Handtops, UMPC - Design Your Own

Watching the ongoing discussion over form factor and specifications, it is obvious that no one company is ever going to get it even close to right in the handtop arena to satisfy everyone's needs, never mind likes. Perhaps the entire approach needs to be looked at?

Maybe the time has arrived where the handtop market has reached the point that it would be possible for the user to design their own “mix and match” handtop, and order it from a producer?

The modular design concept has been discussed before on this forum, including by people like MeanSquare, who have correctly identified its current weak point as the additional size of these units.

But what is that was not necessarily so? What is, using technology similar to that employed in desktops for years, it was possible for one to actually design and order ones own handtop, with specifications to ones own liking, and have it made for one from modular components? I believe technology has come far enough for this to be possible!

Handtop components are actually the same or similar components used in the almost infinity modular desktop units we all know so well. The difference is that desktop component boards are large, with lots of space around them etc. This need not be so.

It would be possible to design a component core, comprising of the CPU, RAM, Chipset, WiFi, Bluetooth and connections to other components and make it just as small as in the OQO Model 2, for example. Connectors and the like would be of the same type currently used in Handtops, as would all be the space saving technologies, but conceptually it would be like the Motherboard in a Desk Top Computer.

By using a heat-pipe type technology, it would be possible to extract the heat from the CPU to a cooling unit, the size of which would depend on the CPU. If the Intel line of Core processors was the basis of the unit, one could have everything from a 1 GHz Core Solo processor to a 2 GHz Core Duo processor. Variable voltage and wattage would be supplied by a separate PSU, the output of which would be dictated by the power requirements of the components.

RAM in a single solder on module could range from 256 MB to 2 GB.

With this core of components, one could then design three or four basic sizes of enclosure, say a small one to fit a 4.5” screen, slightly larger one for a 5” screen, a larger one for a 5.6” screen, and the largest for a 6.5” screen or even a 7” screen.

The depth of these enclosures would be determined by battery capacity, drive size etc. One could have a modular area on one side of the core components that would permit additional batteries, SIM cards, memory cards, additional ports and so on.

By having the keyboard connector modular, attached by a ribbon USB connector, one could offer a variety of keyboard designs for each enclosure size, to fit all requirements, or no keyboard at all, making the unit a tablet. The back of the enclosure would also be modular, to permit different screen designs such as clamshell, slider, flip and fold etc. Screens could be plain, passive or active touch screens as was the requirement of the user.

The advantage of all of the above is, once the core was designed, other manufacturers could create new enclosures, screen modules, keyboards and so on, to be purchased and used with the core.

Since the unit would still be manufactured for one, none of the space losses accompanying plug in components would be incurred, but the unit would still be almost completely variable in specification.

If one had an enclosure with keyboard and screen one really liked, and technology advanced, one could have the core replaced with a newer one. If one saw a better keyboard design for ones enclosure, or a new screen one liked more, the unit could be upgraded.

The technology for such a device exists, I am surprised that it has not already been created. It is however a possible future for Handtops where everyone gets what they want. Here is to hoping that someone somewhere picks up on the idea and runs with it.