At their IDF (Intel Developers Forum) in Tel Aviv Israel today, Intel revealed plans for a new mobile PC that would slot itself in between PDA's and current laptops.

...David Perlmutter, vice president and co-general manager of the company's Mobility Group and in charge of the development of key components, spent some time on the ultra mobile PCs or UMPC category, which Intel CEO Paul Otellini briefly mentioned in his August keynote. The UMPC, a miniature variation of today's notebooks, is scheduled to be commercially available late next year, will come in a size and weight not much greater then a common handheld.

The UMPC's form factor, scheduled to enter a pre-commercial stage next year, will close to what is offered today in OQO's "ultra personal computer" and have a design that is the size of a "small book" and a weight of about one pound. The "typical" battery running time of the UMPC will be "around a week," Perlmutter said.

While details how Intel wants to achieve this goal were scarce, Perlmutter mentioned that the device will be based on "a scaled-down version of a Pentium M processor." The UMPC will provide full PC capability, which can handle most common computing tasks, including web-browsing, e-mail and even computer games. "It won't be as strong as a standard PC", he explained, "but it will have more computing power than what we had in PCs only two years ago." According to Paul Otellini, processors for UMPCs will consume about 0.5 watts and be able to run Windows Vista.

Commercial availability of early UMPCs is scheduled for the second half 2006. Perlmutter added that a "breakthrough" for the devices is expected for "2007 or 2008."

This sounds very interesting indeed, but if it's not pocketable, yet still too small to use efficiently like a laptop, it doesn't seem like something that will take off. Hopefully this will be accompanied by a new form of interface, as a keyboard is going to be rather difficult to use at that scale.

Article Link: Intel-based ultra mobile PCs to run one week per battery charge

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