Not just the IT industry has noticed China as a growing and important market. For the future. Many companie slimit their current involvement to a market and product expansion. Intel however even believes the Chinese university opportunity to be large enough to justify development of a dedicated notebook platform.

The new platform carries the codename "Tanggula" and will be will be "stylish and light-weight, and will come in a range of affordable performance and entry-level designs for students and parents," according to Intel. Initial OEM systems based on the Tanggula platform are expected to be available in the second half of this year.

Intel did not provide details on the technology of the platform, but mentioned that Tanggula will include "Common Building Block Program-compliant notebook sub-system ingredients." The Common Building Block program is an initiative to define common notebook ingredients based on pre-existing industry specifications in order to improve ingredient consistency and notebook quality while reducing notebook assembly costs and time-to-market for manufacturers. (THG)