Intel's Compute Card puts a PC in the palm of your hand

Intel has had enough of chips that sit hidden away inside your PC. It wants you to be able to feel the processing power in your hands, and take it with you wherever you go.

Enter the ComputeCard -- a modular card designed to slide in and out of notebooks , PCs, connected appliances and even intelligent whiteboards to provide ultra-portable computing and connectivity. And you'll be able to get it by August .

First unveiled at CES 2017, Intel showed off the Compute Card once again at Computex 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan, and this time we know a lot more about the places you'll see it.

The device appeared on the show in products from enterprise-level manufacturers like Sharp, Foxconn and TabletKiosk, as well as an LG all-in-one PC that runs entirely on the ComputeCard's smarts. Intel says Dell, Lenovo and HP are also working on applications for the platform.

At the show, the company talked up the convenience of being able to quickly take the ComputeCard from home to school to work. The GM of Intel's Client Computing Group, Gregory Bryant, showed how the device could slide out of an all-in-one into a tablet at school and then into a smart whiteboard for a school presentation.

"The module can be ejected and replaced or upgraded with just the push of button," he said.

The Compute Card certainly doesn't feel like something you'd want hidden away in your PC. The big selling point is that it's the size of a credit card -- really, it's closer to four credit cards stacked on top of one another. Still, it sits easily in the palm of your hand and, most importantly, it looks good, with a smooth metal case that recalls the slick styling of a MacBook Air .

The Compute Card packs four different processors, depending on how gutsy you want to go, all of which are slated to begin shipping in August 2017. 

Check out the rest of CNET's Computex 2017 coverage here.

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