At the Computex trade show in Taipei on Tuesday, Intel will introduce an ultra-low voltage processor, the Pentium SU2700, for use in sleek laptops that are as light as netbooks but have larger screens and greater functionality.

The chip maker calls them "ultrathin" laptops and says they will combine the portability of netbooks with the functionality of mainstream laptops at a modest price. Intel expects PC makers to use the new chip in laptops that are less than an inch thick, weigh 2 to 5 pounds and cost US$499 to $1,299. They'll have a full-sized keyboard and 12- to 14-inch screens.

The SU2700 is the among the first in a new line of low-power chips that Intel will supply for these ultrathin laptops. The single-core processor runs at 1.3GHz and includes 2MB of cache.

The ultrathin laptops are different from what Intel refers to as ultraportable laptops. The ultraportables use low-voltage versions of Intel's Core 2 chips. The smaller Pentium chip released Tuesday draws lesser power and can stretch battery life to eight hours, said Uday Marty, director of product marketing at Intel. It is less powerful than the Core 2 chips, however.