Pankaj Kedia is the Director of the MID program at Intel. The Mobile Internet Device is based on the new Intel Atom X86 processor, which should consume less power at similar X86 performance as previous Intel Ultra Low Voltage processors. The Atom systems might be able to dissipate low enough heat to be able to run without fan. Some of the MIDs will be using Linux OSes that permits to optimize the interfaces to the lowest possible system requirements. During this interview, Pankaj Kedia explains how the Atom processor works, when it will be available, how much it will cost, what makes the difference between the regular Atom and the Atom Centrino. No talk on camera though comparing Intel’s Atom to the AMD Geode or VIA C7M’s performance, price and power consumption.
Gigabyte is releasing a new UMPC. The M704 still has an LED backlight, a slightly larger 7 inch screen with 1024×600 resolution, improves processor speed, improves battery life to 3.5-4 hours and ads a better webcam resolution compared to the previous Gigabyte U60 series that was released at last years CeBIT. Now it uses a VIA 1.2GHZ C7M processor and will be released in March.
Gigabyte M704 to be released in March 2008:
VIA 1.2GHZ C7M
7″ 1024×600 LED touch-screen
1.3MP integrated webcam
Gigabyte U60 released in May 2007:
VIA 1.0GHZ C7M
6.5″ 800×480 LED touch-screen
0.3MP integrated webcam
Aigo are presenting a MID design that they are going to launch when the MIDs are ready to be launched. The design of this MID looks a bit like the ones from Gigabyte and Compal. I am not sure if they might be exactly identical. Anyways, this design is probably the best MID design so far, feels pretty compact, the screen and keyboard are good.
Gigabyte will launch this compact UMPC around June for $900. It runs somekind of optimized Linux operating system quite smoothly. I guess it’s going to be using the Intel Atom chip.
This chinese company is showing their Emanuel UMPC concept, runing Windows CE with an SD card slot, costs less than $200, read more about it on their website http://emanuel-umpc.com
DivX HD: Play, Download, Stage6 (filmed with the Sanyo Xacti HD2 720p camcorder using its built-in microphone)
Those are the best looking Windows Vista UMPCs I have seen yet. Just check them out, I think they are slicker than the ones from Samsung, Sony and others.
Watch the High Definition version: Play - Download
This is a nice looking compact ultra low voltage laptop by Asus. In a certain way this will be a competitor to the Intel Classmate educationnal laptop. This one is using the VIA ultra low voltage processor to use as little as 3.5 watts in use.
Watch the High Definition version: Play - Download
