CES 2013: Haswell Ultrabooks Have New Requirements

Oh certification, how I loathe thee.

At the Intel CES 2013 keynote, Intel announced a few new requirements for OEMs to manufacture Haswell-based ultrabooks. Intel clearly wants to push OEMs to utilize several of their more cherished features and as such they will not allow products to be released without these features.

Threat detected.

A fourth-generation ultrabook must contain the following features:

• Touch interaction support
• Intel WiDi support
• Installed Antivirus and Anti-Malware, Intel-owned McAfee will have an announcement soon.

These three certification requirements lead to two major points of contention with me: non-Windows 8 operating systems as well as Intel potentially strong-arming McAfee into your machine. When Intel requires touch support for Haswell-based ultrabooks, they basically declare that Windows 7 and Linux will not be around.

That requirement could seem minor depending on what Intel McAfee will soon announce after Intel’s announcement that Antivirus and Anti-Malware will be required on ultrabooks. Windows 8 already comes with Microsoft Security Essentials pre-installed and as such Intel might strong-arm vendors into using McAfee. It would not be a stretch to speculate that McAfee will have some deep attachment to the Haswell architecture. Unfortunately we will need to wait until Intel makes their announcement.

Intel also claims that ultrabooks will have touch-based products in the $599 price points very soon.

PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.

Follow all of our coverage of the show at https://pcper.com/ces!