4 Easy Steps to Computex 2010

Posted 06/04/2010 at 3:25pm | by Amber Bouman

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Computex is one of the biggest computer exhibitions in the world. Every year thousands of journalists,analysts, manufacturers, geeks, innovators and booth babes converge to view, demonstrate and hype the latest and greatest tech items. From laptops to cameras, heat sink fans and dual-core processors, Computex is where company's reveal up-and-coming products, display futuristic concept technologies and wow crowds with their demos. While Computex wraps up, we've chosen four major highlights of the show. Here's what you need to know:

1.    Tablets.  We’re pretty sure that anyone who didn’t have a tablet wasn’t allowed in the door at Computex 2010 – tablets were a pervasive theme. Asus gained attention by combining two buzz words – tablet and Android - officially releasing two versions of its Eee Android-based tablet PC, the EP121 running Windows 7 Home Premium and an Intel Core 2 Duo and the EP101TC with Windows Embedded Compact 7 and Nvidia Tegra 2 both of which we’ll see sometime around 2011.  Intel, meanwhile, pimped its Atom franchise (and its Moorestown chips) with the MeeGo tablet. Running Atom, using a 1.5GHz Moorestown CPU and featuring a 10-inch screen and touch and swipe interface, Intel is openly looking for its customers. MSI’s Wind Pad tablets will run either Windows 7 (Wind Pad 100, $500) or Android (Wind Pad 110, $400), and MSI expects to start shipping the 100 model by the end of the year, which could make it one of the first iPad competitors to market. LG’s prototype UX10 tablet features a 10.1 inch LED display, Windows 7 Home Premium, 1.66Hz Intel Atom Z530 with 1GB DDR2 Ram, 1.3 megapixel webcam, micro-HDMI port, SD card slot and 7200mAh battery. Huawei rolled out the S7 again with a 7”screen, 3G, and Android 2.1 running alongside a full Google application suite. Also feasting at the tablet table was Anadem with the P101 tablet – 10-inch screen, Intel Atom N450 processor, Windows 7, easy Wi-Fi off/on switch, HDMI, USB ports, SD Card and function keys along the side that can be dedicated to frequent tasks.

2.    3D – Forget the fact that we live our actual lives in 3D- we want our technology and our entertainment to be multi-dimensional as well. If Computex is any indicator, manufacturers are responding en mass – Aiptek revealed its budget 3D mini-camcorder with 5-megapixel CMOS sensors and dual lenses for stereoscopic 3D recording. Capable of recording in 720p HD resolution, users can watch videos on the 2.4inch 3D display or on their computer, using those nifty 3D glasses, and upload video to YouTube in 3D. NVIDIA’s 3D Vision image processing software teamed up with Sony’s NEX-5 and NEX-3’s interchangeable lens cameras. The pairing would give an extra dimension to any 2D image, and Sony has hinted that the NEX camera’s can also produce 3D panoramic images viewable on Sony 3D TVs. Nvidia also launched the 3D-enabled, Fermi-based GeForce GTX 465 with 11 dedicated tessellation engines and support for Blu-Ray 3D, SLI and PhysX.  Cyberlink threw its hat in the 3D ring with the PowerDVD ULTRA 3D, enabling full 1080p high-def stereoscopic video Blu-Ray 3D movie playback on PCs.

3.    eReaders – Maybe Steve Haber at Sony was right about digital reading - this years Computex certainly looked like the ever-more electronic future of reading. Hanwang Technology (aka Hanvon) has teamed up with Marvell (whose Armada chip is featured in the Alex eReader, the Entourage Edge and the OLPC tablet) to create a new line of e-book readers that will include an integrated e-paper display controller and hibernation mode to conserve battery life. PixelQi busied itself by demonstrating the advantages of its new panel system based on the conventional liquid crystal display usually found in monitors and laptops. The big pull here is the outdoor-readable mode that turns the backlight off, which not only reduces power consumption (natch) but also means there will be video playback capabilities; additional prototypes played with capacitive/digitizer layers for touch-screen capabilities.

4.    Dual-Core – The heavy-hitter here is Intel who started to give out details about its Atom processor strategy, as well as the entire Atom franchise. Expected to be ready in time for holiday shipping are several mobile, dual-core Atom chips with Oak Trail, Intel’s system on a chip (SoC) arriving early next year. Oak Trail, a miniaturized Atom, supports 1080p, video playback, HDMI and full versions of Windows while using approximately 50% less power than previous chips. Keeping in the camping theme, Intel also revealed a thermal technology concept netbook called Canoe Lake that will work with either single or dual-core Atom’s. AMD held steady to second place by demoing their Fusion APU (accelerated processing unit) which features an x86 CPU, DirectX 11 graphics processing unit, video processors, and additional processors all on a single silicon die. Code named Llano and intended for mainstream laptops/desktops, the APU will feature up to four cores. Qualcomm’s MSM8260 and MSM8660 are its latest Snapdragon processors. Each features dual-cores and can run up to 1.2GHz, and also allows the playback of 1080p video and screen resolutions of 12280 X 800 pixels. ARM confirmed that the Eagle was in fact its next generation core for smartphones, mobile computing and DTV markets. VIA was hot on their heels with its latest x86 dual-core, with running speeds of 1.6GHz, high performance and low power consumption. Speaking of dual, both Nvidia and Galaxy Tech had a prototype Dual-GPU GTX 470 videocard with 16 memory chips, two 8-pin PCI-E power connectors, 3 DVI ports and two Nvidia GF-100 GPU’s on a single PCB. Twelve inches long and featuring Fermi architecture, the card would burn power and may not see the light of day.