Posted: 11:45 p.m. EST, 3/20/98

SANTA, CLARA, Calif. — A handful of system and component companies are quietly discussing plans to form a so-called Mobile Advisory Council (MAC), a united voice on mobile-design issues that some believe are not well enough understood by Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. The initiative comes as designers face a potential clash between Intel's plans to drive notebooks down to its low-cost "segment zero" market and Microsoft's effort to spawn powerful "mini-notebooks" with a new version of its Windows CE.

Microsoft, Intel and at least some of their OEMs claim the segment-zero computers and CE mini-notebooks will not overlap. And the initial drivers of MAC are power-management concerns and broader issues with road maps developed by Microsoft and Intel, rather than anything related to this year's push for low-cost notebooks. Still, the two trends portend turbulence ahead in the mainstream of mobile computing.

A one-page legal agreement to become a member of MAC went out to about 18 companies in late February from organizers at 3Com Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. Organizers hope the group can influence decisions on power management and other mobile issues addressed in documents such as the PC '9X design guides developed by Intel and Microsoft.

Indeed, backers hope to iron out legal details in the MAC membership agreement in time to have a say in the PC '99 guidelines, now in an advanced-draft stage. But their main goal is to have a significant impact on the PC 2000 design guide that Microsoft has signaled will be a watershed document defining an architecture that sheds legacy technologies such as the ISA bu s and full DOS compatibility.

"I think we have a good core of companies who are excited about this group and see the need for it," said Rebecca Krull, new-business manager at 3Com here and a MAC organizer. "In PC '97 there wasn't even a chapter on mobile systems. The authors of these guidelines, by their own admission, don't understand mobile issues."

"I think [organizing a MAC] is absolutely the right thing to do," said a notebook R&D manager contacted by the group. But a senior notebook engineer contacted by MAC said Microsoft already consults with system and component companies as part of drafting PC '9X, a process the MAC might only complicate.

"Do we rebel or do we work within the system?" the engineer asked. "In my opinion, if something needs to be fixed, we need to work with the system."

While the MAC debate percolates, engineers are planning potentially competing low-cost notebooks based on new ingredients from Intel and Microsoft. Intel is driving notebooks toward sub- $1,000 prices with plans for integrated silicon and host-based audio and modem software from third parties that should be available next year. Meanwhile, Microsoft is set to launch

CE 3.0 — code-named Jupiter — which for the first time supports full 640 x 480 VGA color displays in systems that could sell for less than $1,000. The company has also loosened the reins on previously tightly defined hardware guidelines for CE devices, opening the door to a variety of form factors including notebook lookalikes.

A handful of companies are already releasing a class of handheld systems in Japan with relatively large keyboards and color displays based on a new local-language version of Windows CE.

At least one senior technologist at a PC company sees a broad clash on the horizon between high-performance CE and low-cost Windows systems. "We will see a collision on the desktop as well as the notebook and over time CE will win," said the R&D m anager, who asked not to be named.

Bob Burnett, vice president of mobile systems at Gateway 2000 (North Sioux City, S.D.), disagrees. For the next year, he said, there will be no direct price overlap between CE systems that hover around $800 and segment-zero notebooks at about $1,400. "Intel defines the segment-zero notebook as sub-$1,500," Burnett said. "I personally am not an optimist on CE in the short term."

For its part, Acer Inc. is said to be pushing Intel to deliver its new notebook components in time to launch a $999 segment-zero notebook late this year. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Corp. has said it will show as early as June a CE 3.0 small notebook using the same casing as its existing Amity CN Windows 95 mini-notebook and priced at under $1,000.

The CE mini-notebook, made under contract for a large Mitsubishi OEM, will be powered by a Motorola PowerPC processor for which a CE port will ship in June. The port is just part of a broader push Motorola hopes to make into mobile designs based on CE. It could also include silicon to embed paging and wireless LAN functions in handhelds.

IBM's ThinkPad unit will also use the CE 3.0 software in its first CE-based system, which could ship late this year. NEC's computer-systems division is expected to privately show a CE 3.0 machine at PC/Expo in June using the company's MIPS-based processor. A source at NEC said many Taiwanese notebook makers have CE mini-notebooks ready to ship, though most are reusing designs from earlier failed subnotebooks rather than rethinking the product from the ground up.

Philips Semiconductors expects to launch a new spin of its two-chip PIC, MIPS-based chip set for CE 3.0 in early April. The chip set cranks the processor clock from 75 to about 120 MHz, offers Universal Serial Bus mastering and opens a door to third-party graphics chips from at least two suppliers waiting in the wings. One, S-MOS Systems (San Jose, Calif.), plans to roll out its SED 1355 graphics controller this week. The chip handles 8 00- x 600-pixel color resolutions, has an embedded RAMDAC and supports a number of microprocessors and LCD types.

Display differences
"OEMs are trying to differentiate their [CE 3.0] systems with the kind of display they choose," said Jeff DeAngelis, marketing director in Philips's handheld computing group (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

While these companies push CE devices into new form factors and new levels of performance, Intel is driving Windows-based notebooks down in price and size in an effort to rev up what it sees as a large but stagnant market.

Intel plans special silicon for low-cost notebooks that it will roll out next year. According to some reports, that includes an integrated chip set supporting audio and graphics.

Stephen Nachtsheim, general manager of Intel's Mobile/Handheld Products Group, would not comment except to say Intel is working with partners to develop audio and modem software to run on its Pentium II, reducing the need for sound and modem controll ers and codecs in basic notebook PCs. The software will become available from third parties next year, he said.

Others estimated that by eliminating features such as SoundBlaster support under DOS, expansion capabilities and other functions, notebooks using other Intel CPUs could be configured to sell for abut $1,200 next year, though not without making some difficult design trade-offs.

"It's going to take a lot of effort to come up with a standard for segment-zero notebooks," said Vaughn Watts, director of architecture at Dell Computer Corp. (Austin, Texas). "The real question is what basic features can I defer or change."

One wild card in this conflict is the StrongArm processor, which Intel will acquire under a deal with Digital Equipment Corp . that has yet to pass Federal Trade Commission scrutiny. If the deal goes through, Intel could become the purveyor of one of the leading CE processors in terms of performance/watt, bringing the low-cost notebook dilemma directly to Intel's doorstep.

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