ELEC 694

1
ELEC 694

• PDAs
• and
• Alternative Computers

Craig Dos Santos Niels Hoven Scott
Cutler cutler_at_rice.edu 9/11/02
2
Todays Agenda

• Course logistics.
• Class size
• Description of projects
• Schedules
• Todays Topic PDAs and Alternative Computers

3
ELEC 694 Enrolment

• Registrar lists 24 people
• Contacted by 25 people
• Last week 26 people
• Need to ensure participation level appropriate
  for a seminar series.
• 10 traditional seminar slots handling 20 people

4
Schedule for Fall 2002 (Preliminary)

• 08/28/02 Introduction and Waves of Computing
  (Cutler)
• 09/04/02 Historical Perspective On PC Technology
  (Cutler)
• 09/11/02 PDAs and Digital Appliances (Dos Santos
  / Hoven)
• 09/18/02 Broadband and Last Mile (Kuzmanovic /
  Gambiroza)
• 09/25/02 Cell Phones 3G (Slockers / Haag)
• 10/02/02 64-bit processors, AthalonXP vs. P4
  (Murphy / Mowry)
• 10/09/02 Video / Audio Standards (Noel / Murillo)
• 10/16/02 No Class - Rice midterm recess Wednesday
  adjustment
• 10/23/02 Streaming Clients and Infrastructure
  (Mercado / Khoa)
• 10/30/02 .Net / XML / UDDI / SOAP (Lu / Liu)
• 11/06/02 Peripheral Interconnects (Bishop /
  Black)
• 11/13/02 Wireless LAN / WAN / PAN (Morcos /
  Rodriguez-Diaz)
• 11/20/02 Game Boxes (Koch / Doughty)
• 11/27/02 Final Projects Group I
• 12/04/02 Final Projects Group II
• 11/20/02 Final Papers due
• 11/24/02 Off-site AOL/Time Warner, Interesting
  Products, Infinity
• Note that a few of the student presentations have
  yet to be scheduled. We will discuss this at the
  next class

5
Suggested Topics

• Technologies
• Memory
• Processors
• Video / Audio Standards MP3, MP4, WMA
• Wireless WAN/LAN/PAN
• Storage
• SOAP, XML, UDDI
• .NET / Internet Applications
• Peripheral interconnects
• Printing and Displays
• Broadband / Last mile
• 64 bit processors

• Products
• PDAs
• Cell Phones
• Game Boxes
• DVR / TiVo
• DAR / MP3 players
• Home Routers / Gateways
• Digital Cameras
• Speakers / Sound Cards
• Video Cards
• Smartcards / Security
• Automotive / OnStar
• GPS / Avionics

6
Student Lead Seminars

• 30 to 45 minutes worth of material that stretches
  to 45 minutes to 1 hour with discussion.
• Will have to cover two topics on a few days due
  to class size. On other days, we can discuss
  some new product trends.

7
Seminar Content

• Less than 1/3rd of time on history
• Less than 1/3rd of time on current situation
• Close to 50 of time on future
• Where likely to go
• Application enabled
• Implication of rapid improvements
• Co dependencies and bottlenecks
• Most often request from last year was to make
  seminars more rigorous

8
Seminar Preparation

• Schedule 3 meetings with students prior to their
  discussion
• Students should start preparation 3 weeks prior
  to their scheduled seminar
• First meeting 2 weeks prior to seminar to discuss
  general outline as well as suggested readings
• Second meeting 1 week prior to seminar to review
  first draft of actual seminar.
• Third meeting 1 or 2 days before seminar to make
  any last minute changes
• Slides e-mailed to me no later than 500pm on the
  Tuesday before Wednesday seminar.
• Meetings can be held Mondays, Tuesdays or
  Wednesdays, however they are individually
  scheduled to minimize extra trips. If necessary,
  the final review can be over the phone.
• For those students giving a seminar near the end,
  we can start this process a few weeks earlier so
  as not to bunch all the work at one time.

9
Project Paper

• We are creating a topic library of relevant
  technologies.
• Students are to prepare white papers of minimum
  of 20 pages in length covering a selected topic.
• Document should be suitable for referencing.
• Can be in Word format or an HTML document
• Topic can be the same as seminar topic
• More than 50 of paper needs to relate to the
  futures of the technology including
• Where likely to go
• Application enabled
• Implication of rapid improvements
• Co dependencies and bottlenecks
• Can be started at any time and are due 11/20/02

10
Final Two Seminars

• Series of short seminars covering a group of
  students vision of the future based on covered
  topics or related topics
• Can not be the same topic covered earlier
• 100 future based
• Should relate convergence of multiple
  technologies and present a holistic, systems
  viewpoint.
• Extreme positions encouraged
• Groups will be of 8 groups of students (approx 3
  students per group) and we will cover 4 per class
• Talks should be approximately 15 minutes in
  length with 5 minutes of discussion

11
Discussion
12
Seminar 4

• Broadband and the Last Mile
• Presented by
• Aleksandar Kuzmanovic
• Violeta Gambiroza
• Logistics
• Wednesday, September 18, 2002
• 1000 1130
• AL 126
• Read
• 1. WSJ Article read
• http//www.owlnet.rice.edu/courtade/elec694/wsj.h
  tml
• 2. Newsweek Article skim
• http//www.owlnet.rice.edu/courtade/elec694/newsw
  eek.html
• 3. Wired -Broadband Cowboy skim
• http//www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.01/hendricks
  .html
• 4. PC Magazine - Dvorak - The Myth of Broadband
  read
• http//www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s253D1500252
  6a253D2162,00.asp
• 5. Got Broadband? You're under attack read 1st
  page, skim rest

13
ELEC 694

• Computing on the go The Future of Personal
  Digital Assistants (PDA).

Niels Hoven nhoven_at_rice.edu Craig Dos Santos
craigmd_at_rice.edu 9/11/02
14
History of PDAs

• In the beginning the Psion 1.8k memory16
  character alpha-numeric display
• Apple NewtonRoughly 4x8x1 (not pocket
  size)PCMCIA slot and serial port

15
Palm Inc.

• Palm introduces the Pilot 1000 in 96128K RAM
  (5000 had 512K), 16Mhz CPU
• Palm III is first of Modern Era in 98
• backlit screen, beaming capibility, Flashable ROM
• Handspring licences Palm OS in 98
• Palm in 1999 expanding
• Around 70 of Market worldwide in handhelds
• Nokia licenses Palm technology

16
Pocket PC

• Debuts April 19th, 2000 on the HP Jornada 54x
  series
• iPaq debuts summer, 2000. Units sell for as
  much as 1000 on Ebay
• HP continues to increase production throughout
  the first year up to 400,000 units a month.
• Microsoft ships 1 million units in the first year

17
PCMags Perfect PDA

• From Dec. 2001
• Uses currenttechnologies
• Answered bynew Toshiba
• Exc. LCD, keyboard,

18
Current PDAs

• Toshiba e740
• 500
• Built in 802.11b
• 64 MB RAM
• 32 MB Flash ROM
• 6.7 ounces
• SDIO and CF slots

19
Current PDAs

• Compaq IPaq
• 650 - 750
• Built in Bluetooth (cell phone enabled)
• 64 MB RAM
• 48 MB Flash ROM
• 400 Mhz
• SD slot

20
Newest Palm

• 300
• 16 MB RAM
• Expansion Slot
• Color screen
• 4.9 Ounces
• (similar model available for same price, with no
  color,but with wireless plan)

21
iPod

• 500
• 10 GB 4200 rpm drive
• 32 MB DRAM
• 32 MB ROM
• 133 MHz
• Monochrome display

22
Springboard Modules

• Raycom Personal Massager
• JetLog 24x7 PowerNapping Module
• Magellan GPS Companion

23
Market Share of handhelds
24
Palm versus Pocket PC

• In the last few years, Pocket PCs have taken
  some of Palms market share.
• Pocket PCs are more expensive but offer greater
  flexibility.
• Underlying question
• Has Microsoft overshot the needs of the average
  consumer?

25
The battle of simple vs. robust

• Palm remains simple in its design
• Pocket PC believes this is a small computer
• Who is right? Will the masses pay extra for the
  functionality of a handheld computer?
• What are the implications of being connected all
  the time?
• Can one company fill both the market for the full
  functioned and the simplistic?

26
Network Externalities

• Added benefit from widespread use
• Autarky value value generated by product
• Synchronization value additional value from
  network
• Indirect vs. Direct networks
• Unauthorized software copying
• Firms producing similar but incompatible products
  leads to a natural monopoly
• Heterogeneous tastes in consumers can lead to
  competing networks coexisting

27
and the effect on the PDA market

• Did Palm already have its shot?
• When will PDAs be incorporated by the mass
  public? (ie as well as cell phones are now)
• Will there be a killer app to help reach this
  point?
• What are the network externalities of this
  market?
• Can multiple firms exist?

28
Cost of Wireless Connectivity

• Palm VII 300
• 20/mo 0.20/Kb over 100Kb, or 40 unlimited 
• Handspring Treo 350-500
• 4000 min, 2MB - 50/mo
• 4000 min, 20MB - 80/mo
• Approx 1.70/MB w/phone plan
• Pocket PC Phone Edition 550
• Approx 4/MB w/phone plan

29
Secure wallet

• Secure purchases
• Functionality in retail stores
• Drivers license
• Passport
• Credit cards
• Insurance information
• Business cards
• Backed up on your home computer

30
Gaming

• Gameboys of the future
• Portable, networked gaming
• Current PDAs 400MHz
• Xbox 700MHz
• Need cheaper modules
• Better gaming input interface
• Appropriate storage media

31
Voice and video

• Memo recorder
• Voice to text notes
• 300 MHz Pentium recommended
• 600 MHz to use effectively
• Real time translations
• Video conferencing
• Subtitles on your video conference

32
XScale vs.Celeron vs. today

• Xscale
• 2nd generation StrongARM
• Intel and Advanced RISC Machines
• 500 mW at 400 MHz
• 7 stage pipeline
• Celeron
• 400 MHz
• 24 W
• Current specs
• Athlon XP 2600 68 W
• Pentium 3 10 stage pipeline
• Pentium 4 20 stage pipeline

33
Intel Propaganda

• What happens if a branch prediction is wrong?
  Absolutely nothing. Remember, most
  microprocessor chips dont have any branch
  prediction at all, so even an incorrect
  prediction is no worse than what most other
  microprocessors do all the time. The Intel PXA250
  applications processor does its best to prevent
  this from happening.

34
The future of the laptop

• PDAs only two years behind laptop
• 400 MHz, 64MB RAM, 10GB hard drive
• 700 price tag
• PDA
• Processor
• RAM
• Nominal storage
• Docking station
• Hard drive
• Monitor interface

35
Necessary Improvements

• Improved input devices
• Handwriting recognition
• Portable keyboards
• Battery capacity
• Fuel cells
• Zinc-air disposable packs
• Price point
• 150 for widespread ownership
• 700 for laptop replacements

36
PDA pricing

• LCD screen
• 32 MD SDRAM
• Processor
• Hard drive or other storage medium

37
Discussion