The world is waiting with baited breath for June, when Intel will launch its low-power, moderate performance Atom processor designed for ultraportable laptops (and by world, I mean Liliputing readers). Unfortunately, demand is going to be so high for these chips that Intel has already said it’d going to have a tough time keeping up. That could cause delays in the launches or upgrades of some next generation ultraportables, or at least fewer units of those computers in circulation than we’d like.

Asus CEO Jerry Shen says he expects the shortage to last through September. Asus will be adding the Atom CPU to its Eee PC 900 line in June, but the company won’t discontinue the Celeron version just yet. Intel is expected to prioritize “major vendors” during the shortage, which means you’ll be more likely to find the new Atom processor in a PC from a company you’ve heard of like Asus, or maybe HP, than some company you’ve never heard of like ECS or MEdion.