IBM ThinkPad X40 comes with an 'airbag'

IBM ThinkPad X40 comes with an 'airbag'

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, zatni@cbn.net.id

Last week, IBM Indonesia invited a bunch of IT journalists to its office in the almost deserted Landmark Building on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta. The occasion? The launch of the tiny IBM ThinkPad X40. I am glad I went, as this irresistible notebook incorporated some new and interesting technologies.

First, the notebook is very light and compact. Surprisingly, despite its small size, its keyboard is not much smaller than my ThinkPad T40, and the screen is of the same quality -- just slightly smaller. While my T40 has a generous 14.1-inch screen, the X40 has a 12.1-inch screen.

This ultra-portable notebook does not have the touchpad that my T40 has, clearly because there is no space for it.

The X40 currently comes with a Pentium M processor running at 1 or 1.2 GHz, but IBM promised that they would soon ship the Centrino version. The non-Centrino X40 already has a built-in 802.11b Wi-Fi module. And, if you are willing to spend another US$ 349 on top of the US$ 2,099 for the notebook, VAT included, then you can have an extra, too -- a docking station specially designed for the X40, which comes with a DVD/CD-RW drive.

One more interesting feature is the USB Powered Port, which I saw for the first time on the X40 -- it has two USB 2.0 ports.

On the right-hand side is a regular USB 2.0 port, on the left is a USB 2.0 Powered Port and under the USB port is a smaller jack what will supply battery power to the DVD/CD-RW drive, so we do not have to carry a separate adapter.

Besides the new features, the ThinkPad X40 has a SecureDigital (SD) card reader and all other standard features, such as an Infrared port, an Ethernet port and a modem. Like the T40 and the newer T41, the X40 also has a tiny light for the keyboard that makes it easier to work in total darkness.

IBM lumps together the technological features for its PCs and notebooks under the brand ThinkVantage. With ThinkVantage, the company aims to differentiate its products from those by other PC and notebook makers. It is not an easy task, of course, as everybody else is doing the same.

One of the most interesting ThinkVantage features is the addition of a chip on the motherboard that monitors the motion of the notebook.

The chip will sense it if you tilt the notebook around, and you can even see the motion in a window on the screen in real time. Now, if you jerk the notebook or if the chip senses a sudden change in its orientation, the motion sensor will think that the notebook is falling and in a split second, it will put the read and write heads of the hard disk into parking position.

Depending on the height of the fall and whether a thick rug is ready to cushion the notebook when it lands, the X40 may remain intact or may shatter. Either way, the most important component is the hard disk, as it contains our work and data.

While some top-of-the-line ThinkPads of the past often survived the impact tests conducted by independent computer magazines, the hard disk has never been as protected as it is with this new feature, with which IBM claims that the hard disk is four times as protected than before.

I still remember many, many years ago when we used to install a small utility program called park.exe that would return the read and write heads to their parking position just before the computer was turned off. Later, the program was no longer necessary because hard disk makers had added an automatic parking mechanism in their products that would activate each time the computer was powered down.

So what's the big deal with the new ThinkVantage feature? Well, keep in mind that the mechanism works when the notebook is still powered up and the hard disk is spinning.

It is when the hard disk is still spinning that the hard disk is most vulnerable to damage, not when the computer is off. If the heads crash on the spinning discs, they will be scratched, the hard disk may become inaccessible and data will be lost.

For many years, notebooks have had springs and shock absorbers to cushion the hard disks if the computer should ever fall, so the head parking feature is a welcome addition. According to IBM, the mechanism will work with any hard disk, as the motion sensor is on the chip, not in the hard disk. Incidentally, the X40 is the first IBM notebook to use the new 1.8-inch hard disk.

Another important feature is the enhanced Rapid Restore feature, which allows an X40 user to restore his notebook to its default state, even when Windows has become so corrupted by viruses or any other culprit that it can no longer open. The tool, which can be activated by pressing the Access IBM button, will restore the entire hard disk using the image stored in a hidden partition. Of course, backing up your documents and data is still as important as before.

Other features include the IBM Embedded Security Subsystem and other tools that will help the IT division of any organization with a fleet of X40s. By the way, thanks to the use of the low- voltage Pentium M processor, the standard 4-cell battery will last more than 3 hours and the optional 8-cell battery, while it may protrude a little at the rear of the notebook, will provide up to 7.5 hours of power.

Soeparwan Soelaeman, Country Manager for Personal Computing at IBM Indonesia, told me that ThinkPad X31 -- the predecessor of the X40 -- was a popular choice among women corporate road warriors. The new X40 will be even more attractive to this group of users, as it weighs only 1.25 kg.