Intel presented at this year’s edition of Computex “Keeley Lake” a new hybrid device design, based on the future platform for Intel Atom netbooks, codenamed “Cedar Trail”.
“Keeley Lake”, a combination of a netbook and a tablet, takes from the concept of Asus Eee Pad Transformer: a tablet with a detachable keyboard, but with a much thinner frame and is designed to include the tablet in design – which becomes “invisible” when the device is closed.
Whether it will be available with physical keyboard or touch, “Keeley Lake” will offer the best features into a slim size of 17mm to 20mm. It will provide a flexible platform that will allow users to choose between Google Chrome, MeeGo, and Windows.
Although not all details were made public, it was noted that the prototype presented uses Oak Trail, the 1.5GHz Z670 Atom processor – which maintains a slim design, given that the device provides video decoding at 1080p. The device presented by Intel runs Windows 7 and has several USB ports along with what seems to be an HDMI video output.
“The Secret” of its small size is the “Cedar Trail” platform, which only takes 4-5 watts for the entire chipset, and also the 12.1-inch LED screen with extremely low energy consumption. Intel also announced that the prototype has the Wireless Display (WiDi) feature – so the image from the screen can easily be projected on a large television.
One of the disadvantages of the device, observed by the participants to the presentation, is that all outputs (USB, HDMI, jack) are positioned on the side behind the screen – making it harder to connect, Keeley Lake actually have to be turned with the back side to the user.