Since the MacBook Air super-thin model landed last year with a super-quick boot-up time, making us all go "oooh" and "aaah", many notebook manufacturers have tried to emulate the skinny Mac's design and quick-play options.

Samsung has its Series 9 machine, and there's also talk that Acer is all set to unleash the Aspire 3951 later this month.

So it's no surprise that Intel has decided to pump $300 million in to a fund for the future developments of the genre it's calling Ultrabook. After all, it stands to make a pretty penny if the manufacturers continue to slap its chips inside the super skinny machines.

The Intel Capital Ultrabook Fund's aim is to make sure companies are building the best Ultrabooks possible, with a focus on battery life, improved storage options and, of course, speedy boot-up times.

"Ultrabook devices are poised to be an important area for innovation in the $261 billion global computer industry," said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president.

Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group added: "In 2003, the combination of Intel’s Centrino technology with built-in Wi-Fi, paired with Intel Capital’s $300 million in venture investments and other industry enabling efforts, ushered in the shift from desktop PCs to anytime, anywhere mobile computing. Our announcement today is about Intel mobilizing significant investments to achieve the next historic shift in computing."

Ultrabooks are designed to be less than 21mm thick and cost less than $1,000 - the first machine to officially get the Ultrabook stamp is the 17mm thin Asus UX21.

Check out our MacBook Air 2010 vs MacBook Air 2011 guide