Netbooks are selling like hotcakes. They're small, mobile, and with prices ranging from $350 to $450, they're not expensive either. It used to be that laptops at that price were probably underpowered, discontinued, or both. To fill the gap between cheap netbooks and bigger, better performing notebooks, manufacturers are now pushing a new class of devices: laptops with so-called ULV or CULV processors.
ULV stands for Ultra Low Voltage. The processors work with a truly low voltage, meaning that they consume less power than laptops packing a dual core processor. The ULV chips also work at lower temperatures, explains chipmaker Intel from its Munich offices.
Less cooling  is required for the processors, which translates into smaller or silent passive fans and ultimately into less power consumption by the computer. It also means that less space is required within the case. This allows much of the computer's thickness to be eliminated, earning them the moniker "ultra thins."
From a technical standpoint, ULV processors are nothing new. They've been around for a while, says Thomas Rau from Munich-based PC Welt magazine. "Until recently they were almost always built into sub-notebooks for business users," Rau says. Those machines, built for the needs of frequent travelers, are relatively expensive. They cost $1,500 or more.
The current hunger for netbooks has shown on the one hand that consumers are interested in affordable mobile computers with long battery lives, even if they are less powerful than a PC. On the other hand is the lingering dissatisfaction on the part of netbook owners with their devices. That was the findings of a survey by US market researchers NPD. Among 600 users surveyed, only 58 per cent of them expressed satisfaction with their netbook.
All of which explains the rise of a new laptop class priced similarly to netbooks at $600 to $800. That extra money works out to significantly more performance than a netbook. These are consumer devices, intended for private users. That is why they are also called "Consumer Ultra Low Voltage" chips.
Intel competitor AMD provides CULV processors like the Athlon Neo and platforms to go with them. Yet spokesman Stephan Schwolow sees less of a focus on individual processors. "Buyers just aren't interested in that," he says. AMD is instead interested in reducing the number of stickers adorning new computers, especially since no-one seems to be able to understand them anymore anyway. (continued...)
© 2009 Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.
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