Possibly encouraged by the success of their Eee PCs, Asustek is going to launch the second generation of these powerful yet cute midget laptops this month in Taiwan. So what can we expect from these notebooks? An Intel dual-core ULV processor, for one. More in the full article.

Intel officially completes its comeback special leg this Monday. According to insiders, the world's largest semi-conductor company plans to launch finally the notebook version of Core 2 or what was formerly known as Merom. Notebook makers are expected to endorse new systems based on this said chip.

Intel's performance figures dramatically improved because of other Core architecture chips that are slower and more efficient. Older laptops that are now slowly being replaced encounter slow processor and overheating problems. Eventually, Intel envisions to have Merom supersede all Core Duo, the first dual-core notebook chip.

Core Duo 2 chips plug anyway into the same motherboards these prior chips use. More is expected of Intel as it announces more substantial renovation to its notebook products in March 2007.

Intel's quad-core (4 full execution cores) processors known as 'Kentsfield' and 'Clovertown' could ship before the end of the year instead of the first quarter of 2007. After a disappointing Q2 FY2006 results, Intel said it was pushing the launch of its first quad-core processors for high-end desktops and server earlier into the fourth quarter of 2006.

Mansfield is expected to ship in a multi-chip package in order to avoid low yields due to huge die sizes. Clovertown, the server version of the quad-core, is expected to be pin-compatible with the 'Woodcrest' dual-core Xeon DP 5100 family of server chip the company launched earlier. Clovertown is believed to have a TDP of 120W. Official specs of the quad-core CPUs have not been released by the Intel.

The company also said its upcoming Xeon MP 7100 series server processor, Tulsa, was already shipping to server vendors in preparation for its launch.

Intel is just about ready to launch "Montecito" - the dual-core Itanium 2 processor for servers - sometime within this month according to sources close to the company. Montecito is widely seen by industry observers as Intel's attempt at regaining its technological dominance in the server space. Montecito is expected to offer improved performance with less power consumption. However, some analysts are unsure whether Montecito will make any difference in Itanium sales because three out of the four largest server vendors either have no Itanium products or any plans of manufacturing Itanium-based products. So far, Intel declined to confirm the date.

It looks like a busy week for Intel. The Godfather of Chips is expected to ship its new Core Duo T2700, a 2.33GHz dual-core 65nm Yonah-based CPU for high end notebooks and desktop replacement (DTR) devices sometime this week. The processor should start showing up in high-end notebooks in the near future.

Intel's new, dual-core Yonah processor has been voted most likely to be the CPU found in the first Intel-based Macs. Early test-drives showed it was a fairly strong candidate to replace the single core Pentium M offering performance equal to that of AMD's Athlon 64 X2 without an on-die memory controller.

The company will also comically release its Core Duo U2500 ultra-low voltage (ULV) CPU. The U2500 is a 1.2GHz Yonah processor with 2MB L2 cache and a 533MHz FSB consumes only about 0.75 W during normal operation.

On Monday, Intel, the largest chip manufacturer, took the sheets off its new dual-core Xeon Processor 5100 series. The chips, codenamed Woodcrest, are high-volume server and workstation chips which are capable of 135% performance improvement, and 40% power reduction over their previous server products. Power consumption will start at 40 watts for lower models, going up to 65 and 80 watts for the faster processors.

This is very important for Apple's view of things, aside from the obvious inclusion in future products, this would most certainly mean cheaper and lower prices for the current range of processors used in Apple machines.

The new Core micro-architecture is being implemented, which is based on the a power sensitive blueprint design. It is expected that this design will be used in two forthcoming chips for the desktop and notebook called Conroe and Merom. These are expected in July and August, but we all know about delays that can be involved. The 5100, will be shipped at speeds up to 3.0Ghz, with 1333Mhz front side bus and 4 MB of shared L2 cache. The chips are compatible with the current Bensley Platform, which means that they can be dropped in with the current pin format. The platform uses faster and more reliable memory technology, FB-DIMMs, Intel Virtualization Technology, Intel Active Server Manager and Intel I/O Acceleration Technology.

"Simply put, the Core micro-architecture is a technical marvel that is driving a new era of power efficiency without compromising on what can only be described as eye-popping dual-core 64-bit performance," said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group.

Pricing will start at $209 to $851 in 1000 unit quantities, and Intel expect the family of processors to be the fastest-ramping ever. However, they are still loosing ground to the AMD range of processors, and are aiming to rectify things with Woodcrest, Merom and Conroe.

The good folks over at Laptop Logic have put Lenovo's ThinkPad X60s through its paces. They've found the X60s to be one smooth, powerful notebook that's more than a bit on the expensive side, but is well worth every penny.

The X60s is a dual-core laptop that's relatively small, considering the heat it packs. Units can weigh 2.89lbs, 3lbs or 3.46lbs depending on which battery variant is chosen (one of three), and the machine never gets any thicker than 1.1in - nice and very portable. The test unit came equipped with the Core Duo Low Voltage L2400 CPU (1.55 GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache), 512 MB RAM, an 80GB hard drive, a/b/g Wi-Fi, WWAN and an 8-cell battery - a heavenly mouthful! The machine's snappy performance, superb build quality, excellent keyboard (it's spill-resistant, of course), terrific battery life and unique ThinkLight (a little LED light for the keyboard) all endeared it very much to the editors.

The X60s is far from perfect of course. The reviewers didn't like that the palmrest gets a little hot, that there's no touchpad (just an UltraNav pointing stick), that there's no DVI on Ultrabase, that the lower-end systems only come with 512MB, and that the laptop's expensive - the test unit is $2,299, out of reach of many a road warrior. Still, those observations couldn't make them love the X60s any less. "There's certainly better value to be had elsewhere," the reviewers said, "but you truly get unparalleled, uncompromised mobility, quality and performance." The proof of that? The X60s just won Laptop Logic's Editor's Choice Award.

(Oh, and at the time the review was written, Lenovo decided to sweeten the pot a bit by offering $200 mail-in rebates on two of the lower X60s models. Sweet!)

England based computer company, Evesham, has released a new contraption dubbed as the Quest Nemesis. It is blessed with a 17-inch SLI notebook that is aptly designed for gaming on the go.

The notebook runs on AMD's Turion 64 dual-core processor to provide high-speed gaming. It features a 17-inch WSXGA widescreen display, a 1.3MP camera, and a top-of-the-line Dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GPU.

The features do not end there. Aside from that, this baby is also amped with a 2.1 speaker system which aims to provide a high-quality audio experience while dual HDDs with RAID technology provide 160GB of storage. As for the connectivity factor, the notebook has Bluetooth, Wireless Mini PCI 802.11bg LAN, and a Media Card reader.

Upgrades are also available for those who really want to maximize their gaming experience with this one. Upgrades such as a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) screen will cost you around $92 (£50), while 2x512MB graphics is available for $275 (£150 UK Pounds). Can't wait to get this one? Well, it's a good thing that you won't have to wait long for this thingamajig. Beginning this July, the Quest Nemesis will be on sale for a whopping $2,742 (£1499)with a 2-year on site and 1-year RTB warranty.

Micro-Star International (MSI) has announced the release of its dual-core notebook, the S271. This is based on the AMD Turion 64 X2 CPU and an ATI chipset. With the 64 X2 core, users will experience multitasking efficiency and the high calculation capacity of this core.

Because of these features, the company is confident that the sales of this notebook will increase dramatically from 100,000 in the first quarter to 150,000 units by the end of the second quarter. MSI expects around 500,000 to 600,000 notebooks to be shipped worldwide by the end of 2006.

The MSI S271 notebook has a 12.1-inch TFT WXGA (1280x800 pixels) with ATI RS485M integrated graphics for games and a memory of up to 2GB. It has an 200GB 5,400rpm HDD and a Super Multi DVD - all at just 1.9kg and less than 2cm thick. The MSI S271 also has an MMC/SD/MS/MS Pro 4-in-1 card reader.

The MSI S271 notebook also has the unique Butterfly Touchpad that's very easy to operate.

This notebook from MSI has been made available worldwide.