Portable PCs

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Portable PCs

• Chapter 18
• Mike Fuszner

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Creating a Portable PC the Issues

• Battery power
• With the available battery power in the early
  1980s power was a real issue
• Reliability
• PCs were not designed to be moved around hard
  drives and floppy drives were made for the back
  of a bouncing pickup truck!
• Functionality
• Portable PCs had to be smaller and
  lighter the mouse is a great
  example.

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History

• Osborne One defined a series of technologies that
  helped to define the look and working of the
  first generation of portable computers - the
  suitcase luggable.
• The first generation of luggable PCs were highly
  functional, but were heavy and bulky, and had
  tiny screens.
• Compaq started the clone concept.

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The Early Portables

• Osborne One

• Compaq Portable

Photo courtesy of the Obsolete Computer Museum
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Laptops

• Portable batteries and liquid crystal displays
  (LCD) were two separate technologies that enabled
  a PC to be fully portable.
• The need for continuous voltage led to the
  invention of the Nickel cadmium (Ni-Cd) battery.
• LCD allowed for a lighter and a larger
  display.

Zenith laptops
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Laptop/Notebook

• The Ni-Cd battery and the LCD display, combined
  with a mobile computer, led to a massive
  reduction in size and weight.
• Mobile PCs were called laptops since they could
  be operated on a users lap.
• The term notebook was given to all new laptops
  that had a size in the range of 8 ½ X 11-inch
  (like a notebook in a briefcase).
• The demand today for larger keyboards and screens
  has actually made the portable PC larger without
  adding significant weight.

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Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

• Poqet PC was the first PDA that ran on 8086 and
  supported 640 KB of RAM.
• The goal of the PDA was to weigh as little as
  possible and to fit in your pocket.

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Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

• Many of todays PDA use handwriting recognition
  combined with modified mouse functions.
• PDAs rely on USB or serial connections to
  transfer data between themselves and desktop
  systems.
• PDAs use infrared functions to pass data between
  each other.

3Com Palm Pilot
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Mobile Technologies
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Batteries

• Types of Batteries
• Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd)
• Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH)
• Lithium Ion (Li-Ion)
• Smart batteries
• Battery maintenance

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Nickel-Cadmium Batteries

• Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries were the first
  batteries commonly used in mobile PCs.
• They provided a steady voltage but were subject
  to battery memory problem.
• Battery memory is the tendency of a Ni-Cd battery
  to lose a significant amount of its recharge
  ability if charged repeatedly without being
  totally discharged.
• To avoid this problem, these batteries had to be
  discharged completely before each recharging.

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Nickel-Cadmium

• Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries last at most for
  1,000 charges and are susceptible to heat and
  self-discharge over time, if not used.
• Should be disposed of properly
• Not used in PCs today but often used in cell
  phones and cordless phones

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Nickel Metal Hydride

• Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) batteries were the
  next generation of mobile PC batteries.
• Less susceptible to memory problems and last
  longer between recharges.
• Still susceptible to heat.
• Popular replacement for Ni-CD systems.

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Lithium Ion

• Lithium Ion is the most common type of battery
  used today.
• They are powerful and completely immune to memory
  problems.
• These batteries have a built-in circuitry to
  prevent accidental overcharging.

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Smart Batteries

• Smart batteries provide better maintenance for
  laptop batteries.
• They signal the computer when they need to be
  charged, conditioned, or replaced.

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Battery Maintenance

• Batteries should be stored in a cool place.
• Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries should be conditioned
  by using a charger.
• Battery contacts should be kept clean using a
  little alcohol or dry cloth.
• Used or old batteries should be recycled.

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PC Cards

• PC Cards are commonly known as the Personal
  Computer Memory Card International Association
  (PCMCIA).
• Hot-swappable devices that perform every PC
  function.
• Easy to use, inexpensive, and convenient.

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PC Cards
Most laptops have two type II slots. All PC cards
use a 68-pin interface.
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PC Cards

• Two levels of software drivers
• Socket services
• Device drivers that enable the system to detect
  when a PC Card is inserted or removed, and
  provide necessary I/O to the device
• Standardized and handled by the system
  BIOS
• Card services
• Recognize the function of a
  particular PC Card and provide
  the specialized drivers required
  to make the card work
• Handled by Windows
• Accessed via PCMCIA option in Control Panel

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PC Cards

• CardBus card is a 32-bit PC Card with a special
  slot
• PCI bus mastering
• Can perform up to 8 functions compared with 2
  functions for a regular PC card (such as a modem
  and network card combined)
• Regular PC cards will work in a CardBus slot
• CardBus uses 3.3 volts of power regular PC
  cards use 5 volts
• Type IV slot is used to describe any card thicker
  than a Type III

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USB ports
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USB Limits

• A single USB port can support up to 127 devices.
• Usually most USB sharing is limited to 3 or 4
  devices due to a limited throughput of 12 Mbps
• USB devices run at a low speed of 1.5 Mbps or a
  high-speed of 12 Mbps.
• Maximum cable length of 5 meters only
• Due to electrical interference, its better to
  stay around 2 meters maximum

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USB Configuration

• Steps to be followed when installing USB
• Ensure that the CMOS provides an IRQ for USB
  ports.
• Ensure that the operating system supports USB.
• All versions of Windows from Win95B and newer
  (except for NT) support USB
• Always install device drivers
  before plugging in
  a new USB device.

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The Modular Laptop

• The common components that can be replaced or
  upgraded in a portable PC are
• RAM
• 72-pin or 144-pin SO-DIMMs
• Hard drives
• ATA drives in the 2.5-inch format dominate
  laptops today
• Check for the proper settings (Cable Select,
  Master, Slave) but otherwise the same as regular
  3.5-inch drives
• Modular CPUs
• Just replace with a newer module from Intel or
  AMD
• Video cards
• Least standardized

RAM
CPU
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Power Management

• Power Management must
• Shut down unused devices selectively
• Define a maximum period of inactivity
• Shut down the entire system during longer periods
  of inactivity
• Ready to restart if triggered by a wake-up event
• Sensitive to potential hazards like shutting down
  the hard drive in the middle of a write operation
• Keep the system cost about the same

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System Management ModeSMM

• System Management Mode (SMM) is a set of features
  that enables the CPU to slow down or stop its
  clock without deleting the register information.
• Stops the CPU and all of the peripherals
• Requires a specialized BIOS and OS
• To further power management capabilities, Intel
  introduced Advanced Power Management (APM) in
  1992 and Advanced Configuration and Power
  Interface (ACPI) in 1996

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Requirements for APM/ACPI

• APM and ACPI require the following in order to
  function properly
• An SMM-enabled CPU.
• APM-compliant BIOS.
• Devices that will accept being shut off (Energy
  Star)
• A system OS that knows how to request for the
  shut down of a particular device.

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APM/ACPI Levels

• APM defines the following power-usage operating
  levels for a system
• Full On
• No power management everything running at full
  power
• APM Enabled
• CPU and RAM running at full power
• Unused device may or may not be shut down
• APM Standby
• CPU is stopped
• RAM still stores all the programs
• All peripherals are shut down
• APM Suspend
• Everything is shut down or at its lowest
  power-consumption
• Hibernation (stores everything in RAM on the hard
  drive before powering down)

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APM/ACPI Configuration

• CMOS settings

• Windows
• Overrides CMOS settings
• Display applet in Control Panel
• Settings?Advanced ?Monitor tab
• Power Management applet in Control Panel

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Configuration of APM/ACPI - CMOS
Setting a wake-up event in CMOS
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Configuration of APM/ACPI - CMOS
CMOS with ACPI setup option
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Configuration of APM/ACPI Windows
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Beyond A

• Profiles
• A hardware profile is a list of devices that
  Windows automatically enables or disables in the
  Device Manager, depending on the devices detected
  by the system.
• Windows 9x and 2000 configure these hardware
  profiles in the System Properties Window on the
  Hardware Profiles tab.

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Hardware Profiles
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Docking Stations

• Easily gives laptops access to large monitors,
  regular mice, network connections, full size
  keyboards
• Provides an easy way to take your laptop in and
  out of the office

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