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Tablets? Those were so CES 2011. This year, the big trend for computing at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is ultrabooks.

That's the term coined by chip-maker Intel for a new class of laptops that, similar to the MacBook Air, are ultra-thin yet with internal processing on par with other laptops.

Intel representative Robert Manetta said Wednesday laptops in this category have been out for only four months but manufacturers have been enthusiastic about building them.

"We expect there to be 75 more models to come to market in the near future," Manetta said.

The ultrabooks -- manufactured by Toshiba, Samsung, Lenovo, HP, LG and others -- were just one part of the massive tech show held this week in Las Vegas.

CES is the largest tech show in the world. Officials with the tech show announced that there are 3,100 exhibitors showing more than 20,000 products this year, a CES record. Manetta said that Intel and other manufacturers have created ultra books as a response to the rise of tablet computing.

"People now expect tablet-like functionality in their computers," he said.

As a result, ultrabooks are designed to start up as quickly as possible when turned on. Toshiba rep Eric James said the Portege Z series computers are built to be durable as well as fast-loading.

"These devices can boot up within 13 seconds," he said.

They're also very trim. The Porteges are 0.62 inches thick, while the Series 5 ultrabooks shown by Samsung are 0.82 inches thick, Samsung rep Danto Del Vecchio said. "We've worked hard to get them at or near 20 millimeters," he said.

The Series 5 ultrabooks, which can have screens measuring 13 or 14 inches, up to 8 GB of RAM and up to 500 GB of memory, don't yet have a price or a release date.

The Portege Z series is already available and carry a starting price of $899. They range up to 6 GB of memory and 650 GB of storage.

Manetta said that ultrabooks are also designed to have low power requirements, and Intel is already developing future chips with power consumption in mind.

Toshiba reports the Portege Z series has an eight-hour battery life. We bring you the latest on what's hot at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show Tulsa World Business Writer Robert Evatt is at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Check and the Tulsa World each day for full coverage, and for even more from Las Vegas, follow @RobertEvatt on Twitter.