The Technophilez

Motion Computing added to its lineup of tablet PCs this week with the launch of the semi-rugged F5 slate tablet PC.
Designed for mobile work forces in industries like field service, manufacturing, government and construction, the F5 slate tablet PC incorporates the company's View Anywhere outdoor display, a built-in handle, a digital camera, barcode scanner, RFID reader and an optional solid state drive. It is IP54 compliant to tolerate dust and moisture exposure and includes Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.

"We heard a number of different times from our customers in various aspects of government and filed automation that they needed a device that was rugged enough to use in a harsh environment where they could drop it occasionally but they didn't want to pay a premium to buy a fully-rugged device," said Scott Eckert, CEO of Motion Computing, Austin, Tex.

Eckert calls the F5 a "semi-rugged" device.

"There's a continuum between traditional office computers that you really wouldn't want to drop or get in a rainstorm because they wouldn't work all the way to very rugged devices that the military uses. We're trying to do something right in the middle," he said.

Motion designed the F5 to be able to withstand drops of as high as 36 inches, about waist height, and to be able to tolerate more bumps and bruises than your average office notebook PC.

Motion hopes to use this product to reach new mobility and field-service resellers in addition to its current customer base. "We got a lot of feedback from our resellers that said they could sell existing products, but there's a portion of them that need something more rugged We're going outbound to recruit new resellers that focus on rugged markets. We think there are incremental resellers that will be interested in these," Eckert said.

Intel Corp. unveiled its latest gaming and high-end computing platform, which includes two quad-core processors and graphic cards.

The new platform, which had been code-named Skulltrail, not only holds a total of eight processors; it also gives users a choice of two multicard graphics solutions -- one from ATI and one from nVidia Corp.

"This shows Intel taking the lead in developing and bringing to market cutting-edge PC designs," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group Inc. "Before, they tended to aim more for the middle-ground mass market and, in doing so, left the high-performance side of the market to others. Now, with this new combination, they've elbowed aside everyone else to take the lead in the PC performance race."

Olds noted that while the new platform will be largely welcomed by gamers, along with 3-D animators and high-definition video editors, it also will have its place in corporate IT. "Right now, it's mainly for gamers, but there certainly are some enterprise workloads that will benefit," he added.

Intel was to officially unveil its Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform today at the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The platform is the latest product to run Intel's 45-nanometer Penryn microprocessors, which hit the market last November.

The new platform's motherboard, Desktop Board D5400XS, is being paired with two Core 2 Extreme QX9775 processors.

"For the team creating world-class games here, time is one of our most valuable assets," said Robert A. Duffy, programming director at game maker Id Software, in a statement. "Having eight powerful Intel cores in a single machine helps our team create and test our latest titles at record speed. We have seen one of our most time-consuming asset-generation processes cut from over four hours to under 20 minutes by utilizing all eight cores and threading the generation code."

An interesting part of today's announcement is the fact that Intel is supporting graphics technology from ATI, which is owned by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Olds called this a smart move for Intel.

"It's a move toward gaining market share and also a hedge," said Olds. "If Intel doesn't support ATI graphics, then they automatically cede that market to AMD.  Right now, nVidia owns the high ground in graphics, but that isn't a guarantee that they will forever. If ATI leapfrogs nVidia, Intel will be well positioned by supporting cards from both vendors."

Other PC makers are reportedly looking to slim down their laptops like Apple did this month with its MacBook Air.
Intel (NSDQ: INTC) has reportedly sold a version of the miniaturized Core 2 Duo processor in Apple's recently released MacBook Air to other manufactures, which could then build Windows-based competitors to the ultrathin and light notebook.

Two PC manufacturers have already signed on to use the custom-designed chip, and products powered by the processor are expected to be released soon, CNET and tech magazine PC Advisor reported Wednesday, both quoting a source familiar with the plans.

An Intel spokesman declined to give any sales details but did note that Apple is the only hardware manufacturer that sells a laptop based on this specific Core 2 Duo processor.

"If other OEMs are interested in this 65-nanometer Core 2 Duo processor, we are welcome to talk with them," an Intel spokesman told InformationWeek.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled the Air this month at the Macworld conference in San Francisco. The thinness of the notebook was achieved in part by a miniaturized 65-nanometer Core 2 Duo processor that came from Intel's older Merom line. The processor is 60% smaller than the typical Merom chip and uses less power while delivering comparable speeds. The processor, however, is significantly slower than the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors used in other new notebooks. Performance is not necessarily an issue with Apple as it customizes its operating system to maximize performance out of any processor it uses.

Nevertheless, the size and weight of the Air, which has a 13.3-inch display and full-size keyboard, placed the machine in a class of its own. The notebook weights 3 pounds and is three-quarters of an inch thick at the hinge, tapering to 0.16 of an inch at the opposite side.

Intel is working on smaller chips for ultramobile PCs and handheld devices, including a processor that's built using 45-nanometer process technology. But miniaturizing the Merom processor gave Intel a product that would fit Apple's slim design for the MacBook Air and deliver the necessary horsepower.

In making the Air thinner than other notebooks, Apple also left out a DVD drive, adding instead software called "remote disc" that can recognize an optical drive on a PC or Mac computer through a wireless network. Tapping into those machines, an Air user can install software from a CD or DVD.

The MacBook Air design has also caused some frustration among Mac users who want to use software from older Macs to install the sleek new laptop's operating system. The installation media that comes with other Macs can't be used to install "Leopard" on the MacBook Air, Apple said Wednesday.

With its focus on getting consumer computers in retail stores, Dell (Dell) on Wednesday said it would close its mall kiosks in the United States.

Dell launched the kiosks in 2002 in order to give people the chance to touch products before purchasing them direct from the company. Faced with lagging sales, the company last year moved quickly to add retailers as an option for people considering a Dell system. The company continues to also sell directly.

Dell said it would close its 140 U.S. kiosks, but facilities outside the country would remain open. "This move fits in with how our broad global retail strategy is evolving," Tony Weiss, VP of Dell's global consumer business, said in a brief statement announcing the closures.

Dell computers are available today in more than 10,000 stores worldwide, according to the company. Retailers include Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Staples, and Wal-Mart in the United States; DSG International, Carrefour and Tesco in Europe; Courts in Singapore; Gome in China; Bic Camera in Japan; and Carphone Warehouse in the United Kingdom. Wal-Mart is also selling Dell computers in Canada, Brazil, and Mexico.

A majority of customers still choose to buy laptops, desktops and other products directly from Dell, via phone or the Internet. The company, however, decided to seek partnerships with retailers after watching Hewlett-Packard grab market share for more than a year to eventually surpass Dell as the world's largest computer maker.

Among consumers, HP (NYSE: HP)'s strength has been in selling through retailers, as well as direct, eye-catching machines with lots of horsepower for entertainment applications. In trying to gain share in the consumer market, Dell has recently shipped its own brand of high-end entertainment PCs.

As computers take on a bigger role beyond business in people's lives, the market has grown, and manufacturers have had to turn to design to catch consumers' attention, while also making sure the machines have the capabilities people want.

The importance of how a computer looks has made retail stores more important than ever for Dell and other manufacturers. People want to see the computer, touch it, and operate it next to other machines.

Advanced Micro Devices today introduced a high-end graphics card whose core will also be part of its next-generation Fusion processors.

The ATI Radeon 3870 X2 graphics card combines two chips from its predecessor, ATI Radeon 3870, on one board, doubling its performance, said Patrick Moorhead, vice president of advanced marketing at AMD. The ATI Radeon 3870 had one chip on the card.

The chips, manufactured using the 55-nanometer process, are more power efficient and deliver better performance than the previous graphics processors, Moorhead said.

AMD will incorporate a graphics-processing core based on the X2 in its upcoming Fusion processor. Fusion will integrate a graphics processor and CPU (central processing unit) on one chip, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman.

There are no overt tie-ins between Fusion and the X2, but the graphics-processing cores are expected to be similar, Taylor said.

While X2 is designed for maximum graphics performance, the graphics-processing core will be adapted for notebook platforms and implemented in Fusion, Taylor said.

AMD last week said the Fusion family's first processor, code-named Swift, will be based on the Phenom core and optimized for power management with the latest graphics and processing technology on a single chip. Notebooks with the Fusion processor are expected to be out in the second half of 2009.

Targeted at PC users who want high-end graphics, the X2 graphics board supports Microsoft's DirectX 10.1 gaming platform, Taylor said.

The graphics board plugs into a PCI Express slot, and supports up to 1G byte of memory. It includes DVI (digital visual interface) and DisplayLink ports to support external multimedia devices.

The card will support CrossfireX technology by the end of this quarter, which will allow up to four graphics cards to work together to scale multimedia performance, AMD said in a news release.

Priced at $449, the card is available worldwide.