Intel CEO Paul Otellini today pledged to permit handheld users to run Windows Vista on their palmtops by the end of the decade. Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer may none be too happy that his Wintel colleague is setting out to rid the world of Windows Mobile but that's the way it goes. And anyway, Steve Jobs is a customer too, now. Otellini's pitch was a new generation of devices he dubbed the 'handtop'. The platform is nothing new, of course - PDAs, palmtops and handheld PCs have been around for years - but past attempts to create truly mobile, wireless micro PCs have been hindered by performance and battery life limitations. Otellini said Intel's new focus on "performance per watt" will remove those limits. The vision is a 0.5W processor with sufficient horsepower to run Windows Vista by 2010. To get there, Intel will first merge its NetBurst and Pentium M architectures into the "next-generation power optimised microarchitecture" creating what Otellini claimed would be a "single and persistent platform for software developers" - that means x86, 64-bit, virtualisation, active management and trusted computing."