Intel Unveils Convertible Design; New MeeGo Devices Debut
Intel this week revealed a new convertible design based on the forthcoming Atom-based netbook platform Cedar Trail.
The new design, dubbed Keeley Lake, will combine traditional netbook features with touch-based tablet features using new multi-touch capacitive displays in a form factor ranging from 17 mm to 20 mm in thickness. The devices will support three operating systems: Google's Chrome OS, Microsoft Windows, and MeeGo.
MeeGo is an open source, Linux-based system designed to power netbooks, tablets, and smart phone systems built on ARM and Intel Atom processors. Version 1.2 was released publicly within the last two weeks, expanding the range of Intel Atom and ARMv7 platforms supported and adding several new features to the MeeGo core operating system and the software package as a whole, including:
- Support for tethering, along with expanded support for a range of wireless standards and technologies;
- Improved streaming media support; and
- An updated set of netbook applications.
The next significant release, MeeGo 1.3, is expected in the October 2011 timeframe. Further release details can be found on the MeeGo software update blog here.
In related news, several new MeeGo-based netbooks based on the company's single-core 1.33 GHz Intel Atom processor N435 made their debut recently. The new models (or models with newly announced support for MeeGo) include the Acer Aspire One Happy 2, the $200 Asus Eee PC X101, the Lenovo IdeaPad S100, and the Samsung N100.
At the Computex 2011 conference happening in Taiwan this week, Intel also highlighted its forthcoming Atom-based Medfield system on a chip design, saying that the design will "enable sub-9mm tablets that weigh less than 1.5 pounds and provide all day battery life. The processors will be in production later this year for tablet designs in market the first half of 2012 and support a range of operating systems including Google Android ('Honeycomb'), Windows, and MeeGo."