The DualCor cPc is a difficult device to understand. Part UMPC, part PocketPc. Its not going to be cheap and for the time-being, its only available without bluetooth, Wifi and cellular data access. However, there is no denying that this device is going to be one of the most advanced ultra ‘minature’ PC’s thats ever been launched.
In summary, the DualCor cPc is a dual-processor, dual operating system device with instant switch-over between XP Tablet Edition and Windows Mobile 5 operating systems and a common hard drive area. The idea behind the two systems is that when you only need to do basic activities, you can use Windows Mobile 5. When you need to do more heavyweight stuff, you use Windows XP. Quite how this works in pratice remains to be seen!
Lets try and understand the form factor and the i/o and then the two ‘hearts’ in the device and how these manage to work together in one body.
The data sheet for the cPc is our main source of information here as we’ve never seen the device in real life and immediately, we can’t find the dimensions. Fortunately, Cnet News reported that it is 6.5 inches long, 3.3 inches wide. So its bigger than a PocketPc. Which is good. If it really was the size of a PocketPC, DualCor shouldn’t even start to market it!
Looking at the pictures from the download page and the spec-sheet we see on the facia, what looks like a synaptics style pointer. We’ve personally experienced the Amtek/Eo/Easybook ultra mobile PC and the pointer really makes a difference with mobility. Its intuitive to use and if you’re only watching, listening or browsing, you won’t need to use a finger or pen at all. On the left side of the facia, we see two more buttons. They must be left and right mouse button. Underneath these buttons is a speaker grille.
On the bottom of the device is a USB slave port, a power port, a rocker +/- switch, what looks like a power button and two lamps. On the top you can see the headset /ext speaker port and another similar sized port which must be the ‘phone jack.’ We need more explanation here. The data sheet says “Enables VoIP and Cellular thru CF or USB.” Are they playing with words here? We know the device needs CF or USB adapters for connectivity (more about that later) so it this just a mic-in port? Why? It’s got a headset port already.
On the right hand side you’ll find the two standard USB ports and the mini-vga port for two external monitors. On the left hand side is the compact flash port.
Unfortunately, there’s no tv-out or docking port but the specifications mention an adjustable display angle docking system. This is possibly just a power cradle with usb connector connecting to the ports on the bottom although I guess its possible to have a L-shaped cradle that will connect to the VGA port too. Sounds like an interesting design! If it works then full marks to DualCor. This sort of PC will benefit from a docking station.
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First impression of the form factor then are quite good. Short-duration use of 800 pixels across a 5″ screen should be no problem for most people and its good enough for a decent browsing experience and windows XP in general. Its also enough to watch a film at arms length. Any long-duration document creation will have to be done via an external screen.
We’re also interested to see what resolution Windows Mobile 5 runs in and weather VGA-out worls in WM5 mode. The rumor is that WM5 is running in the full 800×480 screen using special drivers.
On the inside is where it starts go get a bit confusing. It has two CPU’s. A 1.5Ghz VIA C7-M ULV for the full Windows XP experience and an Xscale PXA263 400Mhz embedded RISC processor for the Windows Mobile 5 component. The C7-M processor is partnered we believe with a VIA VX700 combined north/southbridge and has 1GB DDR2 RAM to support it The Xscale CPU has 128Mb RAM and 1GB of flash.
The hard drive is 30Gb which isn’t huge but it’s enough for a full load of personal documentation, some music and a few films. The hard drive has a partition/folder that is available to both processors to allow file movement between the two operating systems.
The screen itself is touch sensitive (passive type) and is said to be a special high brightness module. The battery is a 20W/hr part which under full-steam may only last 60-90 minutes. When combined with Windows Mobile switching though, anything up to 8 hours could be possible according the the data sheet.
And that’s pretty much it for hardware. If you were expecting bluetooth, wifi and cellular capability I’m afraid its not there. The idea is you do all that through compact flash and usb modules.
Trying to find out details about how the device operates with two operating systems is not easy. JKOnTheRun had a good look at the device in Jan and have some good comments on their blog but it looks like we’ll have to wait a few more days before we get the first in-depth looks at the device.
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What do we think of the cPc? Well its an interesting way to approach the problem of battery life but it really doesn’t sit well with us. The Windows Mobile 5 software might come in more useful if DualCor manage to integrate a cellular radio in the future but as it stands, it looks to be unfinished. Without a cellular radio its not going to replace anyones mobile phone and why would anyone want to carry a mobile phone with all their contacts and appointments and then have to juggle around with two more operating systems and a couple of compact flash cards to get some web browsing going?
It also highlights a gap in the OS/CPU market. Windows mobile 5 on RISC processors is not quite enough (although its pretty close – at 800×480 browsing finally becomes easy.) and Windows XP on x86 is too heavyweight and large-screen oriented.
Its the closest anyones ever come to a totally converged mobile phone and PC device and when the cellular capability is finally included, it will sell to a specific business market during the period in the next 18-24 months when x86-only devices and software are still a little too heavyweight. Highly mobile and tech-aware sales people needing to do presentations and work for extended periods in remote locations will probably be the target audience. And maybe a few ultra mobile PC bloggers!
