ASUSTEK'S CEO announced today that Asus will launch a new version of its low-cost, ultramobile Eee laptop PC running Intel's Atom CPU at the Computex trade show in Taipai this June.

Atom is the Intel microprocessor series formerly codenamed Diamondville. It's optimised for use in small, inexpensive PCs and other mobile Internet devices. The Atom chip is less than 25 square millimetres in size. According to Intel, it runs at up to 1.8Ghz using only 0.6 watts to 2.5 watts thermal design power.

The existing models of the Asus Eee laptop PC mount an Intel Celeron-M chip that runs at only 630Mhz and consumes up to 35 watts thermal design power.

The original Eee 701 laptop PC had a smallish 7" 800x480 pixel screen, 512MB DDR2 RAM and a flash SSD with only 8GB capacity. Asus has since announced an Eee 900 model laptop, which will have a larger 8.9" 1024x600 pixel screen, 1GB DDR2 RAM and 12GB to 20GB of flash SSD storage.

Asus Eee laptop PCs weigh in less than 1kg and also include a 1.3MP webcam, 802.11b/g WiFi and a four or six cell battery with up to 2.5 hour to 3 hour life.

It's not yet clear at the moment whether Asus will bung the Atom CPU into its Eee 900 model or announce yet another new model for it. The company also announced today that it will be launching another Eee laptop PC version that will sport a 10-inch screen, probably in the latter half of this year.

Asustek's Eee laptop PC might be the most successful low-cost ultramobile PC going. The company claims it has already sold over a million Eee PCs since its launch late last year.

However, Asustek also said today that a global shortage of laptop batteries has temporarily slowed its sales of Eee laptop PCs so far this year, a problem that it expects will go away by June. µ

L'Inq
PC World