Gigabyte's low-cost Atom-powered portable gets a name

The much anticipated, 8.9-inch, Intel Atom-powered ultra-low-cost PC from motherboard manufacturer Gigabyte, expected to hit the market in June, now has a name: M912.

Unfortunately, that's still all it officially has. As DigiTimes reported this morning, The M912 is reportedly being both designed and manufactured in-house so the company can release it in a timely fashion. If Gigabyte's current UMPC/MID offerings are any indication, the device could take on the "slider" form factor instead of the traditional "clamshell" laptop/notebook design.

Gigabyte vice president Richard Ma said earlier this year that the company's OEMs will remain Arima Computer (Flextronics), Compal Industries, and Quanta Computer.

According to a Digitimes source, the M912 will support either Linux or Windows XP, and potentially support Bluetooth, something many low-cost PCs do not.

In early April, Intel listed some companies which would launch devices powered on its Atom processors this summer, but did not include Taiwanese company Gigabyte even though the company was supporting the low-power architecture when it was only known by the codename "Menlow."