Although netbooks were intended to be very slim, light and portable, actual manufacturers quickly realized that many consumers need larger screens, high-capacity hard drives and many other advanced technology from their inexpensive Intel Atom-based machines. As a result, costly ultra-thin notebooks are now not only thinner than the most of netbooks, but also weigh less and offer comparable battery life. But Intel Corp. wants to get the netbooks back to the roots.

At the Computex Taipei 2010 the world’s largest maker of microprocessors demonstrated its “razor thin” code-named Canoe Lake platform that promises to enable the world’s thinnest netbooks platforms based on Pineview microprocessors with integrated graphics and memory controllers. At just 14mm thin, Canoe Lake can accommodate both “Pine Trail” single-core and dual-core Intel Atom platforms. According to Intel, the new thermal design of Canoe Lake allows it to run cool and quiet and be up to 50% thinner than the netbooks currently in the market today.

“Canoe Lake represents what can be done when Intel and its partners commit to innovation. Expect to see netbooks on the market based on this technology over time,” an official statement by Intel reads.

The 14mm netbook is indisputably promising product that may indeed find its place on the market. But only not shortly. Intel first talked about razor-thin notebooks back in 2007: the concept Metro notebook was 0.7” (1.778 centimeters) thick and had weight of 2.25 pounds (1.02 kilograms), the thickness very close to that of Motorola Razr. However, only in late 2009 Dell introduced its Adamo XPS laptop that is actually 1 centimeter thin.

What should be noted is that ultra-thin mobile computers have to be made using high-quality and expensive materials in order to make them rugged enough, as a result, far not all manufacturers are likely to make netbooks – which are affordable computers by definition – using those materials in a bid to make than as slim as possible.

Tags: Intel, Canoe Lake, Pine Trail, Pineview