Intel and AMD are forming battle lines for another round of processor warfare, each warming up to win the battle of the new, slimmer laptops to be managed by Windows 7.

Laptop manufacturers are putting the finishing touches on their lines of new, slim laptops powered by low-power-requirement ultra-slim chipsets and managed on the software level by Microsoft’s latest operating system offering, Windows 7. Both are betting their lines of chips designed for these new laptops are better than those of their competitor, and are seeking a leg up over their arch-rival chip-making foe, according to a CNET story.

Intel, currently on the top of the heap in this marketplace segment, would seem to have the strong upper hand. Company CEO Paul Otellini is quoted as saying in a conference call earlier this week that “The bulk of the units that have shipped to date were single-core versions of the products. You’ll see a number of laptops show up in retail with the dual-core versions for the holiday season…more ergonomically designed, thinner, lighter.”

In another conference call later during last week, AMD’s CEO Dirk Meyer said, “You’ll hear more…next month about the product lineup that we’ll be rolling out over the next two years, which will include increasing focus on those small form factor notebooks.” Meyer continues, saying that AMD will have a “broader assortment of (ultra-thin) platforms walking into the Christmas cycle.”

Both men sounded confident in the capabilities of their chipsets. Both are clearly looking forward to the advent of the slimmer, lighter laptops coming from the likes of HP, Acer, and Dell, all running the new Windows 7. These laptops are trying to do away with the lower-powered netbook phenomenon and bring consumers back to the full laptop at a lower price-point, which seems to be hovering around the $600 level. That should be an attractive price to the consumer, as it offers more speed and power than do the netbooks at a just slightly higher price.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 1:38 pm under Intel, Microsoft, Software, Technology, business.

Read more entries by Michael W. Jones.
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