From what we've seen thus far, Intel's Netbook isn't exactly the prettiest piece of kit. But apparently, the unit we've been shown looks nothing like the Netbooks of the future. At the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, the company was showing off an upcoming design that looked awfully thin (and awfully attractive). As it stands, all we truly know about the lappie was that Linux was under the hood and the Atom will likely power things whenever it escapes the trade show floor and ships en masse. Still, if the price is right, we can certainly see this slab being desired by more than just schoolkids in various corners of the world.

[Image courtesy of Impress]

Intel's Nehalem chips were just officially announced a couple weeks ago, but the company's already showing off early samples at the Intel Developer Forum in China this week. Performance numbers are being closely guarded, but quad-core samples are clocked at 3.2GHz, and it's expected that Nehalem chips will offer up to a 30 percent performance increase at the same clock speeds over Core 2 processors. Of course, the name still sounds like a particularly violent sneeze, but you know Intel's running some hard-core focus groups right now to fix that problem.

Oh my. Look at what Lenovo is cooking up with the help of Intel's newest Atom processor. Unveiled at Intel's IDF in Shanghai, the new Ideapad U8 device features a 4.8-inch touchscreen display and bullseye, optical mouse for (supposedly) one-handed operation while surfing the web over EDGE or 3G data -- presumably China's TD-SCDMA. The device also features "Live GPS," hand written note taking, and support for MS Office applications. We're guessing it'll also make a phone call or two with that 12-key numeric pad. And with Intel calling this a MID, don't expect to see a Microsoft OS riding that Atom, this pup's looking Linux to the bone. Check the video after the break.

[Via UMPC Portal]

There you have it, the first laptop we've seen running Intel's long awaited Atom processors. We're pretty sure that's MSI's Wind PC on display in Shanghai for Intel's Developer Forum. Of course, we've already seen Atom listed as the CPU in the G10IL and new 8.9-inch Eee PC among others. But there's nothing like seeing the genuine article running on Intel's newest silicon. If you're a fan of the Eee PC form factor then you'll be stoked by what looks like a truck-load of 7- to 9-inch ultra-portables on way. Click the read link to see a few more.

Whoa boy, what have we here? A dramatically short video over at jkkmobile shows off a mysterious new Intel MID, which we presume was captured in Shanghai at the Intel Developer Forum. Unfortunately, there's absolutely zero information on this piece outside of what you see in video posted after the jump, but the sleek clamshell design already has our attention. Judging by the Day Zero news bullets over on Intel's site, we know the firm's aiming to unveil "smaller form factors with improved power efficiency," and judging by the looks of this one, it certainly fits the bill. We'll keep you posted if more details emerge.

Intel just keeps banging out the hits from IDF. After the handful of McCaslin "next-quarter" and "coming-soon" UMPCs we saw from the chipmaker (and associates), Intel started busting out prototypes from its forthcoming Menlow chipset, using smaller, 45nm Silverthorne CPUs, and the 2009/2010 offering Moorestown... which is the bad-boy you're looking at in these photos is based on. In a rather obvious homage to the iPhone, the chip-kingpin presented this do-anything, go-anywhere MID (provided you can cram this French-bread-sized device into a pocket). The device will feature a 45nm CPU as well, plus all kinds of goodies like integrated WiFi and WiMAX, and apparently 24 hours of battery life on a single charge. Obviously, this product will probably never see the light of day (at least not in this form factor), but then again -- you never really know. Check a few more photos after the break.

Read -- Intel shows concept iPhone running on Moorestown platform
Read -- Intel's iPhone clone, we're not joking
Read -- Intel Details Next Generation "Menlow" MID, UMPC Platform

As the news continues to flow from Intel's Developer Forum, we're now hearing that the chip maker could make "surprise moves into consumer electronics chips." More specifically, it seems that the outfit is looking to "roll out a system-on-a-chip code-named Canmore aimed at HDTVs and other products," as well as Silverthorne, which would apparently be reserved for handheld devices. 'Course, Intel has dabbled in these areas without notable success in the past, but analysts are suggesting that gaining traction this time around "could be big" for the firm. Ah Intel, why the tease?

Intel looks to be keeping all of its bases covered at its Developer Forum in San Francisco this week, with the company announcing a slew of future plans for desktops, handhelds and, now, laptops. The biggest news on that front is Intel's announcement of its forthcoming "Santa Rosa Refresh," which will be based on the company's upcoming 45nm Penryn mobile processor and is set to hit in January of next year. As with current Santa Rosa laptops, the updated platform will be based on Intel's 965 Express chipset, and will include all the usual networking and other options associated with it. Further on down the road, Intel is touting its Montevina platform, which will also be based on the 45nm Penryn processor, with added support for DDR3 memory, integrated HD-DVD/Blu-ray support, and integrated WiMAX in addition to the standard WiFi. What's more, Intel says the Montevina components will be about 40% smaller, opening up the possibility for a range of different laptop form factors. According to Intel, a number of companies including Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba have already "expressed intent" to embed WiMAX in future laptops of theirs, which could become a reality sometime in 2008, although it doesn't look like there's any firm word on that front just yet.

Intel's Paul Otellini IDF keynote shed some new light on the company's Larrabee processor, which is now set for a 2010 release and will compete against AMD and NVIDIA in the realm of high-end graphics. Paul says the chips will scale up to teraflops in speed, and be targeted at science and analytics in addition to graphics -- though he dodged questions about Larrabee potentially being a discrete graphics competitor for AMD and NVIDIA, and only reiterating that "Graphics will also be an area for the chip." Intel has so far stayed squarely in the realm of integrated graphics, but a move to discrete graphics would be quite a welcome shakeup to the current market, and teraflops would certainly make it all the more interesting.

It's been a tick since we've heard anything notable on the Mobile Internet Device front, but it looks like BenQ could have something on the horizon. Judging by a brief clip showing a consumer marketing manager from Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, BenQ has developed a Linux-based handheld MID that touts a vivid black / blue color scheme and a 4.8-inch touchscreen. Sadly, that's about all the details that could be shared in 27 oh-so-quick seconds, but click on through to check the video out for yourself.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

It's Fall IDF time in San Francisco, and Intel really came out swinging in the chips department. The company is releasing 15 of its new 45nm Penryn this year, with the first chips hitting on November 12th, and another 20 hitting in Q1 2008. That could get some of those chips into desktops before AMD's 65nm Phenom hits, and is earlier than was expected from the chip giant. The Penryn chips are promised to bring a 20 percent performance increase while improving energy efficiency. Intel also took the opportunity to show off Nehalem, Penryn's followup. Nehalem sports a new micro-architecture to further reduce power drain, and it can adjust itself dynamically to best suit the task at hand while saving power in the process. And just to tease, Intel talked up its 32nm SRAM tech, the world's first 32nm chip, which will apparently be ready in 2009, but we'll settle for faster chips and longer battery life from the likes of Intel and AMD in the interim.

[Via TG Daily]

Intel's been throwing so many mobile processor codenames around in the past 12 months or so that we've resorted to hiring droids to constantly update pivot tables as chips are named and nixed from its ever-evolving roadmap. But being the weekend and all, it looks like we're stuck telling you about yet another presumably vital processor that's likely destined to hit cellphones, UMPCs, and other handheld computing platforms sometime in the not too distant future. According to an interview by Germany's FAZ, Intel's CEO compared the chip "to the original Pentium" in terms of importance to the company, and while Mr. Otellini didn't go into too much detail beyond that (can't blame him for keeping us curious), he did note that the firm hopes the 45nm CPU can infiltrate "10 to 20-percent of the mobile phone market."

[Via TGDaily]

While Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) haven't benefited from a good deal of buzz just yet, things could be taking a turn, as both Xilinx and Altera caught a few eyes at IDF. We've already seen the unique, albeit highly specific chips in a supercomputer, but the dedicated coprocessor / accelerator modules could be landing beside your Intel Xeon CPU. Essentially, the devices plug "directly into the processor socket of dual- or quad-socket servers" in order to provide "high performance application acceleration ranging from 10x to 100x compared to processors alone, while simultaneously reducing overall system power consumption." The modules act as targeted CPUs, effectively computing very specific tasks in a much more efficient fashion than a general microprocessor can alone, which could boost the speed of scientific, financial, and life science applications that rely on very particular calculations. Of course, mainstream adoption still has quite a ways to go, but the quicker we get dedicated physics and AI coprocessors to go along with these snazzy new GPUs, the happier (and poorer) we'll be.

[Via RobotSkirts]
Read - Altera demonstrates FPGA at IDF
Read - Xilinx demonstrates FPGA at IDF

Honestly, we don't exactly know how to take the news that Intel's already looking beyond next month's Santa Rosa release to a reported quad-core Penryn mobile processor. On one hand, our eyes relish the opportunity to play the latest titles at the highest resolutions whilst bragging aimlessly to our online pals, but then again, we don't look forward to the presumed third-degree burns that could likely develop from tossing these in such tight quarters. Nevertheless, Intel managed to drop a few more details in regard to its mobile CPU plans, and noted that Santa Rosa's successor would likely be based on the 45-nanometer Penryn design and offer high-end gaming notebooks a ridiculous amount of power. Additionally, an Intel exec showcased the future chip's ability to be user-overclocked, suggesting that it would be "your responsibility to take care of cooling." Of course, if Intel could buddy up with IBM's miracle-working cooling solutions, the forthcoming chip could manage to breathe a bit easier, but we've got until "the first half of 2008" to see about all that.