Intel's crystal ball - What’s in store for second half of 2009?

Intel’s Notebook and Netbook plans leaked

Intel Roadmap

As reported by many technology websites it is believed that Intel is soon going to phase out its Intel Atom N280 processor and the GN40 chipset combination. The main reason for this is its low demand as this duo provides only a slight improvement over the faithful Intel Atom N270 processor and the 945GSE chipset. Therefore, it does not motivate the manufacturers to alter their production lines. Moreover, it is said that the GN40 uses up more battery life than the 945GSE chipset and the absence of Windows 7 doesn’t allow the system to make full use of the extra graphic features provided by the GN40 chipset.

Intel’s future plan is to continue pushing the Atom N270 processor alongside the 945GSE chipset at least till September till the next-gen Atom processor (Pineview) and chipset (Tiger Point) get ready for use. This new platform will power 10-inch Netbooks in the price range of $399-$599.

Meanwhile the high-end Calpella processor is getting ready in the labs and is said to be released by third quarter of 2009 for Notebooks ranging from 14-inches to 18.4-inches at a price tag of around $1,200.

The increasing popularity of the CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) architecture would see Intel’s Montevina technology being deployed in 12 & 13-inch laptops in the price range of $699-$1,200.

Besides all this, Intel is also said to be providing a "white box" generic Netbook design for smaller PC makers which is based on the Intel Atom N270/945GSE combination with an 8.9-inch display, 8GB to 16GB SSD storage, 512MB RAM and Moblin Operating system for a price of $256.