Intel is developing its own take on the mini-tablet (Mobile Internet Device, or MID) , with a new ultra-mobile PC platform to be announced (PDF#1, PDF#2) at this week's Intel Developer Forum in Beijing. The big surprise? It's based on Linux! Unlike UMPCs which target mobile professionals, MIDs will target 'consumers and prosumers' and feature a range of screen sizes from 4.5 to 6-inches with resolutions from 800 x 480 to 1024 x 600.  Yup, these are the same devices we spotted under the in-house name of McCaslin sporting Intel's codenamed "Stealey" class of dual-core (clocked at 600-800MHz), battery-friendly processors. Intel's reference designs run a tweaked, 500MB version of China's RedFlag MIDINUX which boots in about 18 seconds (less than 5 seconds from standby) to a mix of open-source and proprietary code including Google Maps and web-based office and enterprise applications. Data access will be provided via HSDPA and WiFi.