SEATTLE, USA: Microsoft Corp, which is “coming full guns” to launch Windows-powered tablet computers and smartphones to take on Apple and Google, said that the new tablets will run on Intel Corp chips.

This statement by Steve CEO Ballmer has in a way dampened the talk that a recent agreement with British chipmaker ARM Holdings Plc heralded a shift toward that company's chip design, which powers the iPad and most smartphones.

A new range of Intel chips expected early next year will give the whole market for tablets a boost next year, Ballmer said while addressing financial analysts at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, adding that both Windows phones and tablets will have "aggressive" marketing support from Microsoft.

Ballmer mentioned a few times during his keynote the coming SoC Intel Atom processors, codenamed Oak Trail, that will be available to customers in early 2011, as enabling new lighter, faster slates.

Intel has claimed that Oak Trail delivers a 50 percent reduction in average power consumption with full HD-video playback.