Sunday, Apr 28, 2002
Sunday, Apr 28, 2002 |
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Kerala
By Anand Parthasarathy
Boring business applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail and presentations may soon give way to a multicoloured rainbow of `fun' things: digital music, photography, wireless games and movies-on-demand. The three Pentium 4-M chips run at speeds of 1.4, 1.5 and 1.8 gigahertz (GHz) and come less than three weeks after the U.S. chip-maker unveiled two other mobile Pentium-4s running at 1.7 and 1.6 GHz. Together the five chips cover almost the entire processor range hitherto available only for the desktop PCs. Only three normal Pentium chip models are faster — at speeds of 2, 2.2 and 2.4 GHz. Chips usable on mobile PCs need to be less power-hungry and are traditionally far slower than their desktop cousins. Industry observers say the ``wholesale'' introduction of half a dozen ``portable'' chips at near-desktop speeds is unprecedented, and is the result of perception that notebooks and other devices for computing `on the go' are going to be the biggest growth area of the future. They are expected to form 30 per cent of the total PC market worldwide, as typical prices fall to around $ 1,300. Interestingly, the man driving Intel's push towards portable computing is their Indian-origin Vice- President (Mobile Platforms), Anand Chandrasekher, former key member of the company's chip architecture team. During the Intel Developer Forum in the U.S. last month, he told this correspondent that the days of bulky power-guzzling notebooks were over: new-generation portable PCs would weigh about 1.5 kgs, have flat LCD screens as large as desktop PCs and would do everything the bigger machines did. Indeed, all this week Intel is demonstrating a variety of new portable machines powered by the new chips, not before exclusive groups of executives, but to passengers streaming through the platforms of New York's Grand Central rail terminus. It hopes that improved affordability will fuel what it calls a new `laptop lifestyle' among lay users. A recent U.S.-based survey of 2,400 laptop owners showed that 81 per cent used their machine while watching TV; 60 per cent in bed, 54 per cent while eating and 41 per cent while riding as a passenger in a car. Indian professionals are likely to have their first look at notebooks powered by the new Pentium 4-M range on April 30 in Bangalore, when the `roadshow' of Intel's Developer Forum opens there. Meanwhile, the Taiwan-based Acer was first off the block in this country, with a notebook powered by a mobile Pentium 4. The TravelMate 630, uses a chip clocking 1.7 GHz and includes the full suite of multimedia and 3-D graphics features. S. Rajendran, Acer's General Manager (Marketing), says that for the first time the company is launching a notebook aimed at the mainstream rather than the niche executive market. Notebooks by and large, have been modest sellers in the price-sensitive Indian market where machines costing Rs. 1 lakh or more are beyond the reach of lay users. However models in the Rs. 50,000-Rs. 70,000 range have begun to make their appearance this year.
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