The "Ultrabook" will combine the performance of a laptop with "tablet-like features" in a "thin, light and elegant design," Intel Executive Vice President Sean Maloney said in a statement.

The chipmaker launches the new blueprint at the Computex trade show on Tuesday according to cnet.

The thickness cutoff for an ultrabook will be 20 millimeters or about 0.8 inches. With 20mm as the upper limit, designs that exceed these guidelines are emerging already at Computex. The Asus UX21 Ultrabook (below) debuted at Computex, is 17mm at its thickest point.

At just over two pounds, laptops like the UX21 will mimic the portability of tablets. Designs will be highly responsive with instant-resume too, not unlike tablets.

And they won't break the bank. Pricing is targeted at under $1,000. Systems based on these chips will be available for the 2011 winter holiday shopping season, according to Intel.

"Many of the super-sleek devices today are quite pricey. The price points need to become more mainstream," Intel marketing chief Tom Kilroy told CNET. "And as volume ramps, say by the end of 2012, we think as much as 40 percent of the volume will be in this ultra category."

Prices will come down even more when Intel moves its laptop chips to a design dubbed "Haswell"--Intel's system-on-a-chip for the mainstream laptop market, offering more evidence of tablet-like silicon in a mainstream laptop. "And as the volume picks up, the price points will come down. And we think by 2013 with 'Haswell,' which is our system-on-a-chip implementation, you'll see ultrabooks in truly mainstream price points of $599," he said. System-on-a-chip designs, referred to as SoCs, are currently used in tablets such as the Apple iPadand Motorola Xoom.

The Ultrabook comes on the heels of a largely unsuccessful effort to seed a category of laptops that were typically referred to as "ultrathins," or what Intel internally had been calling CULV, or consumer ultra low voltage.