Since Asus announced plans to launch a revamped version of its popular low-cost notebook with a wider screen, many have been eagerly awaiting further details on the upcoming 900 series including specs, a launch date, and starting price in the US.

Now, in our hour-long interview with Laptop Magazine, Asus’s CEO Jerry Shen has spilled the beans on the company’s plans for the Eee, including the intention to adopt Intel’s new 45nm Diamondville (now Atom) processors rather than VIA’s mobile computing platform, and the possibility of giving customers a choice between their current offering of solid state drives and regular hard drives in the future.

Shen also confirmed that Eee PCs with built-in HSDPA and WiMAX modules will start to hit the streets come Q3 – though the WiMAX option is dependent on the technology having reached a sufficient level of maturity. The new Eee PC 900 – including a Windows XP version with an 8 GB SSD and 1 GB of RAM – will reportedly ship in April with a suggested retail price of $499 in the US.