"Ultrathin today has an ultrahigh premium," Otellini said. The hope is that with the ultrabook fund, the price of the components will come down "much faster than we would have seen otherwise."

PC sales have been sluggish. Both IDC and Gartner, in reports last week for the most recent quarter, said PC shipments had failed to meet expectations. IDC said PC shipments increased by 3.6% year-over-year, while Gartner put the figure at 3.2% for the same period.

the economy and competition from tablets for weak PC sales.

Otellini said its ultrabook hasn't been released, but is due next year. Windows 8 is also expected next year, and Otellini said the new operating system will be critical to the ultrabook. "We think that Windows 8 on Intel architecture, particularly in ultrabook, will give you the ultimate experience," he said.

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .