Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage (CULV) is a computing platform developed by Intel. It has been estimated that this market could reach 10 million CULV laptops shipped within 2009. Competing platforms are the VIA Nano, AMD Yukon, AMD Nile notebook platform, and graphic chips from the Nvidia GeForce line within the "Nvidia Ion platform". Some of the lowest power using processors for the ultra thin CULV category may be only a few watts more than the Intel Atom, which is rated at no more than 2.5 W. Because of their low power and heat output, CULV enables very thin computer systems, and long battery life in notebook computers.
While the first processors in this category were single core (such as the SU3500), newer CULV processors are dual core (e.g., the SU9600). They are all based on the Intel Core 2 architecture, but the ultra-low voltage versions have thermal rating of 5.5 W, more than the Intel Atom but a fraction of the dual-core mainstream Intel mobile chips rated at 25 and 35 watts, and they come in a small 22 mm chip package.
Newest CULV processors are also in Core i7 and Core i5 product lines (14 nm).