a new class of portables "that are purpose-built to help people focus, adapt to life’s roles and always be ready." There is no word about pricing and detailed specs yet, so we cannot say yet if this is going to be an equivalent of Google's Android One effort for the notebook market.
In the past, we heard about the Athena secret internet satellite project by Facebook and the BlackBerry Athena handset. However, none of these two had anything to do with Intel. Now, it looks like the Project Athena devices will bring Windows and Chrome OS under the same banner.
According to the brief official announcement by Intel, the Project Athena laptops come with "world-class performance, battery life and connectivity in sleek, beautiful designs" and are supposed to hit the market in the second half of 2019. It is almost safe to assume that these new machines will use the new Intel processors from the Ice Lake lineup.
What we know for sure is the impressive list of Project Athena partners, which includes big names like Microsoft, Google, Huawei, Xiaomi, HP, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, and more. You can find more details regarding the Project Athena and Intel's other innovations that have been unveiled at CES on this page.