Intel recently announced a new program to equip Chinese
university students with laptops based on its wireless chip designs.
The new platform, codenamed Tanggula, is part of Intel’s push at the university level, which aims to accelerate the adoption of mobile
computing and wireless technologies in more than 300 universities
throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Intel did not say how many students would be getting the laptops. More than 100 universities are participating in the program in China, including Xi’an Jiaotong University, the University of Electronic Science and Technology of Chengdu, and Shanghai Jiaotong University.
The first Tanggula products are expected to be affordable
thin-and-light laptops based on Intel’s Centrino chipset and its Dothan processor.
Tanggula will also feature enhanced security, wireless connectivity,
and improved sound and audio for multimedia learning and entertainment.
The platform will also feature notebook sub-system ingredients that are compliant with the industry’s Common Building Block Program. The
Intel-backed initiative helps define common notebook ingredients based on pre-existing industry specs, so that there’s a level of consistency and quality while making it easier to manufacture and ship.
Intel said it would work with OEM partners HP, IBM, Lenovo and Ocamar Technologies to bring the laptops to the schools.
More details will be disclosed closer to the platform’s introduction in the second half of this year, the company said at a press event in Beijing Thursday.
The name “Tanggula” comes from a mountain range in western China.
In related news in the Chinese province of Dalian, Intel also
announced that Neusoft Institute of Information’s entire student body of
more than 8,000 has been equipped with Intel Centrino notebooks and
wireless LAN products.
