Intel Corp. has recently been out and about to drum up support for the company’s efforts in the ultra thin sub-notebook space. Intel chief exec Paul Otellini told Tuesday’s earnings conference call listeners that the new class of gadgets would give consumers what they’ve been missing with the netbook.

“When people try to do 3D games on these things (Netbooks) or try to run their office applications on them, they tend to think it’s a bit slow and that isn’t just the processor, it’s the entire architecture,” he said. “Now, if you want a thin and light notebook, you don’t have to just pick a Netbook. You can pick an affordable notebook that has more functionality.”

Tuesday’s overture is not the first from the world’s largest CPU producer. Intel previously revealed their ambitions for the fledgling notebook niche when it announced the Pentium SU2000-series CULV processors in early June.

It has been posited that Intel’s efforts with ultra thins are a response to investor fears that feature creep in the wildly popular netbook market is quickly cannibalizing the sales of higher-margin products with more expensive Intel CPUs. Investors — and Intel, certainly — hope that consumers will be persuaded to swallow a higher price for a mobile experience far ahead of the netbook.

While Intel ultra thins sit in the cooker for what should be a Q4 launch window, nobody remind them that AMD got ‘er done first. We reckon that ol’ blue is apt to be a wee bit sensitive ’bout that.