Despite recent reports suggesting the contrary, it seems Intel may soon release new ultra-low voltage (ULV) processors for the thin and light notebook market. According to PC World, an official Intel road map presented during a webcast on Thursday showed the new processors will be available under the company's Core i3 and Core i5 brands as early as this quarter.

The report doesn't mention exact product names, specifications or pricing details apart from the obvious. The chips will be made using the latest 32nm manufacturing process, and will be faster than Intel Atom processors but not as powerful the standard-voltage Core i3 and i5 chips. They are meant to power laptops that are as portable as netbooks but featuring larger screens and greater functionality, with prices usually ranging from $400 to $800.

Intel's forthcoming ultra-low voltage lineup will likely go against AMD's Nile platform, which is comprised of 45nm Geneva dual-core processors, DDR3 RAM support, and DirectX 10.1 integrated graphics (or discrete DirectX 11).