Gateway has started shipping the E-100M, a new ultra portable notebook. It weighs just 3.2 pounds and is less than an inch thick. By far the most interesting part of the machine, though, is the processor. It sports an Intel Core Solo U1300 which isn’t supposed to exist yet. The ultra-low voltage processor, which runs at 1.06 GHz, was mentioned in November of last year by Intel, but wasn’t expected to appear until later this quarter. The company still hasn’t announced it yet, which is uncharacteristic for Intel.

Besides the very new processor, the machine has a 12.1 inch, 1,280 by 800 widescreen display, Intel’s GMA 950 graphics engine, an 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi adapter and 512MB if 533MHZ DDR2 SDRAM. It comes with a 40GB drive, a six-in-one card reader, two USB ports and Firewire. Bluetooth can be added as a $50 extra. To keep it small and light, an optical drive isn’t included, but can be added. Standard battery life is only 2.75, but you can jack it up to 5.5 or 8 hours for extra bucks. The base price of the machine is $1,399.