A faster CULV chips to come in Q1 2010

Acer executives hint about new Intel CULV technology

Reportedly, Acer executives complained their thin and light notebooks lack the performance customers would love to have, because of Intel’s current CULV processors on the market. In addition, Acer supposedly hinted about faster and better Intel chips that will come in the first quarter of 2010.

Users are fond of Acer’s Timeline 1810T, as its battery life is about eight hours. Nevertheless, the price they pay is the moderate performance of Intel's current CULV (ultra-low voltage) processor, designed for thin devices. It has not lived up to Acer's expectations, President and CEO Gianfranco Lanci grumbled.

“Customers like the eight hours of battery life that the low-power chips can enable, but they are not getting the level of performance they expect”, Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said.

Allegedly, Acer will announce new thin and light notebooks in the first quarter of 2010, this time using new Intel chips that represent a much advanced technology. In that way, performance issues would be adequately addressed. "This time we should be able to do it right," Wang explained.

There are multiple speculations as to what the Acer executives were referring, when they suggested that faster CULV chips are going to be introduced. Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research suggested the chip in question might be the upcoming one based on Westmere architecture. It will house CPU and graphics processor in order to boost graphics performance and keep low power consumption. Nevertheless, Intel spokeswoman supposedly declined to comment on the matter, but explained the executives might have been talking about Intel’s dual-core CULV processors that are coming next year.
Nonetheless, the views expressed by Acer executives were apparently about new processor architecture.

Laptops using the CULV system aim to compete with Apple’s ultra-thin Macbook Air, at a lower price though. Dean McCarron believes that the real test for manufacturers is to teach customers what to expect when buying a CULV-based device.