The company will ship the ULV chips as part of its Montevina Plus mobile laptop platform, an updated version of the existing Montevina platform, said Connie Brown, a company spokeswoman.

The chips could go into thin and small laptops that provide full PC functionality but are cheaper than existing ultraportable laptops, which are generally priced above US$1,500.

Laptops based on Intel's ULV chips could be as thin as Apple's MacBook Air or Dell's recently launched Adamo, with prices ranging between $599 and $1,299. In announcing the chips, Intel said it wanted to bring ultraportable laptops to the masses.

"You'll see many more of the ultra-thin laptop models at a variety of price points, and not just on the high end. This will give both business and general consumers more choice," Brown said.

The new chips will fit into small spaces and use less power than existing Core 2 Duo ULV chips, which draw about 10 watts of power. Intel's Core 2 ULV chips are mostly used in ultraportable laptops such as Lenovo's X300, Apple's MacBook Air and Fujitsu's LifeBook P8020. Intel also currently offers inexpensive chips for thin and light laptops such as netbooks, but those PCs are only designed to perform basic functions such as Web browsing and word processing.