IDF: Intel and the ultra mobile revolution

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 18 April 2007 09:49

Your IT - Entertainment

Ever since handheld devices appeared, from calculators to electronic diaries, Palm Pilots to Apple Newtons to Pocket PCs, iPods and the Origami UMPCs from Intel and Microsoft, people have wanted their portable devices to last all day, have the power of a desktop, fit into a pocket, and these days, be totally wireless and Internet compatible. iPhone is coming, but Intel made some major mobile announcements today!

On Day 2 of Intel’s IDF (Intel Developer Forum), Anand Chandrasekher, Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Ultra Mobility Group, spoke about wireless and WiMAX, which you’ll see in the next article, but what I want to focus on in this article is the ‘McCaslin’ platform, which is the Ultra Mobile PC platform for 2007 – and what’s coming after that in 2008!

This is the next generation of the Origami UMPC range of handheld (but not pocket size) PCs that Microsoft announced with some fanfare as Origami (although with nowhere near the fanfare that surrounds Apple launches), and which Intel had hinted before the Origami hype was coming in the form of the UMPC.

As you likely know, the first generation of UMPCs really weren’t a big hit. Short battery life, fiddly input systems, compromises with slow processors and limited storage meant that they were version 1.0 devices that, while showing great promise, were only for those who had money to burn and absolutely needed mobility running Windows XP at any cost.

There has been a refresh since then, and even some consensus that the best UMPC device wasn’t actually part of Microsoft’s ‘Origami’ hype cycle, but was just an ultra mobile computer done right. Which one was it? The Sony Vaio UX17.

However, let us fast forward to today. On stage were a series of next-gen handheld devices running Windows Vista. Called both ‘Mobile Internet Devices’ (MIDs) and ‘Ultra-Mobile PCs’’ (UMPCs), the systems on display are from Aigo, Asus, Fujitsu, Haier, HTC (Dopod) and Samsung.

Instead of using a Core 2 Duo chipset (or some other traditional x86 derivative, such as an ULV Core Duo, or a Via processor, or something else), these new UMPC 2007 models use Intel’s A100 or A110 processor, the Intel 945GU Express Chipset and the Intel ICH7U I/O Controller Hub, which Intel says is “where the power and package have been optimized for unique ultra-mobile requirements”. They all (as far as I am aware) feature touch screens as well, making them all mini Tablet PCs.

One example of this is the HTC ‘Shift’ which you can see pictured, but many of the other devices look somewhat similar to Sony’s UX17 ultraportable with a slide out keyboard, while others are similar to Samsung’s Q1 UMPC.

Naturally, as these models are all up on stage, tethered to a stand while the main keynotes are still happening, I haven’t been able to give even a cursory test for performance, but my very quick ‘first impression’ from what I’ve seen so far makes me believe that these really are next-generation devices that, well, run Vista in a handheld device, which sounds (to me) to be fantastic. You want Linux, you say? While some UMPCs are already running Linux, Intel has specific plans for Linux support – read on for more.

How long the battery life is, how good the performance is, how much storage is inside, how much easier the units are to input information – all of this is still unknown, despite slides on screen which show that they do indeed have better performance and battery life than first generation models. Thankfully, there’ll likely be plenty of articles about it all over the coming days, weeks and months all over the Internet.

So, what's coming in 2008 that will make the 2007 devices seem so very, well, 2007? Please read onto the conclusion on page 2 to find out!