In the next two years, mainstream laptops will get thinner and lighter, run all day on a single battery charge, have touchscreens, get instant-on capabilities and run multiple OSes, all without compromising performance, CEO Paul Otellini said at the company's financial analyst day on Tuesday.

"This is not just about evolving the PC. This is about reinventing the PC into a much more consumer electronics-like device," Otellini said.

Some of the developments are probably being driven by tablets and smartphones -- particularly Apple's iPhone and iPad -- as people become accustomed to computers that start instantly at the press of a button.

While Intel hurries to develop chips that are better suited to smaller devices, it still maintains that PCs will play a central role. "People want to create, and we still look at tablet PCs more as sort of consuming devices," said Dadi Perlmutter, joint head of the Intel Architecture Group.