Intel brings forward tech for low-cost PCs

More desktop, notebook Eee-alikes on the way

Intel has brought forward the launch of its 'Shelton' platform for budget-priced PCs, it has been claimed. Originally due in Q3, the technology for desktops and notebooks will now debut in May.

Shelton is based around the 45nm, single-core 1.6GHz 'Diamondville' processor and variants of the 945G integrated chipset. Diamondville sits on a 533MHz frontside bus and contains 512KB of L2 cache.

Not a number-crunching monster, then. But since Shelton's aimed at machines along the lines of Asus' Eee PC, where price is more important than performance, that's no great surprise.

What will be interesting to see is how Diamondville compares with Intel's other new mobile chip, the UMPC-oriented 'Silverthorne'. That chip also contains just one processing core, but it uses HyperThreading technology to appear as a virtual dual-core part.

Diamondville for desktops will go to market as the 230 processor, according to sources cited by DigiTimes, though whether it will ship as a Celeron, a Core or some other brand remains unclear. The mobile version will be called the N270.

Both CPUs and the chipset will operate without active cooling, partly to keep the noise down, but mostly to enable smaller, cheaper systems.