In an effort to compete with the growing tablet market, Intel has announced plans for a new class of thin and light laptops at the Computex trade show on Tuesday.

PCWorld reports that the new "Ultrabook" will have the performance of a laptop and the features of a tablet. The "Ultrabook" will have a thin and elegant design and will be priced for the mainstream market. The new ultrabook will have a maximum thickness of 20 millimeters and will weigh only two pounds. Designs will be highly responsive and be as portable as tablets. Intel expects that the ultrabooks will account for 40 percent of consumer laptop sales by next year.

Excited techies shouldn't head for the nearest stores just yet. It will take time for the system to evolve. The initial ultrabooks will go on sale near the end of the year just in time for the holidays and will be priced under US$1000. The next batch of ultrabooks with Intel's Ivy Bridge processors will come out in the first half of 2012 and the final wave will come out on 2013. The 2013 batch will have the newest Core processor design, code named Haswell. This new processor will use only half the power consumption of Intel chips and will ensure longer laptop battery life.

Intel and PCs in general have been caught off guard by the popularity of tablets and sales have reflected that trend. Ultrabooks are Intel's push into recovering lost ground and injecting fresh enthusiasm for the PC market.

The relatively cheap price of the ultrabooks could help with that effort. Intel marketing chief Tom Kilroy said that ultrabooks could go for as low as $599 when the third batch rolls out with the Haswell chip.