Intel Capital announced a $300 million Ultrabook
Fund to help drive innovation in this new category of devices. As announced
at Computex earlier this year, Ultrabook systems will marry the performance
and capabilities of today’s laptops with tablet-like features. Ultrabook
devices will deliver a highly responsive and secure experience in a thin, light,
and elegant design at mainstream prices.
To help realize that vision, the Intel Capital
Ultrabook Fund aims to invest in companies building hardware and software
technologies focused on enhancing how people interact with Ultrabooks,
achieving all-day usage through longer battery life, enabling innovative
physical designs and improved storage capacity. The overall goal of the fund,
which will be invested over the next 3 to 4 years, is to create a cycle of
innovation and system capabilities for this new and growing category of mobile
devices.
“Ultrabook devices are poised to be an important
area for innovation in the $261 billion global computer industry,” says Arvind
Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. “The
Intel Capital Ultrabook fund will focus on investing in companies building
technologies that will help revolutionize the computing experience and morph
today’s mobile computers into the next ‘must have’ device.”
There are three key phases in Intel’s strategy to
accelerate its vision for this new category. The company’s efforts begin to
unfold this year with Intel’s latest 2nd Generation Intel Core processors. This
family of products will enable thin and light designs that are less
than 21 mm (0.8 in) thick, and at mainstream prices. Systems based on these
chips will be available for the 2011 winter holiday shopping season.
The second phase of Intel’s vision happens around
the next-generation Intel processor family codenamed “Ivy Bridge,”
which is scheduled for availability in systems in the first half of 2012.
Laptops based on “Ivy
Bridge” will bring
improved power efficiency, smart visual performance, increased responsiveness,
and enhanced security.
Intel’s planned 2013 products, codenamed “Haswell,”
are the third step in the Ultrabook device progression and expected to reduce
power consumption to half of the “thermal design point” for today’s
microprocessors.
