The first Ultrabooks later this year will not have touch capabilities, but will boot quickly and be always connected, to continuously receive e-mail and Facebook updates, said Kevin Sellers, vice president of investor relations at Intel, during a presentation earlier this week.

Starting in 2012, Ultrabooks will get touchscreens that can also swivel or slide out. They could be used in full PC mode and then converted into a tablet-like device to watch movies, for example, like convertible tablets today.

"Starting next year with our Ivy Bridge product line and with Windows 8 is when you'll start to see tablet form factor, tablet capability integrated," Sellers said. "This is the importance of combining this technology with something like Windows 8, which will give you the ability to do both."

Windows 8 will be Microsoft's first operating system designed for touch interfaces.

Intel advances its chip architecture every year, and graphics will be enhanced in a new microprocessor code-named Haswell, due for release in 2013. Intel also hopes to cut the power consumption on Haswell chips by half compared to Ivy Bridge chips.