Intel officials have confirmed at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco on September 13 that “Clover Trail” - the upcoming version of the company’s low-power Atom processor would not support Linux.

The Clover Field processor, which can be seen in various nondescript laptops around IDF, is targeted at mobile devices, such as low-cost notebooks and tablets. An Intel representative at IDF said Clover Trail "is a Windows 8 chip" and that "the chip cannot run Linux".

According to Intel Architecture Group Executive Vice President David Perlmutter, the Clover Trail system-on-a-chip architecture was designed specifically for Windows 8 tablets and “convertibles.” This processor is the effort of Intel and Microsoft to provide a full Windows 8 experience (including enterprise features missing from Windows RT) on devices competitive with ARM-based Windows 8 tablets. The chip will allow Windows 8 to control Clover Trail's advanced power management features.

The reason Clover Trail wont support other operating systems , including Linux, is because of contractual obligations of Intel to Microsoft, and also because Intel wants to keep the features of the chip disclosed.

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