What's new out there in the computer world?
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): At the IBM International Conference on Banking, Finance, Securities, and Insurance in Shanghai, China, two weeks ago, I was genuinely surprised to learn how deeply Big Blue has been involved in providing the technologies used by the banking sector. There was a slew of interesting IT products at the exhibition. Among them was a newly-announced deterministic simulation method called "Blaster", said to be much, much speedier than the conventional method, called Monte Carlo simulation. The latter is the technique that has up until now been used to calculate the theoretical prices of mortgage-backed securities and complex derivatives.
Honestly speaking, these few terms were as foreign to me as the various species of deep-sea fish. In more familiar territory, however, there were printers for passbooks, a touch panel for self-service terminals, ATMs and cash dispensers, information kiosks and more.
Also on show was the new motherboard from Intel, which may set the standard for the future, particularly now that Intel P6 chips are getting ready for shipment.
By the way, please note that name "PCMCIA" has now been formally changed to "PC Cards". Can you believe how fast thing change in this business?
Handheld PCs
Although it is not exactly a breakthrough, IBM's upcoming handheld PC will definitely wow those who get to see it. At the conference I had the chance to look at a prototype of this portable device. The size of a VHS cassette, it is powered by an Intel DX4 75 MHz processor and has a touch-sensitive, dual-scan color LCD panel that is 4.7" diagonally. Running OS/2 Warp, it also has a 260 MB hard disk, 12 MB RAM, a Type 3 PCMCIA slot, full multimedia capability and a built-in fax/modem. The task of handwriting recognition is done by IBM ThinkWrite. The microphone and the speaker are placed at opposite ends so you could even use it as a telephone handset! It might be a little bulky for long conversations, though.
Meant for use by women, specifically insurance agents, the handheld PC will be very light; it will weigh about 600 grams. Using Video for Windows, it will be able to run video clips so that agents can play them in their clients' offices. It will use a Lithium Ion battery, which looks similar to what you have in a Sony HandyCam.
A virtual keyboard can be displayed on the screen, enabling the user to type by pressing the "keys" with a pencil or a pen. That is not, of course, the fastest way to type in a body of text, but the keyboard displayed on a touch screen is definitely among the "enabling" technologies. Just think of the disabled who don't have the use of their hands!
As you would have guessed, the handheld PC will have a docking station with port replicator, so you can attach more peripherals, including an external monitor. It's interesting to see how such a drove of features in a DX4 75 MHz-based PC can be packed into such a small package.
No more radiation
A lot of us who sit in front of our computers for extended periods of time are worried about the potential harm stemming from the radiation and electromagnetic fields that a cathode ray tube (CRT) emanates. Keep in mind that the voltage level of the electrical current inside it can reach over 18,000 V. New technologies have improved the efficiency of our CRTs tremendously. They now consume much less power, are better shielded to reduce radiation; their displays are sharper and their colors are more vibrant than ever. But the concern is still there.
What alternative do we have? Certainly the LCD panels found in notebooks are getting much better nowadays that they may someday replace the more power-hungry CRTs on our desktop. In the past I highlighted a desktop color LCD from Sharp. There's currently another one from Sceptre Technologies on the market. But during the Shanghai conference I saw the LCD display from IBM, which actually has been around for more than a year.
The IBM LCD display has a 10.4" TFT screen with tilt and height-adjustable stand. You can see it in the accompanying picture. I liked it very much, not only because of its futuristic shape and small footprint, but because it is very easy on my eyes. For people like me who have to be very close to the screen to see the display, this LCD is highly appreciated.
The only thing that turned me off was its price. This 10.4" LCD color display, I was told, cost about US$3,000. At present, that's a lot more than we normally pay for a high-end 20" CRT. Also, it is capable of VGA resolution only, while the state of the art is SuperVGA. However, as is usually the trend, we can hope for the price to drop as more players enter the arena.
Even while the price of an LCD display is higher than a CRT of comparable size and features, it will always make sense to opt for it because it consumes much less power and creates less heat. And it doesn't give off the dreaded radiation.
PowerPC ThinkPads
IBM's new ThinkPad Power Series 820 and 850 look a lot bulkier than the mainstream notebooks. Weighing 7.3 pounds, they're heavier, too. But they come -- standard -- with a pair of speakers, a CD-ROM drive that can be swapped with a floppy diskette drive and an optional video camera for Power Series 850. I believe it's the camera that makes the difference, at least for now, as it is one of the first video conferencing-capable notebooks around.
Using a fax/modem PC Card, a ThinkPad Power Series 850 user can talk to another user across town or across the globe and see each other's face. Currently, the video conferencing software, Personal Conferencing, is available only for the AIX operating system. Later on it will also be available for Windows NT and OS/2 (PowerPC editions). The quality of the video, naturally, depends on the telephone line through which the signals travel. On an ISDN network, we can expect close-to-live video conferencing session to be possible. The quality of the video and sound at the conference was not up to snuff, as the local telephone lines used were inferior.
The brain of both PowerPC notebooks is the 100 MHz PowerPC 603e chip. They both have a 32 KB L1 cache and a 256 L2 cache, a PCI local bus graphics subsystem and a 10.4 SVGA or VGA TFT color display. Whether these two will be the first of the next generation notebooks for mainstream users remains to be seen, though.
New Direction
Some time ago the industry was swept by as a result of rumors that Intel would start shipping complete systems that would be called "Intel Inside and Outside". Fortunately, that has not happened. What has happened is that Intel has manufactured high- performance motherboards that a lot of OEM makers and end-users have been using. Given Intel's leadership in CPU technology, it's no surprise that the company also shows a lot of prowess in designing the right board for its CPUs.
The next generation of Intel motherboard, the ATX, is smaller in its dimensions than the Baby AT ones we've become so accustomed to. The placement of the components, such as the CPU, has been redesigned so that everything will run cooler. Accessing vital components will be easier than ever. The new design also reduces power consumption. It is expected that the new motherboard specifications will be adopted industry-wide. The best news is that motherboards using the ATX design reportedly cost less to make. That's a saving that should be passed on to us, right folks?