Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Review of P2110 from LeoG
posted by patwen on 8/2/02. Very thorough review by a sophisticated user and worth reading. Interesting comments also on the Sony U.
Regards, wsh
Mini review on the P2110
(basically my experience so far)
Part I Cons of P
Background, I travel a lot from between Hong Kong to and the PRC.
Although my company gave me a notebook, it is a few year old model and weight like a tone. Further, due to our company's stupid policy, a security issue made up and hype up by our IT department so they can keep their jobs (sorry, not mean to offend any IT people here, just OUR particular IT group have some attitude problem here, I am sure there are a lot more nicer IT people out there), we are not allow to use a cd-rom drive with that notebook (let alone a DVD or a combo drive). In addition, we are not allow to install any program on the machine even if we have proper licence and genuine needed for work related purpose (like winzip).
After a few month, I just had enough of this and decided to have my own machine. FYI, at home, I use an Althon XP 1.7GHz with GeForce MX440 graphic card with IBM 7200rpm hard drive, broadband internet access, so I am use to a fast computer and I do consider myself as a fairly heavy computer user.
My P2110 has 384 MB ram with WiFi built-in, I also have the addition extend battery, running winXp Pro with all the fancy things turned off to improve speed.
So far, this following if the pros and cons and why. Being a devil advocate, I will dish out all the Cons first, but make sure to read the Pros afterward.
Cons:
1. Speed - SLOW - it is definitely a single task machine, don't try to multitask one it. It can multitask, but the speed will frustrate you.
For example, playing a VCD, DVD or AVI file, even in a small window will eat up 100% of the CPU processing power. If you try to do something else at the same time, you most likely be a good friend of the hour glass afterwards.
I was able to hang the machine (on Win XP Pro) many times just by the running the following tasks at the same time:
i) Steaming a 300k video from the net using MediaPlayer;
ii) Exacting a Audio CD (no MP3 conversion) from Exact Audio Copy (EAC); and
iii) Downloading some file via ftp (WSftp).
Although I can do this on my desktop and still have 80% of the CPU power left, I have to remind myself that I just can't do this with my little P.
Playing MP3 is a bit better, it uses around 20% of the CPU power, so you still can do other things.
Surfing the net: Tried Mozille 1.0 and IE 6, they are similar in speed and both a bit slow. Loading a standard page would use up 80% of the CPU power, a complex one 100% for sure. Even when you press the BACK button, you will have to wait a few second before the previous web page shows up.
MS office applications: they are fine, but anyway, not point to use them as benchmarks as nowadays most (if not all) computer can run them smoothly without any problem.
Photoshop: not dare to try it out yet.
2. Battery life - So so - I can get nearly 2 hours (sometimes only 100 mins) on the P's standard battery, LCD brightness is set on 4 out of 8. Playing a DVD reduce the time to around 70-80 mins. With the extend battery, I can get around ~3.5hrs, and ~2.5hr with when DVD is playing.
So this not a machine that break new grounds in terms of battery longevity. Yes, it is a bit better than the Intel ones, but not much better (unless you do minimal task on it), I would say it is approx. 1.5 times better (remember it scarified speed for this). But it is surely not 4 to 5 times better.
3. Slow Graphic - the ATI Rage Mobility M1 (running at 40MHz) is a 4 years old design, it is even slower than the good old TNT. When everyone in the business have changed to the newer ATI Radeon Mobility (even the Sony U1 uses it), it sad that we have been stuck with this chip.
4. Size - a bit thick - after trying out all those slim notebooks (ones without internal combo drive), the P just seems too thick. I guess if P forgo the modular drive bay and use a non-removable slot-in combo drive (like the Apple Power book), a few mm can be save here.
5. Keyboard - so so - It cannot compare with the keyboard on the IBM notebooks. If the IBM keyboard has a score of 90 out of 100, than the P's is around 65-70 out of a 100. P's keys have a soft feel and a bit too crimped together.
Yes, I know it is a sub-notebook, but on both side of the keyboard there is ~10mm of wasted space each side which can be used to enlarge the keyboard, Fujitsu's decision of not using the full wide of the P for keyboard is a design fault IMHO, just look at other sub-notebooks, many of them realized this and try to use every inch of the width for the keyboard and position the keyboard right to the edges of the machine. If Fujitsu used those extra 20mm, then all the problem with the right shift key will be gone and we may be even able to have separate Page Up and Page Down keys.
The smaller keyboard does need some time to get use to, after a week, I am still not very comfortable with it.
6. Sound - P could use much better speakers, although they do their job, they are no match to the ones on IBM notebooks. Also the sound quality produce by the sound chip on the P is below average. And do remember NOT to accept the audio driver from WindowsUpdate, otherwise the sound will distort heavily.
7. Pointing device - a touch pad would be much better - due to the size of the P, a touch pad is not possible, but do remember to adjust the track point to react to light push. On default setting, my fingers have to take a rest just any 5 mins of use, you have to push is fairly hard for it to move.
8. Power adaptor - still too large - I know it one of the smaller ones, but it is still too large to be comfortable if you travel a lot with it.
9. No protective case/cover - I wish Fujitsu at least throw in a cloth bag/cover so I can safely put the P away.
So far the above is the cons that I have encountered, but do remember I am a fairly heavy computer user, so some of the above concerns may not apply to a person only using the P as a typing machine.
Part II
Pros:
1.Size - everything built-in and internal - from my experience, if a
device is external, it means it is useless because you will not carry it any more after the initial interest wears off.
The P is small enough (just) so that I can comfortable to carry it with most of the time if I am bring my backpack with me.
My friend has a Sony U1 (actually he had the Sony 505, SR7, Clie, Pocket PC etc before), he is using a Sony external combo drive (firewire), the battery life is similar with the P, however, every time when I see him take out the external drive, connect it up and try to find a place to put it, just bring smile on my face that I have a P where everything is in a single package. Also, the tiny keyboard and the screen is nearly unusable on the U1. Also, the U1 with battery, plus the external combo drive all together is similar in size and weight with the P, but the P it much much more convenient.
Also, if you try to use a 14 inch notebook (or even 12 inch) on the plane in the economy class, you will realized that there is not enough space to open up screen to a good position to work with, especially if you are 6 foot tall. P has no such problem at all.
2. Screen - excellent - nice and bright, solid color, second only to the best screen in the business, Sharp. It is much better than the Sony C1 (yes, this time C1, not U1) which I have looked at extensively. The screen size and resolution is just right, any smaller it will become unusable (like the U1).
3. Firewire - For Digital Video or Digital Camera (DC), firewire is a much faster connection than USB hence you can transfer files much faster. Also, I link up the P with my desktop via a firewire connection and set up a small network on it (all using WinXP Pro¡¯s built-in components) so that the P can share the broadband internet connection and printer that is connected to my desktop. I did have to buy a firewire card (~US$20) for my desktop though, As it is way faster than Ethernet, if you only have one desktop, this is the BEST way to connect your P to it (unless you have wireless LAN in your house, which is something I am considering).
4. WiFi - You won£s realize its power if you haven£s tried it.
I was shopping for a new Digital Camera last weekend in Hong Kong. I took my P with me and got myself 2 PC card readers, one for reading MS, SD, MMC and SM (~US$35); another one for CF and microdrive (~US$15). Went into a shop, took some photos with the DCs which I am interested in, load them into the P via the PC card readers and compare them. It turned out that the one I was planning to buy (Minolta Dimage X) was not as good as I had expected, so I started look for something else, mainly the Canon V330 and the Minolta Dimage F100, also the Panasonic Lumix L7(?).
However, I don't feel comfortable making a decision without checking out all the informative reviews on the net first. So I took my P to a WiFi access point nearby (1 min walk), log on to the net using WiFi and surf ?than I read all the reviews of the above DCs and then I was much more comfortable regarding the strength , weakness and price of each and every one of them, I then end up telling the salesman which one was the better one.
So for mobile internet, a notebook (or a PDA, but screen is too small) with WiFi is the way to go (If WiFi get any more popular then I think 3G is in danger here). GPRS on a GSM mobile network just won¡¯t cut it, just compare the average speed of 2MB speed (WiFi) with 30K (GPRS).
But GPRS can still be use as a life saver when there is no WiFi access point, for example, you really need to access to your emails. Remember, 30k speed is nearly impossible to surf today¡¯s web pages with all those graphics. As a backup, I am also stilling planning to get a GPRS phone (with bluetooth, may be the Sony Ericsson T68i) and a USB Bluetooth module for the P to access my emails in emergency situation. The reason for using Bluetooth is that I can access the net (when there is no WiFi access point) without taking out my mobile phone.
5. DVD - a 15:9 portable DVD player is way cool. I played DVDs in restaurants (while waiting for the food), on the plane, in the caf¨¦, etc., every time turns heads. The flights are not longer unbearable, as long as I remember to bring a DVD with me. The quality of the DVD is very good too (with Power DVD), totally acceptable for day to day use. Just remember not to run anything in the background.
I got myself a S-Video to RCA connector, so that I can hook it up to the hotel's TV and watch DVD on the 29 inch when I am in the hotel.
Conclusion:
Overall, you may think that there is more cons than pros, yes there are. But the P is the ONLY solution available to do everything in such a such package, there is just NO other choice. So although there are many things I don¡¯t like the P, I would still keep the P, and more importantly, use on a day by day basis.
So if I have the chance to buy another sub-notebook again, will I still get the P? Yes, simply because it is the only package available with an internal combo drive. The combo drive is much more useful than many people have thought.
Bird, thanks for your efforts in keeping the NG afloat! Over on this side of the pond, we have a saying that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. You sure have been going good lately.
I have been reflecting on M Perry's comments during the last CC, and decided to go back and listen again. Some excerpts:
"TMTA has great technology, very talented people, and an
unique opportunity to capitalize on emerging and growing mobile computer trends"
"We have challenges, but opportunities far outweigh those challenges"
"Today we announce corporate restructuring with the goal of increasing shareholder value"
"In my meetings with OEMs, they want a balance of long battery life, high performance, and low power . . . it was clear from everyone that long battery life is #1"
Comments concerning the TM5800:
". . .will expand capabilities and features while
enhancing performance"
"TSMC yields are improving, wafers are looking very good. We are working with their team to make TM5800 improvements."
"In visiting customers, they tell me the TM5800 is great product and some incremental improvements in features and functions are what they want. It is the whole product, lot of little things. Changes not architectural, but incremental changes to design, including changes to improve battery life and software improvements; lot of things combined. Customers are happy with performance; first order effect is not performance."
"All current design wins continuing to say they will ramp up when they told us they would."
"Astro - sampling at end of year to select customers; then need 2Q to ramp into production. Goal: Astro production 1 year from tapeout."
After listening again to the CC, I feel that our CEO honestly believes the future remains bright for TMTA. Yet, I suspect there are more "issues" to deal with in the near-term than a weak market for chips and price competition forcing a slumping ASP for the TM5800 and shrinking margins. In looking at the comments above concerning the TM5800, I cannot but think that perhaps TMTA is doing more development work on the TM5800 than they would freely admit. (Does this explain the big inventory?) Has the company decided to stop or slow production of the TM5800 for a month or two, while doing development work to optimize the chip along the lines requeste by the OEM customers. Once the fine tuning is done, then really ramp production and get after marketing the chip while working to bring the Astro to market.
Bird, do you have any insights along these lines.
regards, wsh
Inside info on Antelope Tech's MCC?
Slashdot.org started a thread today on the Antelope MCC and (as usual) the geek discussion reverted to whether the product was real or "vapor."
See, generally, http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/05/1932220.
What was interesting is that a poster, AntelopeMCC, rose to defend the company, and he/she sounds like an Antelope employee. Here are the comments posted by AntelopeMCC on Monday August 05:
"Already shipping, and will be in full official production by late Fall. We are a bit past vaporware"
"The MCC battery life depends on the accessory. In our hand-held tablet it is 3.5 to 4 hours. In our wearable configuration it is 20 hours, yes I said 20 hours. (no large display to power, just a small HMD) ..."
"The MCC will run full window XP or 2000. We will also have a Linux version"
"We have already begun shipping units to our Industrial clients. Full production will begin in late fall. Ramping up to meet demand"
Good news, very surprising, considering how small a company Antelope is. Suspect the company is getting a lot of help from IBM and TMTA engineers.
Query why OQO has taken twice as long to get half as far. My guess is that OQO is more focused on licensing a Japanese OEM than marketing its own product. Not a bad strategy IMO to attack horizontal markets.
regards, wsh
Welcome synja, hi Bird. Was wondering if everyone jumped ship, or out of a window.
Apparently our near term prospects, at least from an investment standpoint, are riding on the Compaq Tablet PC and MSFT's marketing push for the technology. Sure hope the HPQ input innovation, or whatever, is enough to cause some excitement for horizontal markets.
BTW, shouldn't we have seen a 1GHz TM5800 by now?
regards, wsh
Bird, M Perry must have been listening to you, as he certainly has caught the new religion of profitability. He must have mentioned TMTA's commitment to profitability by 4Q03 five times during the CC. BTW, we knew you were smart, but "stunningly gorgeous" also? Oh My! Somehow Fred must have known all along.
Certainly there is a lot to like about the CC: M Perry seems to be applying his stamp on the company in a hurry -- The company beat 2Q guidance -- TM5800 well received by OEMs -- focus on reducing operating costs -- a target date for profitability (without rosy projections for overall market increases) -- suggestion that we will see more new Crusoe-based products -- stong focus on customer needs.
But, warning signs too: 40% force reduction?! -- dropping Solo -- scaling back of R&D (has to result from massive restructuring) -- continuing problems with margins (why?) -- large inventory of chips (thought we didn't have marketing problems, only supply problems) -- nonexistent/feeble growth forecasted for 3Q -- Astro's launch apparently is being delayed a few months -- single-product company.
I find it deflating to learn that we are not able to sell chips as easily as we assumed, that our margins are poor, and that drastic action is required to bring costs in line with revenues. However, this can perhaps be attributed to a terrible market for chips and, perhaps, excesses from the past in commitments to R&D without a financial base of support.
I find it troubling to consider the extent of the RIF and the dropping of Solo. Hasn't TMTA been advertising for 20+ engineers until recently? Didn't I just see a slide show from a public presentation describing the forthcoming TM6000? When did these major policy shifts get made? Recently, is my guess. A restructuring makes sense, but 40% RIF? How can this not cripple the company going forward. Cautious guidance make sense, but level to 5% increases in revenues for 3Q, a quarter with Tablet PCs to be released, new design wins, and a company with lot of chips in inventory? Hate to say it, but alarm bells are going off for me.
regards, wsh
More BS from Magee and friends
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=4509
Intel Banias to topple Transmeta from Sony perch
Sources claim new refresh next year
By Mike Magee: Thursday 18 July 2002, 12:55
THE SONY PICTUREBOOK C1, which currently uses Transmeta Crusoe chip technology, looks like it will topple to Intel in the next design refresh, according to sources close to the Japanese company.
That bad news for Transmeta comes on a day when we expect the firm to have to lay off people after close of play on Wall Street.
The sources claimed that Intel's Banias mobile processor, which is slated to be released in Q1 of next year, will replace the Transmeta chips when Sony re-freshes the product line next year.
If the sources are reliable, and we believe them to be very reliable, this will come as a blow. Sony, along with some other Japanese notebook companies, have held the flag aloft for Transmeta right from the early days.
You can find what a Sony Picturebook looks like here, if you haven't seen one before. µ
See Also
Transmeta to lay off chunk of staff It has a poison pill clause, so has to agree takeover [Ed. What does this mean?]
What manipulation! Yesterday they forecast "layoffs" and now we are losing our big customer to a vapor chip. Think these two articles out of the blue and blowing smoke have anything to do with our CC today?
Bird, thanks for the tip on Transmetazone.
Their new report, Transmeta at Rockefeller Center - PCExpo 2002, is a great read for fans of TMTA.
... The weather was hot and humid (like the back of a Pentium 4 laptop!) on June 26th at Transmeta's event in the Sea Grill Restaurant at Rockefeller Center in New York City during PCexpo 2002. A few dozen media, analysts, investors and industry folk browsed through a veritable crop of ultra-portable notebooks, tablet PC's, and other Crusoe-based devices as a calypso band played on. For gadget folk, it was pure valhalla...
The report's tantalizing tidbit on the Compaq Evo Tablet PC (which you provided) does make one wonder. Do you think that Compaq has developed a slick docking station for the Evo Tablet, or am I not thinking enough outside the box. Sure is encouraging to read that the Compaq Tablet PC has a trick up its sleeve for horizontal markets.
It was also encouraging to read that TMTA has big expectations for the Gericom Crusoe laptop. Sounds like they expect Gericom to move a lot of these laptops.
regards, wsh
Link to Transmeta Patent Portfolio. If you had problems with the last one, try:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-adv...
regards, wsh
Re: recent TMTA patent, US Pat No. 6,415,379, issued 7/2/02
lt_tmta, greenmachine provided a link to the full text of the patent, but I thought I would try and provide some context.
TMTA has now a US Patent Portfolio of twelve patents; see,
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-adv....
The most recent patent is best viewed as an improvement in the design of code morphing software. It seems significant as it claims to enable a new generation of CMS to execute code nearly as efficiently as a "target processor," eg, an Intel or AMD processor. In other words, it claims to greatly reduce to the point of eliminating the latency supposedly inherit in emulation software.
Here are a few paragraphs from the patent which will provide a rough understanding of the improvement to CMS:
"... As will be seen, the need to include all of the elements of context in each sequence of translated instructions and check the context of each new sequence before it begins to execute does not produce efficient code.
The present invention overcomes these problems and produces code which executes efficiently at a rate which challenges the rate at which a target processor executes the same code. The present invention relies on the property of locality to generate code which executes more efficiently.
More particularly, in most cases, the instructions which a processor executes in any process or program tend to be executed more than once or to be executed with other instructions most of the time. This has the effect of causing the context to be similar or identical from one sequence of instructions to the next. For example, many elements of context depend on the particular memory segment being accessed; a segment base address and extent, whether the segment grows up or down, and whether the segment is writable or may only be read are all elements which depend on the segment being accessed. These elements are the same if the segment is the same from one sequence to the next. In most cases, a memory segment used for a first sequence is the same as the segment used for a next sequence. Other elements of context also display the characteristic of locality. The property of locality allows the present invention to presume that the context will be the same from sequence to sequence.
The presumption that the context is the same allows the new processor in translating a sequence of instructions to represent the context for a translation to execute properly in some fashion as an invariant. Then, rather than stepping through each of the tests required to determine that the context for the translation is correct, the processor merely checks the representation to determine that the entire context is the same. If it is the same, then the translated sequence may be executed. If it is not the same, then the processor looks for another translation which meets the criteria. If none is found, then a new translation must be generated. The general method is illustrated in the flow chart of FIG. 1.
It will be seen that this use of the property of locality allows a sequence of translated instructions to be reduced by those instructions implied by the elements of context which are being treated as invariants. FIG. 2 illustrates a sequence of operations representing the steps necessary for an interpreter to carry out the steps of the add function described above. As may be seen, at least ten of those steps are steps required by context to be inserted into the sequence to assure that the operation is carried out to give the same result as the add function. Those operations which are marked with an asterisk may be removed from the instruction sequence and represented in some manner at the beginning of the translated sequence. For example, elements of context which might be of one or the other of two states might each be represented by a single bit in some designated position of a first representation of context (e.g., a quad word), while characteristics having a larger number of states might require a larger number of bits in some other designated positions of the quad word.
I might also mention that US Pat. 6,031,992, #7 in the list found at the above link, is the seminal patent in TMTA's portfolio. This Patent covers the combination of a simple, efficient, fast microprocessor (eg VLIW) coupled with CMS to run under legacy OSs (eg x86) that is the technical foundation of TMTA. It is a must-read for all longs. BTW, note the list of named inventors for that patent.
regards, wsh
Gordon Moore: Moore's law may get amended
By Jack Robertson, EBN
Jul 9, 2002 (5:52 PM)
http://www.ebnews.com/story/OEG20020709S0059
The author of Moore's Law said Tuesday that the 27-year trend of chip performance doubling every two years may start to slow down.
Gordon Moore, chairman emeritus of Intel Corp., told a briefing after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, that “hooking up billions of transistors on a chip is something that could space out the performance doubling eventually to every four or five years. We're starting to shrink [chips] less rapidly than in the past," Moore said.
For the near future, however, Moore said that, “if we have EUV [extreme ultraviolet lithography] in time, we should stay on the two-year cycle for a while.”
The co-founder of Intel believed that “CMOS technology will be able to make chips at the 30-nanometer node with actual devices on the chip at half that size.
“It's amazing how creative people get when the industry starts to face a technological barrier," he said. “I've never been able to forecast more than three generations. But we can go down to 30nm.”
Asked what could be the next big revolution in electronics, Moore pointed to “good speech recognition to talk to the computer as if were an individual. You can have an intelligent conversation with your computer. This would make computing available to people who are scared off by a keyboard.
“But I don't know if this is 10 years or 50 years away. I suspect it is closer to 50 years. The technology has been five to 10 years away for a long time.”
Moore also said he has changed his mind about the importance of foundries to the semiconductor industry.
“At one time I was skeptical about foundries. I thought they built capacity and didn't have products to fill” their fabs, he said. “But now the cost of building your own fab is so high than only a few of us are able to do it. Foundries are the solution for the rest of the people who want to design and build products.”
The presidential citation didn't mention Moore's Law, but hailed Moore's contributions and participation in the microchip industry. Moore was also cited for his “multibillion dollar” philanthropic contributions.
He said the major focus of the foundation is protection of the environment worldwide, supporting science and higher education, and special projects in the Bay Area “where I grew up and lived.”
Moore said he felt that private foundations could support research “that is a little further afield and more speculative” than the government is willing to back.
Vinod Dham: "high chip speeds of no use"
great find by fatspidr of Yahoo Board:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=15692115
The Times of India OnlinePrinted from timesofindia.indiatimes.com Infotech
Faster chips don't call the shots now: Vinod Dham
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2002 10:04:06 PM ]
BANGALORE:
Vinod K Dham, the billionaire super-inventor of microprocessors, the father of the Pentium chip, whose demoniac speeds made PCs exciting to American homes of the 80s is not given to making hyperbolic statements. This time - the electrical engineer who in 1999 was named as one of the top 100 most influential Asian Americans of the decade makes a concession.
" The golden era of microprocessors is over. These extremely high speed chips are of no use to the average user. Most of the applications can do without such high speed chips. Users are begining to learn that instead of paying for chip performance, they would rather have other functional features like a larger monitor, more memory etc," Dham told this paper in an interview.
The 52-year-old scientist, who lives in the Silicon Valley, was in Bangalore to launch his VC firm, adds that Intel, the company for which he crafted the Pentium and perfected the 386 and 486 range of processors, has "hit a wall."
"Unless a new application emerges which needs massive power, their chip performance will idle. It's only in Intel's interest to sell these things as high-end necessities. The reality is that the world does not need it,"maintains Dham who worked for 16 years in the company before joining NexGen, a start up in 1995. Two years earlier, the scientist whose father came as a refugee from Rawalpindi, had been named as one of the top 25 executives in the computer industry in America.
Dham "redefined" NexGen's processor, making it Pentium compatible and commercially viable. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel's rival, excited by the Indian scientist's work acquired NexGen and then Dham created another splash with K6. Here was the world's fastest microprocessor and it was not by Intel.
"For the first and perhaps the last time you had another company which had scored over Intel," says Dham who was also the co-inventor of Intel's Flash memory technology. This helps in easy and fast information storage in devices like digital cameras, video games etc.
Everytime Dham crafted a breakthrough micro chip, he would dedicate it at the feet of a Lord Ganesh statute which rests on his work desk. Says Dham: "Sometimes I just cannot explain my fame. How did I manage to do it all especially when there were millions of brighter chaps around? I have no answers."
Bird, you caught me lurking over at Yahoo's TMTA Board, waiting on the CC for 2Q. It really has been frustrating waiting on good news and wondering how the market might digest it.
The mysterious (and, I think, first time)Yahoo poster who boldly indicated that 2Q revenues will be $9.7M caught my attention because it was a simple statement of "fact" and a rather exact number at that. Insider information?? As I tried to develop in that post, I feel that TMTA's guidance for 2Q was purposely low, and the apologetic tone of Murray's and Hugh's comments during the last CC seemed to me to indicate as much. So, I have been expecting TMTA to beat the upper guidance, perhaps significantly. I really don't think $9.7M is out of the question. We really don't know how the success of the Fujitsu 2040/LOOX and Sony Vaio U will affect the Q's bottom line, but TMTA could not have adequately forecast the success of these products in their 2Q guidance. Also, hopefully, margins improved this Q, as they were very low in 1Q. We really could be pleasantly surprised by 2Q revenues. If the Sony U is the top-selling laptop in Japan, Sony must have stepped up orders for TM5800s during 2Q.
IAE, we will know next week.
regards, wsh
Thanks for the link, lt.
Interesting that the article in Mercury News was nearly twice as long as that in our local paper.
regards, wsh
Transmata article in our Sunday newspaper
I was shocked this morning to be reading the Albuquerque Journal's business section and see D Ditzel's smiling face holding a Crusoe chip, surrounded by a nice article on Transmeta from from AP, authored by Matthew Fordahl. I tried to find it on the Internet version of the paper, but it is not available. As it was AP, this same article may have been run in hundreds of newspapers across the US.
Nice short history of Transmeta and discussion of company's focus on providing chips for "performance computers that are both small and don't drain electricity like water leaking from an old tin bucket."
Another quote, "More importantly, they (Crusoe) require less power and are far more flexible than hardwired CPUs like Intel's Pentium or tha Athlon made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc."
Article concludes by indicating TMTA execs say their production problems are in the past and discussing use of Crusoes in HP's Evo Tablet PC and in OQO's ultra personal computer.
Great article, great publicity for TMTA. Did anyone else see the article in a local newspaper?
regards, wsh
2Q02 over 2Q01 numbers will be much less dismal this quarter than last. Revenues in 1Q01 were $10.5M, down from 18.6M in 1Q01. So, if TMTA comes in $6.75M (high guidance) or more, we shouldn't have to read leads in news stories how revenues Q over Q dropped some huge percentage. Maybe there is hope that a reporter might even think that 60%+ quarterly growth for two quarters and guidance for more of the same(we hope) is a good thing and write about it.
I am becoming cautiously optimistic that the market is turning, and we might see a real nice rise leading up to July 18th and, hopefully, beyond.
Steak, after getting out of WCOM a few weeks ago, I jumped back in on Tuesday (at 6.5 cents). The WCOM Circus makes it challenging to anticipate WCOM's price movements, but it is great theatre. I still like the company's assets, and Sidgmore is a great CEO, but the stock price is in the hands of the bankers. Probably is only a day trade for the short term. Too much can happen overnight.
regards, wsh
The Declaration of Independence
I was reading the Declaration of Independence with my son tonight, and was struck anew by the power of the document. It truly changed the course of the world, and it deserves a rereading from time to time. Sorry Bird, but old King George III really asked for it.
Regards, wsh
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
BB, nice find. NEC may be pleasantly surprised how many quiet PCs they can sell in the US. Sure hope they start a trend of small footprint, quiet desktop PCs.
Nice to hear from you, BB.
regards, wsh
Yahoo board has a number of posts from Wednesday night and yesterday covering TMTA's shindig at Rockerfeller Ctr., which are all worth reading.
In particular, whowhatwhere02, asked a few questions we have been discussing on IHub. Apparently Colin Hunter, who was there on Wednesday night displaying the OQO, told www02 that he indeed was with Perry and Ditzel in Japan. Also, that he remains a large stockholder in TMTA. I suspect there is a very strong relationship between OQO and TMTA, as Hunter and Ditzel were the founders of TMTA. Wonder if TMTA gets paid in stock for its development work on OQO? I hope so.
As regarding Antelope Tech, a TMTA staffer indicated to www02 that the company is real, and it will be getting product out this year. I still find this hard to believe, but I would love to be wrong on these guys. They likely are targeting big pocket vertical markets. I hope to see IBM license major OEM for horizontal markets. I am surprised we haven't heard about a number of such licenses by now. If I were an OEM, I would hold off on Tablet PCs and be first to market with an OQO or Metapad system.
Regards, wsh
Review of Windows XP,Tablet PC Edition
Detailed article that provides details on the OS as well as photos of screen displays. Worth a read to better understand where MSFT is going with this technology.
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/windowsxp_tabletpc.asp
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition reviewed
It's the best Windows yet. Will anyone use it?
Since the dawn of the PC era, various companies have undertaken various initiatives to move computing away from keyboard and mouse-based input and towards the more natural interfaces of pen and voice. And while voice computing has seen some limited success, pen computing is set to explode with the introduction of Microsoft's Tablet PC platform, driven by a new Windows XP version logically named Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
Microsoft has been involved in the pen computing space since 1992, when its prototype WinPad devices were designed to run a special Windows 3.x version called Windows for Pen Computing. WinPad was destined for the dustbin of history, and in many ways it was a sobering reminder that the then-current PC designs were just too primitive to effectively scale into a portable form factor with long battery life.
To counter this problem, Microsoft worked to convert its Windows OS to run on more efficient hardware platforms, and Windows CE (Consumer Electronics) was born. Code-named Pegasus, the first Windows CE version provided a Windows 95-like shell, and email, Internet, and Office application functionality, in a small, clamshell-like form factor that never really took off with users. A subsequent release, code-named Griffin, aped the look and feel of the successful Palm Pilot, and a later release, dubbed Pocket PC, proved quite successful, especially with businesses.
However, the Windows CE/Pocket PC devices were not, and are not, PCs, though they are quite powerful in their own right. To enable the type of natural computing environments that Microsoft envisioned--with both voice and handwriting capabilities--a true PC would need to be used. And, over the years, as size, power management and battery life issues were resolved, modern PC laptops became more and more capable machines in their own right. And the Tablet PC was born.
What is a Tablet PC?
A Tablet PC is a PC or, more appropriately, a portable PC. It has been modified at both the hardware and software levels, however, to differentiate it from other PCs.
Hardware
Tablet PCs are ultra-mobile laptop computers with convertible screens that can be used in normal laptop mode, or flipped around and used like a tablet, with stylus and on-screen keyboard input. A second hardware design, simply called a tablet, uses a docking station to provide keyboard and mouse access; when away from the desk, the tablet is used with the stylus and on-screen keyboard only.
Tablet PC devices will be made by a variety of PC makers. See my Tablet PC Preview in Tech Showcases for a look at some hardware designs, including the Acer TM100 Tablet PC I used to write this review.
Software
Tablet PCs ship with a special version of Windows XP called Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. This XP version is available only with Tablet PCs, and is based on Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 (SP1). In addition to the standard XP Pro features, Tablet PC edition includes support for the active digitizer and stylus used by Tablet PC devices, instant display switching between normal and portrait modes, and a small suite of Tablet PC-enabled applications, including Windows Journal, Sticky Notes, a game, and an Office XP add-on pack. Microsoft says that it will also issue a number of free Tablet PC downloads to its Web site, including more games and some PowerToys, once the software is complete.
In this review, I'm mostly concerned with the software, though I'll comment when appropriate on the hardware as well.
Introducing Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Though I had previous experience with the Tablet PC, I was formerly introduced to its new OS in early June 2002 at a reviewer's workshop in Seattle. As mentioned previously, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is simply XP Pro with some additional software and capabilities; it is a true superset. The desktop (Figure) can be displayed in normal mode when the Tablet PC is in laptop mode, or in portrait mode when in tablet mode. I'll use tablet mode for all the screenshots here.
So what's different? Off the bat, there isn't much to see. XP Tablet PC Edition is based on Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), as denoted by the Set Program Access and Defaults icon in the Start Menu (Figure). It also includes a new icon next to the Start button, which is used to display the Input Panel, which toggles between an on-screen keyboard (Figure) and a text-entry area (Figure). The Input Panel is interesting because it sends the text-recognized version of your handwriting to any Windows application. So you can use this to fill out Web forms, write email, or whatever, whenever you're using the tablet with just a stylus. It works well, especially if you print.
The first time you use the Tablet PC, you're presented with a Welcome to Tablet PC application, similar to what you might have seen on a Pocket PC, that lets you calibrate the pen and get used to the device. But make no mistake, the hardware-software interaction in the Tablet PC is on a completely different level than what's available on the Pocket PC. First, Tablet PCs include an active digitizer beneath the screen. This means that the system can track the stylus, even when it's not actually touching the screen. So if you hover the stylus above the screen and move it around, the cursor follows along. It's impressive. But it also goes beyond even that. Microsoft has engineered the Tablet PC software to interact with the stylus in ways that will be familiar to anyone who has used real pen and paper. It's pressure-sensitive, so pressing harder on the pen results in a bolder, darker stroke on-screen. The stylus includes a real eraser, which can be used to erase ink items you've written on-screen, and it works just like a real eraser. Finally, it's possible to highlight items in various colors, work with a variety of pen types, and even bold and italize your handwritten ink, just like you'd do to normal text in a word processing application.
Using Windows with a stylus will be old hat to Pocket PC users, but I suspect that most laptop users will adjust quickly too. And yes, the stylus still works when the Tablet is in laptop mode.
Software Utilities
If the Tablet PC just provided a way to control the PC with a stylus, then it would be a little interesting, but not earth-shattering. However, Microsoft has included a number of core pen-enabled applications, one of which is particularly compelling. In this section, we'll take a look at these bundled applications.
Windows Journal
First up is Windows Journal, which provides ink-based note-taking and ink document storage management capabilities. Designed to resemble a college-ruled pad of paper by default (Figure), Journal offers a variety of document templates and easy customization. To take notes, simply launch Journal and write with the pen (Figure). The text you enter in the note title area is used for the filename by default (Figure), though you can change that of course. And the toolbar can be used to select pen types, colors, highlighting, text and object selection, and other features.
Journal, for many people, is the Tablet PC, in the sense that it is the one application that truly shows off why this system is desirable. Seeing your handwriting appear on-screen, accurately and beautifully (well, given my obvious lack of handwriting skill) is simply amazing and hard to describe.
Using Journal, you can highlight ink (Figure), discretely select ink (Figure), apply formatting (Figure), and move items around, just as you would with a word processor. Want to add a line of text between two other lines of text? Impossible with a pad of paper, sure, but simplicity itself on the tablet. And yes, you can draw. Freehand. It works wonderfully.
Interestingly, Microsoft expects users to work with ink data natively, and not convert notes to text. This differentiates the Tablet PC from previous pen-based computers, and has two interesting ramifications, which I'll describe in a moment. But for the curious, yes, it's possible to use handwriting recognition on your ink. This can be done on the fly--you select ink and then Copy, and then Paste from Notepad or any other text-based application, hoping the results are readable--or using Windows Journal's Copy as Text functionality, which give you a chance to give the text a once-over before its pasted elsewhere.
At the reviewer's workshop I attended, Forbes columnist Stephen Manes precipitated a rather ugly moment when he demanded that Microsoft tell him, qualitatively, how well the speech recognition in XP Tablet PC Edition works. Alexandra Loeb, the VP for Tablet PC Division at Microsoft explained that the company didn't have any relevant numbers per se, because the results vary from person to person. This didn't satisfy Manes, and embarrassment ensued as his demands got more and more irrational. I will say this. The handwriting recognition in this product surprises me in a very positive way. No, it's not always right, and yes, it has the occasional gaff that reminds one of Doonesbury's blasting of the Apple Newton back in the early 1990's. But this technology is clearly better than its ever been, and it will learn as you go, without requiring you to sit through a formal teaching session, as you must for speech recognition. From a pure usability standpoint, this is a Good Thing.
OK, now let's get back to the ramifications of saving data in ink format. I don't know about you, but my handwriting stinks. If we can get beyond some obvious Tablet PC complaints (such as, I type much faster than I handwrite) and consider how ink data might be shared with other users, some problems emerge. Let's say you're a Tablet PC user, and you'd like to share 10 pages of hand-written notes with a co-worker. If that person doesn't have a Tablet PC, which is everyone today, incidentally, then you would have two ugly choices: You could send the co-worker 10 TIFF images, since this is one of the primary export formats. This option obviously stinks, but it is necessitated by the fact that Microsoft curiously won't supply any viewer software for the ink format, though one is planned for a later date. Or, you could try and use the tablet's handwriting recognition software, which, while better than anything that came before it, still works poorly for many people.
Now consider the flipside. Let's say we all own Tablet PCs and you want to share that same 10 pages of notes. Why the heck would I want notes in your lousy handwriting? That would just force me to do the handwriting recognition myself, which would take time, and my results would be worse than if had you done it, because I can't read your writing to begin with.
See the problem? The Tablet PC's handwriting capabilities might be handy in some situations, but unless you have exceptionally nice handwriting (or the handwriting recognition simply works really well for you), your data is stranded on that device. And this, my friends, is exactly the problem that the Tablet PC was supposed to solve.
Don't get me wrong. I still believe that the Tablet PC is a solution for many problems, and will be welcome wholeheartedly in certain markets where tapping away on a keyboard is not an option (think manufacturing, legal, medical, and other vertical markets). But for people who need to collaborate, I'm not sure that the convenience of being able to occasionally sketch freehand on the screen is going to outweigh the problems.
Another circumstance could alleviate my concerns. If Microsoft is correct, and the Tablet PC takes off, this type of functionality will simply become part of most laptop computers.
If I had a choice between a certain laptop system, and a Tablet PC-enabled version that cost only $200-300 more, it would be a no-brainer. Why not get the extra functionality?
All-in-all, Windows Journal is going to sell a lot of Tablet PCs. If you're interested in these devices, try and spend some time in this application, with a stylus, and see whether it works for you.
Windows Sticky Notes
XP Tablet PC Edition also ships with a bizarre little Stick Notes application, which acts more like a Pocket PC app than a Windows app. That's because Windows Sticky Notes doesn't deal with documents, but instead lets you write notes to yourself, or record audio, on-the-fly. The application automatically retains anything you've entered, and you can selectively delete notes at any time, or copy and paste notes into other applications. I wasn't particularly impressed with this feature, but then I never use the Notes feature in Microsoft Outlook either, so maybe I'm not the best test subject.
Inkball
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition ships with a decent game called Inkball. The goal is to drive two bouncing balls into the correct holes, and you draw little walls with the stylus to guide the balls; each time a ball hits a wall, the wall disappears and the ball ricochets in the correct direction. No biggie.
Tablet PC Office Pack for Microsoft Office XP
Aside from Windows Journal, the most useful Tablet PC software currently available is the Tablet PC Office Pack for Microsoft Office XP, which Microsoft will make available as a free download to Tablet PC users later this year. This add-on supplies the following features:
Ink support in Word
Word users can enter ink directly into Word documents using a special Ink Canvas, which basically provides a writing area that will later be rendered as a graphic for other users. You can also add ink-based comments if you use Word's document revision features.
Ink support in Outlook
Outlook users receive a variety of ink-related functionality, including the obvious ink-based email messages. You can also integrate Outlook's contacts, appointments, and tasks modules with Windows Journal.
Ink support in PowerPoint
Interestingly, PowerPoint received what I consider to be the most desirable ink-related Office functionality: The ability to annotate live presentations with ink. Best of all, PowerPoint will ask you after the presentation if you'd like to save a second copy of the presentation that includes the annotations you made. Good stuff.
Timing and Delivery
Microsoft is currently beta-testing Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, and the version I used was based on pre-Release Candidate (RC) code. The company says that it will release the product on November 7, 2002, and you can expect a variety of hardware devices to become available on or soon after that date.
Conclusions
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is the most powerful version of Windows XP available, though I have to wonder whether it will ever benefit from a wide audience. The ink capabilities are so powerful that it's easy to overlook some of the functional deficiencies in collaboration and handwriting recognition, but I strongly urge any potential customers to seriously consider how, when, and if they would ever actually use the tablet-based features of this product. It's a cool demo, a conversation starter in airports and on planes, and truly amazing technology. Whether its a solution looking for a problem will be decided by the market, however, and I'll be interested to see how it turns out. I'm also eager to see some of the other hardware designs that PC makers will come up with, since they've been given a pretty wide leeway for design innovation.
Designing low-power embedded devices.
Interesting article from iAppliance Web:
http://www.iapplianceweb.com/story///OEG20020623S0006
The iAppliance Developer's Guide To Designing Low Power Handhelds
By Andrew Girson, CEO, InHand Electronics, Inc., Rockville, Md.
iApplianceWeb (06/23/02, 08:54:37 PM EDT)
Battery life is one of those transforming parameters in handheld and wireless device design. It defines how much "freedom" the end user has. For many types of portable devices, the time between recharging or replacing batteries is the most important parameter.
It's also regularly misunderstood and often misrepresented. The simple fact is that the battery life of a handheld device is dependent on so many parameters that the context in which the device is used must be specified to get an accurate battery life indication.
As an designer tasked with developing the system hardware or software for a handheld device, you have to realize that an out-of-context power consumption specification for a component or a board is about as meaningful as an interrupt latency specification is for a real-time operating system.
So, you need context. You need to understand how the device you design will be used. You also have to understand what parameters affect power consumption. Some of these parameters are obvious, others less so. You have a great deal of control over the power consumption of your device designs, and while it may be obvious that hardware design plays a key role in power consumption, software is just as important.
In the Beginning, There was Hardware
As the state-of-the-art in low-power CPUs races forward, the CPU becomes one of the most critical components in the design of a handheld. New CPUs such as Intel's XScale, Alchemy Semiconductor's Au1000, and Transmeta's Crusoe provide the ability to scale clock frequency and voltage dynamically. As power consumption varies linearly with clock speed and as the square of core voltage, you'll want to have hardware hooks to be able to adjust both clock speed and voltage as necessary, based on device performance.
While clock scaling is typically integrated into programmable registers within the CPU itself, taking advantage of voltage scaling can be done by providing programmable registers in your power supply designs that allow software to adjust the voltage coming into the core of the CPU. In this scenario, end user or operating system software can adjust both the core voltage and the clock frequency on-the-fly, as a function of run-time parameters.
The power supplies that provide the different core voltages and other peripheral voltages for the board also should be given extra attention. Using linear-mode regulators to convert unregulated battery voltages can be inefficient, when compared to switched-mode regulators. So, while linear-mode regulators are typically simpler to design with, they are best used when the difference between the unregulated battery voltage and the regulated voltage is small enough that the wasted energy is negligible.
Other considerations must be studied in the choice between using linear- and switched-mode regulators. For example, switched-mode regulators typically generate more electrical noise on the board, which can couple into other analog circuits. This can be an especially important issue in boards used in handhelds, since these boards are typically very small and highly integrated. There's often little room to adequately separate regulators from important circuits such as A/D and D/A converters used for audio, data acquisition, or other measurements. As a result, it's important to lay out handheld boards with great care, so as to minimize both electrical noise and power consumption.
As you enter into a project to design the main board for your handheld, you must consider all of these factors when choosing components, reference designs, or single-board computers.
Modes, Modes, Modes
Taking full advantage of the low-power hardware features of your board requires software control. The good news is that many of the operating systems used in today's handhelds have built-in application programming interfaces (APIs) and other hooks that allow you to take advantage of the operating system's and the CPU's low-power modes. But, you may need to build your own software to fully implement the power management features, and the software to do so can permeate all levels of development, from low-level kernel routines, to device drivers, all the way to application programs.
If you are developing a board support package (BSP) for your board or using one for a third-party board or reference design, you'll want to make sure that the CPU's internal power-saving modes are implemented. These power-saving modes are typically activated based on some measure of CPU performance. For example, if an operating system detects that no software threads are active and in need of scheduling, it will often signal your low-level code to go into a power-saving state. Such signals from the operating system's thread scheduler can occur quite often, since handheld and wireless devices often experience many periods of inactivity interspersed with periods of activity.
When your low-level code receives such signals, you should activate the CPU's low-power operational mode. Typically, this mode is called an Idle mode, and once entered, the CPU halts the core, while maintaining all the peripherals in an operational state. Any relevant interrupt (such as touchscreen input, a key press, or serial I/O) will lift the CPU back to its run mode in a matter of microseconds. Though most end-users don't realize it, the handhelds that they are using are typically switching in and out of Idle mode many times per second to reduce power consumption.
Another mode to implement is the off mode, which usually does not truly mean loss of power. This mode is often called Sleep, and it implies that the CPU and all on- and off-chip peripherals are in the off state, but that dynamic memories are refreshed, the real-time-clock is maintained, and I/O pins can accept interrupt inputs. An operating system will signal this mode change in response to a user event such as pressing the Off button or in response to an inactivity timeout.
Since a handheld device can spend hours, days, or even weeks in the off state without changing the batteries, the device is typically designed to consume very little power (on the order of a few milliwatts or even microwatts) in Sleep mode. To reduce Sleep mode power consumption, you must consider your peripherals and I/O pins and how they will act in Sleep mode. Most handheld CPUs allow you to control your I/O pins during Sleep mode and direct these pins to be inputs or outputs. If outputs, you can specify a low or a high logic level. I've seen many situations where firmware developers did not take care of I/O pins and ended up wasting energy in Sleep mode.
For example, consider an I/O pin that is configured as an output and has a pull-up resistor attached to it. If the supply voltage for the top of the pull-up resistor is the same voltage that is used to provide power to and refresh dynamic memories in Sleep mode, the voltage is always on. In this case, if you specify that the pin should be a logic low level, current flows through the resistor, and power consumption increases. You can avoid such spurious power consumption by careful analysis of your I/O pins and their settings in Sleep mode.
Balancing Performance and Battery Life
Another area to consider, especially with the latest CPUs, is the software-based dynamic adjustment of core voltage and clock frequency at run-time. If you can accurately measure CPU computational bandwidth, and you find that you are using less than 100% of it, you can decrease the clock frequency and the core voltage. In many cases, reducing the clock frequency will result in a corresponding increase in the amount of time that it takes the CPU to complete a task. But, as long as the CPU computational bandwidth stays below 100%, the perceptible change in performance to the user may be negligible.
For example, if your handheld device is being used in an application that makes external measurements several times per second and updates the display, such a task might require 20% of the CPU's bandwidth at 200MHz. At 100MHz and a lower core voltage, the task might require 40% of the computational bandwidth, but to the user, the display still gets updated in the same manner and at the same rate. Since the voltage is reduced and power consumption varies with the square of the voltage, the overall power consumption is reduced with little or no perceived performance degradation.
And, in some cases when computational bandwidth reaches 100%, you may still wish to reduce clock frequency, because the performance bottleneck is not the CPU. For example, if you are transferring a large file to a plug-in Flash card, the Flash card's write cycle typically dictates the speed of writing. In this case, the Flash card's device driver often will be in a loop waiting for the card to report a ready signal for the next buffer of data.
It typically will not yield to the operating system, since the delays between ready signal activation are short and varied in length. In this case, whether the CPU is operating at 200MHz or 100MHz, the bulk of the time is spent waiting for the Flash card, and the CPU computational bandwidth is close to 100%. There's just no point in processing wait loops at 200MHz, when 100MHz will get the job done just as quickly and with reduced power consumption.
This Flash card example brings up an important point. Avoid spinning in loops waiting for an event, whenever possible, whether it's in application software or device drivers. If you are waiting for some external event to signal you, and that event might take more than a few hundred microseconds or so, your thread should yield to the operating system so that it can schedule other threads or put the CPU into its Idle mode.
Peripherals Matter
The software drivers that you write to control peripherals can have a tremendous impact on performance, too. Direct memory access (DMA) is one technique that all software device driver developers should use, but that many often ignore. When it comes to handhelds, DMA gives you a double-whammy: not only do you reduce your computational bandwidth requirements by using DMA instead of interrupts for data transfers, but the resultant reduction in bandwidth requirements also decreases power consumption. The tricky part with DMA can be getting it to work and being able to share a limited number of DMA channels amongst multiple peripherals, so you may need to create a resource manager that allots and shares DMA channels effectively.
Where interrupts are used, care should be taken to avoid spuriously generating interrupts. Remember that most CPUs that enter an Idle mode are brought out of it by an interrupt. This makes sense when the interrupt is something relevant, like a key press. But, a stray interrupt that is not properly disabled can cause unintended exiting of Idle mode, even if it has no impact on performance.
For example, Intel's StrongARM CPUs contain settings to determine what interrupts will bring the CPU out of Idle mode. Normally, only unmasked and enabled interrupts will do so. But, I've seen situations where software device driver developers have set the CPU to come out of Idle when any interrupt occurs, even if masked.
In this particular case, the driver developer also set up the LCD display driver to generate an interrupt after every frame of data was transferred to the display. Although the interrupt was masked in the interrupt controller and no actual interrupt software was executed, the LCD interrupt kept waking the CPU out of its Idle mode many times per second, effectively doubling power consumption.
But It Doesn't End Here
There are many other examples, too. Why not adjust CPU performance to keep total power consumption below a certain threshold? Batteries discharge in a non-linear fashion that is dependent on the power consumption, so an increase in the device's current draw reduces battery life by a greater proportion, especially in applications with a high current draw relative to the battery's capacity. Reducing a CPU's clock frequency may extend the time it takes to finish tasks, but keeping power consumption below a certain threshold can extend battery life.
Or what about adjusting performance based on physical location? The coming wave of location-aware handhelds could increase or decrease performance based on entering or leaving a certain perimeter where increased or decreased activity is expected.
Related to this is wireless connectivity. Some IEEE 802.11b wireless PCMCIA cards have a power management mode that causes them to only search for wireless data at specified intervals instead of doing so at all times. The reduction in power consumption while in this power management mode can be substantial, while the performance difference is often negligible.
All of these examples merely serve to illustrate the simple fact that a conscientious software developer taking a holistic approach can always find new ways to conserve extra milliwatts here and there. Just don't let the marketing director find out!
This article is based on a paper (#217) presented this month at the Summer 2002 Embedded Systems Conference titled ““Designing Low-Power, High-Performance Handhelds.””)
OT: Soccer. Bird, the US boys showed well in the game with Germany. I thought overall our guys outplayed the young German team, but that was quite a set play header, and the German keeper played great. But, we certainly had our chances. Did you see Beckenbauer's comment after the game that the referee should have awarded a PK on the inadvertent hand ball? I felt the same way. I know the referee has discretion there, but it would have been a goal, so award a PK already.
There certainly is some heightened interest in soccer here, but not as much as the International news reports might leave you to believe. I come into contact with a lot of people, day to day, and the next person who mentions the World Cup will be the first one (except when I bring it up). The game with Germany, while interesting to soccer fans, would not be riveting to a US sports fan. Germany's insistence in the second half on sitting back and let the US play with the ball, occasionally counter attacking, really just plays into the US prejudice against the sport. Apparently, that is tactical sophistication in the mind of the Germans, but most US viewers find it boring and, I think, unmanly.
IAE, looks like now the Germans have clear sailing to the finals, where I suspect they will play Brazil. What a clash of styles that will be.
regards, wsh
OTW, apparently it will use an Intel chip
from the article:
"Fujitsu's new Stylistic ST4000 will weigh about three pounds and will include an ultra-low-voltage Pentium III-M processor from Intel, sources said."
Interesting choice by Fujitsu. Obviously Fujitsu is one OEM that does not need an education on TMTA chips. Wonder if it is a supply issue? Or did INTC "buy" their way in with great pricing?
The unit apparently is a convertible unit, like the Acer. Interesting that PIII ULV chips are finding their way into the convertible units, but the Crusoes seem to be the chip of choice for the slate like units.
regards, wsh
Fujitsu shipping Lifebook P2110's to US
From leog.net:
My P2110 has shipped!
From: Shane in MI
Date: 20 Jun 2002
Time: 12:52:20 -0400
Remote Name: 192.55.140.2
Comments
To all those who ordered from Laptop Inc the new P2110, I got an email today stating shipment of the P from Japan. Its being sent 2nd Day Air (nice!) with an expected delivery date of Tuesday the 25th.
PC market clambers slowly back to growth
But beware the far-eastern westward march
By Paul Hales, 20/06/2002 16:36:18 BST
http://www.theinquirer.net/20060219.htm
THE RACE TO PRODUCE ever faster hardware has failed to generate ever increasing consumer interest, research from iSuppli suggests.
While processors pile on the megahertz and memory, hard disks and graphics card get ever faster, software development now lags hardware significantly, leaving consumers with no compelling need to upgrade and corporations benefiting from wider procurement cycles.
This is likely to have caused the IT slowdown as much as any other factor, and the situation is likely to improve only marginally over the next few years.
Joe' D'Elia, director of market intelligence services at iSuppli Europe, told his audience yesterday that having pushed IT procurement to a four-year cycle, the pre-2000 bulge in jittery IT spending would not be replicated until 2003. Otherwise desktop PC growth would remain dwafted by growth in moble computing solutions, including handhelds, tablet PCs, PDAs and notebooks.
In the server market, D'Elia reckons AMD will make a bit of a splash with its forthcoming Hammer-on processor and suggested we could yet see a riposte from Intel in the form of Yamhill, if Opteron is very successful. Yesterday we reported Intel's Otellini saying the chipmaker wouldn't produce a 64/32-bit answer to Hammer, Here.
The researcher predicts some 7.7 per cent unit growth in a server market increasingly dominated by entry-level servers this year. Hence, revenue growth will be just 2.8 per cent. Enterprise systems, the company see 11.1 per cent unit growth this year, with mainframes/supercomputers pegging a 4.6 per cent rise.
The research suggests that in the absence of innovative products in the PC arena, and with an eye on Taiwan and China, as both "move up the value chain", PC makers might want to consider selling PDAs instead
Thanks gl. I guessed but did not voice your theory no. 1, but your others certainly are more compelling. I hope Gericom continues in their plans to introduce a Crusoe-based laptop/tablet.
Going to have to play George to your Gracie more often, or is it Abbott to your Costello, Martin to Lewis, Penn to Teller . . .
regards, wsh
What's up with Gericom?
Does anyone else find Gericom's recent actions puzzling? They announce a new ultra-light laptop based on the TM5800 to be offered 6/1. Three weeks later, still not available.
However, one can buy TM5800 chips from Gericom. What exactly does one do with a TM5800 chip, other than keep it on the corner of one's desk and display it to friends? A TM5800 chip needs CMS and a system specially designed for a TM5800. Not exactly a job for hobbyists!
regards, wsh
Thanks Steak, good to hear more news regarding the OQO. I find myself from time to time putting "OQO" in Google, but nothing new ever appears.
"The product will be sold via the OQO web site and through major international resellers." From that quote in your email, we can anticipate a Sony or Toshiba or ??? Ultra PC announcement at some point. Can anyone confirm if that was Colin Hunter in the photos from TMTA's roadmap presentation in Japan two weeks ago (the gentleman holding the OQO)? Just happened to be in Japan?
BTW, gericom.com is selling individual TM5800 chips retail for around $100 (someone on Yahoo discovered this info). Go to the website and search for "TM5800." This is interesting as it seems to points to a much lower wholesale asp for the chip than we thought.
regards, wsh
Forbes article on new Lifebook Ps
Nice article. Interesting that even someone as knowledgeable as Hesseldahl seems unaware that this is not a new product but an upgrade of the P2040/46, which has been on sale in the US for five months or so. Apparently, we need all the reports like this that we can get. wsh
Pint-Sized Notebook Power
http://www.forbes.com/2002/06/18/0618tentech.html
Arik Hesseldahl, 06.18.02, 10:00 AM ET
It used to be that powerful performance was the standard measure by which notebook computers were compared.
Now it's all about performance and power management. Having a microprocessor chip that handles all the software anyone could ever want to run is great. But who cares about that if the battery only lasts two hours?
Notebook manufacturers and chipmakers alike have in recent years turned a great deal of attention to the concept of power management, which basically means controlling how much electricity a notebook needs at any given time to keep up with the computing tasks required.
This renewed attention on power came after chipmaker Transmeta unveiled its first Crusoe chips for notebook computers. After Transmeta first showed off its technology in early 2000, it didn't take Intel and Advanced Micro Devices very long to follow suit and develop their own schemes for managing a chip's power consumption.
Controlling power needs does a lot more than increase battery life. It changes other hardware needs inside the notebook. If the chip is using less power, it's running cooler and doesn't need a fan to help dissipate heat. That means the entire body of the machine can be smaller.
Japanese notebook makers in particular have used Transmeta's chip in their smallest, lightest models. Fujitsu has turned out to be a good Transmeta customer and last week unveiled the latest in its LifeBook line of notebooks, the LifeBook P2000. Inside, there's a Crusoe processor running at 867 MHz.
This machine can take battery life to the extreme. Two extra batteries--one external and one that fits into the space where the CD-DVD drive goes--when combined with the internal battery can keep the machine running for up to 14 hours, long enough to put in a full day's work and then some on a long long flight.
But if you'd rather watch a DVD movie or two, then the LifeBook has a great screen for doing just that. It has 10.6-inch SXGA screen that is well suited to watching movies in wide-screen format. There's an ATI Rage Mobility graphics controller inside as well. Bring good headphones because it has surround-sound capability and Dolby headphone software to improve sound quality.
But it's a small machine, weighing only 3.4 pounds out of the box, and measuring 10 inches wide by 7 inches deep and 1.59 inches thick. In that small space, Fujitsu has packed several input-output connections--including S-Video, Firewire, two USB ports and a PC card slot. There's also an option for built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking. It's hitting the market at retail for an estimated street price of $1,500, depending on options.
Preview of Next Week's TechXNY
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/06/17/020617hnpcexpo.xml
June 17, 2002 05:19 AM
1. PC Expo becomes solution-centric TechXNY
By Dan Neel
PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS for businesses and consumers will be the focus of next week's TechXNY trade show, taking place at New York's Javits Convention Center June 25 through 27.
The 10-year-old trade show, once called PC Expo, will be less a venue for cutting-edge point products than an opportunity for vendors to reach customers with broader technology solutions that solve existing problems and show immediate ROI, explained Tim Scannell, an industry analyst with Shoreline Research in Quincy, Mass.
"More and more companies are going to these shows to find technology solutions, so when they look at the products on display they are going to be very much looking from a solutions standpoint," Scannell said.
Indicative of this solution-centric mindset, IBM will be at the trade show discussing work being done to deliver starter packs for small and medium-size businesses that deliver the tools needed to get a company's technology platform up and running, Big Blue representatives said.
Similar to IBM, such diverse vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, and Sun have each been ramping up IT service and solution integration efforts to simplify the deployment of technology to all levels of business, and will each bring their messages to the trade show, representatives for the companies said.
The reason for the change is simple. Unlike past PC Expos, end-users now tire of having to navigate through the slew of point-release products available in the industry, and vendors at TechXNY will be aware of that, Scannell explained.
"I think vendors are going to be listening very carefully to what IT people wandering the show floor have to say; their comments and perspectives. I think a lot of technology, when it first came out maybe six months to a year ago, was being sold from a technology standpoint, and the industry was very much driven by that technology. What's happening now is that it is very much driven by solutions, by ROI, and by total cost of ownership. IT has become a very selective, smart audience, and they are going to ask some really tough questions at the show," Scannell added.
A keynote address by Jeff Raikes, group vice president for Microsoft's Productivity and Business Services, will kick off the trade show. Raikes will discuss an expected boom in knowledge worker productivity that Microsoft sees occurring over the next decade, according to show representatives.
During his address, Raikes will demonstrate new applications for Tablet PC devices, which Microsoft believes will prevail as the next step in fully functional personal computing.
Early demonstrations of HP's recently announced Tablet PC -- which runs Transmeta's Crusoe processor -- will take the Tablet PC discussion to the trade show floor, according to Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Giga Information Group, based in Cambridge, Mass.
"Tablet PCs will be a high point of the show," Enderle said. "We've got a series of vendors who are rolling them out and looking at [the show] as the place to announce. So, as far as the new technology at the show, a lot of it will have to do with Tablets PCs."
Mobility and wireless technology will play a big role at the trade show, Scannell said.
A recent wave of wireless, 802.11-enabled laptop systems from HP, IBM, Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Sony, just to name a few, will be what business technology buyers are most interested in, as well and handheld PDAs that can deliver immediate ROI, Scannell continued.
"What attendees will be very interested in are notebook systems that have integrated wireless capabilities. They are also going to look at some of the new devices like the Trio from Handspring, things that would show immediate productivity if they give it to their mobile sales force or workforce," Scannell said.
Intel is expected to launch its first 2GHz Pentium 4-M mobile chip the week before the trade show, according to sources familiar with the company's plans. New laptop systems running the speedy new Intel chip will likely debut at TechXNY from Intel OEMs such as HP, IBM, and Dell, sources said.
Security will be a pervasive topic at TechXNY, as companies looking to deploy wireless systems and other vulnerable technology will have to deal with protecting their corporate data.
"Security is going to be a major, major issue there. Particularly if users are looking at wireless systems," Scannell said, adding that the security discussion at TechXNY will "go beyond passwords and IDs. If a company is going to go mobile and allow access to mission critical information, then you have to have some sort of a secure pipeline."
Enderle agrees that TechXNY will less about product hype and more about the fundamentals of business technology in the current political and economic environments.
"I think the underlying theme of the show will be more staples, like security, things that deal with the industry environment the way it is now," Enderle said, adding that TechXNY will be a more "toned-down" show, lacking in attendance due to travel concerns and company budgets.
But representatives for TechXNY said pre-registration for the show is up from last year, even though they suspect that the final head count for attendance may be just above or equal to last year's event.
Steak, OT, re soccer in US
It is true that when I was young soccer was not even an option, but the reality is that in the US being a soccer player does not seem to lead to later being a soccer fan (or, more accurately, a paying fan of a collegiate or professional soccer team). Somehow along the way, soccer players grow up to be fans of the major professional sports, not soccer.
For over thirty years now, US Soccer has been hoping that soccer playing kids will grow up to be soccer fans. Yet, for some reason, it doesn't seem to happen. For most of the country, and certainly here in the SW, youth soccer is extremely popular. Certainly much more popular than youth football and youth basketball. Without a doubt, it is the biggest youth sport both for boys and girls. It has been this way for many years. Yet, even though large numbers of those soccer playing kids are now adults (some in their late 30s or so), soccer is just not a major sport in the US.
Professional soccer has grown some in popularity in the US, just not at a very fast pace. Apparently US TV ratings for this year's World Cup are up, so some progress is being made. A contributing factor probably is the increasing percentage of Latinos in the US. Yet, soccer still is a minor sport in the US by any measure. In short, to Americans, soccer is fun to play, but there are more enjoyable sports to follow and support.
As to my argument in favor of dropping offsides, you pointed out that ..."The offside rule gives a very important strategic element for the defense, since the defense can play "offside", meaning letting the attack run into offside."
I do understand that, and in fact I have heard all the arguments how dropping offsides will end the world as we know it. I routinely get into such discussions with soccer diehards at my son's matches. He is on a premier team, which competes in very elite regional tournaments. So, I watch a lot of soccer, and have for years.
Yet, I remain convinced that the offsides rule is too weighted for the defense in a sport that suffers from too much defense as it is. Why should a forward have to be aware where the defense is when the ball is kicked to him? Let him seize opportunities and force the defense to react to him. If an offensive player cherry-picks by the goal, a defender will mark him and the rest of the field opens up. The net effect I suspect would be a wide-open "Brazilian" style of play on offense, with increased reliance on headers, and defenses forced to mark individual players rather than sitting in zones.
regards, wsh
Bird, I found your article very interesting. Certainly Americans feel intuitively the special relationship between the US and England. I think it is much the same relationship we have with Canada and Australia. We consider you guys as some sort of family; perhaps cousins is the best analogy (as mentioned in the article). Yet, we don't really think about it, and I suspect most Americans would find it surprising that the advisability/risk of a UK/USA relationship is a point of discussion in England. This probably is more evidence of our inherent isolationism. BTW, the article is quite correct on Tony Blair. I think he is extremely popular here, but I doubt many could explain why. We just like him.
Back on soccer, I would appreciate your insights as to why soccer is the subject of such passion for most of the world. I have puzzled about it, as I do see a lot of soccer but, really, only to support my son.
All I can figure is that more than for most sports soccer often offers in big games a rising tide of tension which can almost be unbearable. The uncertainty of stoppage time only adds to this tension. With goals so hard to come by, and your team is down and the clock is running up against 90 minutes; it really can be absorbing. Yet, few soccer games offer that tension and most are quite predictable and, to me, boring. The incessant midfield mobilization and teams wanting to play a counterpunching style can be mind numbing, and the absurd "floping" and playing to the referees really alienates me from the sport.
I often have thought that soccer would be improved by getting rid of the offsides rule. This would/could see players more spaced on the field and lots of more long passes and athletic dashes to the goal. Of course in a sport as conservative as soccer such a change would not just be dismissed but considered heretical.
regards, wsh
Bird, I have spent a lot of time on soccer sidelines while my son is on the field, but the game has never caught my interest otherwise. I am afraid I am typical of the US sport's fan. We know the World Cup is going on, we watch a little and half pay attention to the results, but no passion at all for the game. Perhaps it is much like your interest (faint I would guess) in baseball's World Series or football's Super Bowl.
Maybe the next generation will be different. My son's alarm has been going off at strange hours recently, and I find him early in the morning on the couch half asleep and watching soccer.
Frankly, I have been more interested lately in the NBA Finals (basketball) and watching the US Open (Golf).
regards, wsh
gl, that is an interesting article, however, I don't think this comment is correct:
"And guess who is also a licensee of the Transmeta IP?
Yeah, the same company who is now in control of IA-32, AMD. Makes you wonder where this is all leading. Let me piece it together my predictions for you ..."
I don't believe that AMD has a license to the TMTA IP. However, TMTA does have a license to AMD's x86-64 technology and to its Hyper Transport interconnects. See http://investor.transmeta.com/news/20010525-42673.cfm.
So, it is possible if not likely that TMTA will at some point develop a chip for the workstation and server markets based on x86-64. The forthcoming TM8000 would seem a great chassis for such a chip, IMO. A 256-bit processor running x86-64 and Linux in native mode should be a screeming fast.
regards, wsh
Interesting article from Yahoo board, filed by hseitz4.
It supports my concern that TMTA only has a "special relationship" with TSMC, and not a requirements contract with the foundry for the production in a reasonable time of chip orders from TMTA. What happens when our special relationship runs up against someone else's production contract. I am afraid the answer is that the contract gets ahead of us in the queque. Why don't we have a contract with TSMC?
http://www.e-insite.net/electronicnews/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA221560&pubdate=6....
Fabless Foes Froth For Fight
By Gale Morrison -- 6/10/2002
Electronic News
The world's largest integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) are drastically turning up the heat on their smaller competitors, especially fabless companies, by pouring money into 90nm, 300mm wafer production with every materials advance and mixed signal design capability imaginable.
Intel, IBM, Texas Instruments and Infineon, to name a few, are hitting the streets and telling OEMs that the only assurance they have for constant and high-volume supply of the superintegrated silicon;which can reduce their system cost and boost performance;is to go with a global supplier with its own fabs and its own design pros.
Their timing for this message couldn't be better. The audience is an increasingly risk-averse and rapidly contracting set of OEMs who need assurance. Cisco, Juniper, Nokia and Alcatel, for example, might have had the money and time to give a hot fabless startup a chance in 1999; they no longer have that luxury.
Intel executives are adamant that their company's manufacturing capability will see it to victory. Capacity at the foundries will tighten, and that will leave Intel's competitors, and ultimately their customers, stranded, company executives say.
"No, you can't say that next Thursday at 3 p.m. the foundries are going to run out of capacity. You can't say exactly when it will happen, but you can know it will," said Anthony Ambrose, marketing director for the Intel Communications group. "In my 19 years in the industry, I've learned that capacity is in balance for about an hour. If you are in a meeting, you'll miss it. Your lead-time at TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) can go from two weeks to 30 weeks in an instant. And it will. I've seen it happen again and again."
Ambrose's contention that a capacity crunch will happen sooner rather than later is not such a far leap. On Friday in Taiwan, TSMC said sales in May rose 78 percent on stronger demand. TSMC sold an impressive $445 million worth of wafers in just that month and commented the gain was because of increased demand for its most advanced process, 0.13 micron. TSMC is, of course, well underway in R&D on 90nm and 300mm wafers. The mega-foundry also said that in May it ran at 80 percent capacity.
But if TSMC runs at 80 percent capacity when end-demand is at an all-time low, what will that figure for foundries as a whole look like when demand is very high? It's an especially pertinent question given that giant companies such as AMD, Motorola and LSI Logic have committed in the last 12 months to use foundries extensively.
Intel last week and IBM today also are being very vocal about the investments they are making, on the manufacturing and design engineering sides. The goal is to give customers chips with the highest-end computing capability and broadband communications.
It sounds a lot simpler than it is. Both companies are committing literally billions of dollars and thousands of engineers to design and manufacture a chip, for example, with a processor core running at a clock speed of more than 1GHz. That requires a supply voltage less than 1 volt so it won't run too hot. The rub is making that same chip capable of accommodating a much higher supply voltage in order to amplify analog signals and communicate the heavy loads of data that make for decent user experiences.
IBM calls these "voltage islands," and will say today that its 90nm "Cu08" process can make this possible. Intel said last week that its 90nm process will do it, too.
The design and manufacturing challenges here can't be understated. But for those who figure it out, riches await.
"A lot of the major semiconductor companies see this as a true differentiator for them, to be able to do this DMS (digital mixed signal) type of design. It's what customers want," said Craig Silver, VP of marketing for Cadence's Design Systems' Custom IC group, which today at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in New Orleans releases version 5.0 of its suite of tools to tackle this kind of work.
"It's also very much a profitable segment of the market," Silver said. "Why? Because it's harder to do. There's a severe limitation on the number of analog and mixed signal designers in the world. Even at the foundries in Taiwan, they are highly focused on this space. They are trying to move away from pure digital design so they can raise their revenue per wafer."
Tom Reeves, VP of the ASIC group at IBM, says there is something truly momentous happening in semiconductor manufacturing and among the field of companies that will lead going forward.
"I've been doing this for 20 years and I've had a lot of different assignments; tool development, the business side, manufacturing;and I lived through the bipolar-to-CMOS transition. Then we had several generations of CMOS, and we made the transition from gate array to standard cells. But there weren't any technology breakthroughs. It was more the tooling advanced and you repeat the same product strategy generation to generation."
Reeves said that clearly has changed at 0.13 micron. "The whole world (manufacturers) recognized that you needed to change basic materials. It's no longer, 'Buy some equipment and practice some new lithography.' It's really materials science that's enabling the next generation. We've got low-k qualified now; we've got SOI (silicon-on-insulator), strained silicon, copper nanotubes. It's not just leveraging new equipment. It will require basic materials research."
Reeves added that very few companies will make the kind of investment needed to continue driving the technology, even though that's what is necessary to differentiate the ICs they sell as winners. He said last week that standard CMOS, which the foundries have mastered, is presenting power problems just as bipolar did before it.
"If you go back in time, bipolar technology ultimately became a power problem. IBM, for example, shipped water-cooled mainframes. CMOS emerged thankfully and reset the whole industry to where power became less of a problem overnight. We've gone through six or seven generations of CMOS now. What you are now finding is that power is re-emerging as a significant issue in CMOS technology," Reeves said.
INTC loses $49 billion to money heaven
Steak, I have been trying to grasp what happened to Intel in the past five trading days. At the close on June 4, INTC was $27.50. Today, it closed at 20.22. A loss of 26.47% in five days.
As INTC has 6,728 million (6.7B) shares outstanding:
Valuation on 6/4 ----------- $185 billion
Valuation on 6/11 ---------- 136 billion
a five-day loss of $49 billion in valuation.
As TMTA has a current valuation of 301.8 million, INTC lost in valuation the equivalent of 162 Transmetas in the past five days! Or, over 15 AMDs!
It is interesting to read posts on the Yahoo INTC board. A week ago the typical attitute was that INTC ruled the Universe. Today, a typical attitude is total, stunned disbelief as to what happened, coupled with the terrifying realization that the slide may continue, perhaps even to a single digit share price. A common sentiment is concern over INTC's perceived inability to react to the challenge later this year from the AMD clawhammer. They haven't even realized as yet that TMTA threatens to blow up the low/mobile end of the market. The details leaked today on the Banias shouldn't provide much optimism for INTC's future in the mobile space.
The change in perception of INTC is almost palpable. No longer is it the 800 lb gorilla inpervious to challenge. Now it is a middle-aged industrial giant saddled with excess capacity, fierce price competition, diminished prospects for growth, and a widespread feeling that its present and future product mix is not going to allow it to maintain market dominance. Wall Steet is suddenly wanting to value the company with conventional metrics. All this at a time when x86 chips are more and more being viewed as a commodity, where performance is the criteria, not brand. No wonder the INTC brain trust ordered a massive ad campaign to enforce the Intel Inside logo.
All of this has to, eventually, benefit TMTA. Will be interesting to watch it all unfold.
regards, wsh
Bird, I just realized you haven't reported on your meeting with 20% of the workforce of the company that is going to bring the MetaPad to market; that is, with Mr. Geyer of Antelope Technologies/Liteye Microdisplay Systems LLC.
You must give us a full report, particularly on how he and his staff of four are going to deliver Metapads to the masses; at least, when they are not otherwise fulfulling the mission of Liteye Microdisplay Sys.
regards, wsh
Inquirer Flubs Fujitsu Upgrade Report
This is a funny read. Apparently Mr. Magee is unaware that his Lifebook is not a Series P (probably a Series B) and that Fujitsu has had the Comdex Best of Show-winning P2000s on sale in the US for some time. What a piece of work. Yet, news is news.
regards, wsh
http://www.theinquirer.net/11060221.htm
Fujitsu takes Transmeta to Lifebook family
More life for Lifebook
By Mike Magee, 11/06/2002 19:40:40 BST
JAPANESE COMPANY Fujitsy has decided to use the Transmeta 867MHz Crusoe TM 5800 in the Lifebook P2000.
The popular Lifebook; we've got one, but it's based on Celeron technology; increases battery life and comes with up to 384MB of memory, the firm said today.
The TMTA based Lifebook with the Transmeta chip also comes with ATI Rage Mobility graphics and weighs around 3.4 pounds avoirdupois.
Other features include 1394, S-video, mini-VGA, two USB ports, 20GB or 30GB hard drives, and Windows XP or W2K.
Fujitsu is claiming that the Transmeta chip will give 14 hours of computing life if you use the optional second battery.
We do love our little Fujitsu Lifebook and it was our reliable companion in Taipei last week. But one thing's for sure. The Celeron CPU drains the battery like there's no tomorrow and the little battery indicator turns from blue to white in minutes, not hours.
The TMTA Fujitsu Lifebook costs around $1,500 in North America; presumably it will become available in Europe too.
Inquirer: Banias chipset, battery details revealed
Odem, Montara GM unveiled
By Mike Magee, 11/06/2002 11:31:04 BST
http://www.theinquirer.net/11060210.htm
IN A CONVERSATION WITH a Taiwanese Intel partner last week, we learnt some solid facts about the chipset support the firm will provide for its Banias processor, the mobile CPU that is "built from the ground up", in the firm's own words.
We also learned about some of its power and battery characteristics that Intel is predicting for the future.
Some of these details are obviously pre-silicon estimates, the engineer told us.
The Banias will initially arrive at speeds of 1.70GHz, 1.60GHz, 1.50GHz, 1.40GHz and with a low voltage version at 1.10GHz and 900MHz ultra low voltage version.
Some of these details aren't decided yet, but the 1.70GHz and the 1.60GHz Banias CPUs will operate at 24.5 watts at 1.35 volts, with battery modes of 600MHz at .85 volts. Average processor power for all of the Banias family is less than one watt.
The 1.10GHz low voltage Banias will operate at 12W at 1.10 volts in performance mode, and the ULV 900MHz at seven watts at one volt.
Banias will also be offered in a microFCBGA 479 package with a thickness of 2.5 millimetres.
Chipsets supporting Banias processors will include the ODEM and the Montara GM chipsets, and we've some detailed specs for these.
Odem will use a 400MHz front side bus speed, support up to 1GHB of memory in SO-DIMM packaging, and support both DDR 200 and 266 memory types, with ECC parity. It will use AGP2X/4X, support six PCI masters, ATA 66/100, USB 2.0 with six ports, use Geyserville (Speedstep) III, and come with integrated LAN – either 10/100 Ethernet or HPNA. It will have six channels of audio and modem support.
The north hub packaging is 593 microFCBGA, the south hub package is 421 microBGA, while the north hub itself is Odem, and the south hub ICH4-M. The engineer told us that it's already sampling.
The Montara GM chipset, also for the Banias packaging, has similar specs to Odem but with some additional and interesting graphics features, including an integrated 32-bit 2D and 3D GFX core with something the marchitectural people are calling dynamic video memory technology.
It will supports up to UXGA at 1600 by 1200, and also has a DAC (digital analogue converter) for a regular CRT monitor – QXGA at 2048 by 1536 pixels. The display can be simultaneous. This chipset also appears to be sampling, according to the engineer. µ
1stF, the upgraded P2040 is called the P2110. It is being actively discussed at the leog.net site.
Perhaps the biggest improvements are the doubling of video RAM to 8MB and making 256MB of system RAM standard. These changes should help address some of the performance issues of the machine which often were attributed to the Crusoe chip, and more properly charged to MS's XP OS and the bundled DVD software.
What I find surprising is how fast this upgrade moved from Japan to the US. The upgraded Loox was announced in Japan a month or so ago, and now the same upgrades are available in the US models. Fujitsu must feel that they can sell a lot of these units in the US and it wants to maintain its competitive advantage. If sales were lagging, there would be little interest in a quick upgrade path. Great news on all fronts I would think.
regards, wsh
Intel's 'Yes' campaign: Why it may make you say 'no'
By Guest Columnist, for AnchorDesk
June 9, 2002 9:00 PM PT
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2869929,00.html
Editor's note: AnchorDesk is pleased to present guest columnist Rob Enderle, research fellow with Giga Information Group. He's also a frequent guest and sometimes guest host on AnchorDesk Radio.
Intel last week launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, one of its most expensive in the company's history. This so-called "Yes" campaign will target topics near and dear to the IT buyer's heart: reliability and stability.
At the same time, the campaign will also focus on innovation, a word that has come to mean many things over the last couple of years--mostly negative.
NOWADAYS, innovation is in strong opposition to the requirements of reliability and stability. Their lack can increase support costs dramatically for companies deploying new PC technology, contribute significantly to the pain of moving to a new PC, and present further difficulties for end users simply trying to keep that PC running.
On an AnchorDesk Radio program a couple of weeks ago, I shared the feedback we received at our national customer show about Intel. Customers there cited Intel as one of their biggest problems, and one of the key reasons they weren't placing PCs high on the list of purchases they planned to make during the next 24 months.
Customers said that Intel's supposed innovation provided little value and, in reality, it generally created huge reliability and stability problems. They complained that Intel didn't listen to them and heard that the company also turned a deaf ear to its OEMs. These folks actually went so far as to say that the slogan "Intel Inside" was turning negative, and that they might instead favor PCs with AMD or Transmeta technology in them--if these machines will better address their need for greater stability and reliability.
THE ANNOUCEMENT of Intel's campaign held additional interest for me, having just finished an article in which I identified the clear lack of ethics evident in most marketing campaigns in the tech segment. I remain unconvinced that Intel is prepared to walk the talk with this one. In other words, while Intel's marketing organization is clearly hitting two major points that its customers want to hear, I've seen no indication that the company has any inclination to change its past behavior and actually address these very needs!
Following the collapse of Enron and the dot-com bubble, we live in a world where customers' trust in a company is both incredibly difficult and incredibly important to its continuing success. Yet, Intel seems hell-bent to further tarnish its image by setting expectations which it has no intention of meeting. It is delivering a program that will, in the end, launch AMD and Transmeta into a jaded business market, still desperately looking for someone to trust.
AMD and Transmeta can take a lesson from Avis's old "We try harder" campaign against auto rental giant Hertz. To successfully expand into Intel's space, Transmeta and AMD in this case must "try harder"--by spending quality time with corporate clients and market influencers, really understanding their needs, and then building those concerns into their designs and technology road maps.
Yes, Transmeta has had some problems executing, but there was no doubt that its initial product came far closer in concept to what customers wanted in a laptop computer than the re-purposed desktop technology Intel was selling at the time.
MEANWHILE, AMD HAS generally been better aligned with the people who have played a large part in the creation of the PC industry: power users and gamers. The company has yet to roll out its more stable platform, but I've seen the level of their commitment, and it is worlds ahead of the lip service that Intel traditionally provides.
Perhaps Intel's sleepwalking executives will wake up, see their own advertisements, and conclude that they actually need to execute on fulfilling the promises they make. If so, the end result could be much better than the mishmash of mismatched road maps and chip sets currently provided by the company and its partners.
And if those Intel executives don't wake up, well, at that customer session there were plenty of other vendors sitting in the audience, hanging on every word from the IT guys and taking copious notes. Later this year, I'm betting those scribbles will translate into choices that could fix your innovation problem--and some unpleasant surprises for Intel.
ED: Thanks to reversenineoneone of Yahoo Board for finding this article.
regards, wsh