rs in certain segments, especially in price/performance and the ability to add some desktop features onto their portables. For example, Taiwanese companies were the first to offer Pentium-based notebooks and built-in CD-ROM drives.
Indeed, Taiwan provides a glimpse of what's ahead. By the end of this year or sooner, for example, local vendors will bring mobile office computing to new heights. Many will ship notebooks with 12.1-inch, active-matrix color displays and low-power versions of Intel's 150-MHz Pentium chip. Some local companies are even optimizing their notebook PCs to run 166- and 200-MHz Pentium chips this year and, by late next year, the Pentium Pro. We may even see more advanced features in notebooks, such as eight-speed CD-ROM drives, 64-bit PCI VGA chips
, 3-D sound, the universal serial bus (USB), and perhaps built-in digital cameras and high-speed modems (based on Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data, or DSVD, technology) for videoconferencing and telephony applications.
In fact, some vendors claim their notebooks -- complete with some or all of the latest videoconferencing, telephony, and multimedia features -- this year will sell for a mere $3000 to $4000, depending upon who you talk to in Taiwan. Don't expect a full-blown videoconferencing notebook for this price range too soon, however: It's expensive; there are bandwidth problems; it's a power drain on the CPU and battery; and it's barely acceptable on a more powerful desktop PC.
Aside from the cost factors and technical issues, the ability to deliver these systems largely depends upon whether or not the key components and communication technologies are available at reasonable prices. That's not stopping Taiwan, however. "Initially, videoconferencing on a notebook will be a niche market," ad
mits Dennis Wu, deputy manager of marketing for Chaplet, "but the notebook will eventually become important for video capture on the Internet."
In fact, local companies already are implementing various methodologies to break the notebook videoconferencing barrier. On the hardware side, one method is Zoomed Video, or ZV Port, a new PC Card standard. Toshiba, Sony, and some U.S. chip companies announced it late last year; Toshiba already uses ZV Port on its high-end notebook line.
The ZV Port is a slight modification of a PC Card in a Type II notebook slot. A standard PC Card is a 68-pin device. In the ZV Port, some 23 of the 68 pins on a PC Card are modified for ZV Port utilization. ZV Port also combines a modified VGA controller, PC Card chip, and connector in a Type II slot, ostensibly to deliver the holy grail in notebook videoconferencing: real-time, full-motion video data transmission at up to 27 MBps, or 24-bit color at 640 by 480 resolution at 30 frames per second. It's also designed for vid
eo playback of MPEG-1 full-motion video, video capture, and TV tuner support. In theory, the ZV Port transfers video and audio signals to a specialized ZV Port-based PC Card in a Type II slot from a video camera, charge-coupled device (CCD), or similar input source attached to a notebook computer. The video signals, in turn, are sent directly to the graphics memory, bypassing the PCI bus, which is a bottleneck for notebook-based videoconferencing.
Alternative Routes
It is generally agreed that the PCI bus may not be able to sustain full-motion video at 30 frames per second. The PCI bus has a maximum bandwidth of 133 MBps. But actual bandwidth is 100 MBps. Even Intel's new notebook chip sets have bandwidths of about 100 MBps, allowing full-motion video of perhaps 20 or less frames per second on a notebook, according to Intel sources. "Full-motion video puts a strain on the CPU and PCI bus," says Wu Teng-Guo, regional marketing manager for Toshiba's Asia-Pacific notebook PC operations
, based in Singapore. To run video on a notebook, the system requires at least a 90-MHz Pentium CPU. Faster Pentium chips like the 120-MHz version will help matters.
PCs can support standard broadcast video. Broadcast video has data transfer rates of 6 to 7 MBps. The load on a PCI local bus? No problem. PCI handles throughputs of 80 to 90 MBps. Data transfer to the hard drive? No problem today. The SCSI-II and Enhanced IDE (EIDE) interfaces support data throughputs of up to 8 MBps and 11 MBps, respectively. Videoconferencing? Current models are plagued with poor audio/video synchronization, skipping, and time delays. Notebook PCs render full-motion video at only 10 to 15 frames per second, with 256,000 or less colors, says one analyst. There are other reasons for this lackluster performance, including MPEG.
MPEG-1 video may require bandwidth of under 4000 Kbps. But this may not be possible over normal phone lines, which can handle only 100 Kbps of data. So you may have to resort to other broadcast
methods, including ISDN, T1, or ATM.
Perhaps the biggest problem in this arena is the lack of worldwide videoconferencing standards, says Robert Wakefield-Carl, European sales director for Ulead, a Taiwan-based supplier of video compression/decompression software. Essentially, the ZV Port eliminates the need for sending large amounts of video and audio through the CPU and PCI bus.
What About the Camera?
When it comes to implementing notebook videoconferencing, there are several schools of thought in Taiwan. One local vendor envisions a notebook with a built-in CCD camera. In fact, IBM once demonstrated such a notebook based on the Power PC chip, but the company never took it to market. And some notebook designers disagree with this implementation.
"We believe the camera will be an accessory on top of the LCD panel," says Steve Gau, regional sales manager for Dual Technology. Indeed, some vendors will use components that are similar to Sony's recently introduced line of v
ideo capture and processing products, including a small CCD camera unit, Zoomed Video PC Card, connector cable, and software. Sony's SSMC-101A digital camera, a CCD with 640 by 480 resolution, is attached to the top of a notebook PC. The digital camera sells for around $1000.
In theory, the camera is connected via cable to an MPEG-1 video capture PC Card, which consists of an MPEG-1 decoder, video decoder, audio decoder, and memory. The PC Card, of course, conforms to the ZV Port standard. Then, a ZV Port or a so-called V-Port transfers signals directly from the PC Card to modified VGA and PC Card controllers. These signals, in turn, are sent directly to the LCD, CRT, TV, or other output device. On the chip side, at least, ZV Port is viable. Cirrus Logic, Chips & Technologies, and others have introduced 32- and 64-bit VGA controllers for use in ZV Port applications. Cirrus's GD7548 and GD7555 line of 32- and 64-bit VGA chips have dedicated pins for ZV Port applications, according to a spokesman for the
company.
Still, there are certain limitations to the ZV Port, says Chaplet's Wu. "It will still be difficult to support full-motion video on a notebook," Wu says. "If you use current 12.1-inch, 12-bit TFT panels, you can demonstrate full-motion video -- but not full color. Some 18-bit TFT panels are more promising for full-motion video, but they are very expensive."
Perhaps the biggest hurdle in videoconferencing is bandwidth. Generating full-motion video at 30 frames per second is a problem in a notebook, but downloading full-motion video clips over the Internet is going to be a nightmare. Like U.S. and Japanese companies, Taiwan-based outfits are looking at a number of technologies, including a built-in, DSVD-based modem. DSVD is a modem technology designed to run voice and data over a single telephone line. It is a protocol thzat vendors add to a V.34 modem.
Speed Problems
To drive these high-end notebooks, Taiwanese companies are expected to be among the first to ship
systems built around a low-power version of the 150-, 166-, and 200-MHz Pentium -- as well as perhaps the Pentium Pro. This, of course, depends upon Intel's ability to deliver such CPUs. Some companies will use Intel's new Mobile Triton II chip set, a low-power, two-chip solution optimized for its Mobile Pentiums. Other manufacturers are evaluating a chip set from Taiwan's Silicon Integrated Systems (SIS).
SIS is shipping a Pentium-level, notebook PC-based chip set built around the emerging unified memory architecture (UMA) standard. The SiS 5110 chip set shares and accesses the main memory in a system, eliminating the need for dedicated graphics frame buffers. This cuts system cost by up to $50, says Chin-Yu Chen, product marketing engineer for SIS. "The system will slow down a little bit with the UMA implementation, but there is only a 5 percent to 8 percent degradation in system performance," he adds. Still, faster processors present problems of heat dissipation and battery life. Intel has solved som
e of these problems. Its voltage reduction technology (VRT) allows the Mobile Pentium to run at 2.9 V internally and 3.3 V externally. Heat dissipation is rated at less than 6.5 W, with an average dissipation of 4.5 W, according to Jerry Kao, technical marketing manager of the Mobile Computer division of Intel's Taiwan subsidiary.
Reports have surfaced that Intel is changing its VRT specification. For example, the 150-MHz Pentium will run at 3.1 V internally and 3.3 V externally. Like the latest Pentium, though, the 150-MHz chip will be manufactured in a 0.35-micron process and offered in a 320-pin tape carrier package and a 296-pin grid array. VRT changes do not present headaches for designers, who will simply adjust dip switches on the motherboard to regulate the voltages. But heat dissipation remains a major issue in next-generation CPU design. "The current generation of notebooks uses a heat pipe to transfer the heat from the CPU to a metal plate, but the next generation notebooks may not be able to
use these techniques,'' says Intel's Kao. Mitac will be one of the first notebook vendors to have a system based on the 150-MHz Pentium. "Our 150-MHz Pentium notebook will not require a fan,'' says Patrick Wang, a product specialist at Mitac. "We will use a heat pipe, but we will still reserve the space for a cooling fan."
Mitac's 5026 Notebook Series is also optimized to run the 166- and 200-MHz Pentiums. Like most new notebooks in Taiwan, the 5026 supports fast-page mode memory, EDO DRAM, L2 cache, 16-bit sound, and so-called Plug and Play features. Mitac and other local concerns also will support USB, a new feature in notebook designs. With a transfer rate of 12 Mbps, USB runs at about the speed range of LANs and is fast enough to transfer data such as compressed full-motion video. USB also simplifies the task of linking the PC to traditional peripherals -- such as keyboard and mouse -- by providing a single cable and connector scheme for all types of equipment. Mitac's 5026 also will make use of 1
2.1-inch thin-film transistors (TFTs). Other local notebook PC vendors, including Acer, are bypassing the 12.1-inch screens in favor of the less costly 11.8-inch TFT display. "From a cost point of view, the 11.8-inch screens make more sense right now," says Haydn Hsieh, vice president and general manager for Acer's Mobile Systems Business Division.
Acer's new notebook PC, the AcerNote 970, will run at speeds up to those of a 133-MHz Pentium. It includes several multimedia features, including 16-bit sound, MPEG-1 chip, and a built-in four-speed CD-ROM drive.
Most Taiwanese companies will not support just one display type, however. Many designers will take a modular approach. FIC's new Leo Designote will support 10.3-, 11.3-, and 12-inch TFTs as well as 10.4- and 11.3-inch dual-scan screens, according to Horace Tsiang, CEO of FIC. "Our products are based on modularity -- like Lego," he says. "With our current product, we can easily upgrade the hard disk, LCDs, CPUs, and CD-ROMs."
A big hurdle
for most Taiwanese companies is getting access to critical components, such as LCDs, microprocessors, and especially today's hard-to-get item, lithium-ion batteries. "Lithium ion is still shipping in small quantities," the FIC executive says. "I think the supply situation will change by the end of this calendar year for the better. But some people overlook that the new generation nickel-metal hydride batteries also deliver considerable improvements in battery life."
Several companies here plan to develop large TFT screens, but they are not expected to go into production until next year or later -- if at all. Prices for TFTs are falling fast, which could close the window of opportunity for local companies.
Taiwan has, in fact, developed respectable IC and component industries, but it has yet to move into the more critical areas, buying more than 80 percent of its components from foreign sources. For example, United Microelectronics Corp. became the first (and only) Taiwan company to develop and shi
p its own x86 microprocessor back in 1994, but the company exited that market in 1995 after some legal problems with Intel.
Taiwan faces other problems, including soaring labor costs. But Taiwan's small to midsize companies are ambitious and flexible, a combination of traits that turned the island from a maker of simple toys and games in the 1970s into a high-tech powerhouse of the 1990s.
Where to Find
Acer
Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-545-5288
Fax: +886-2-545-5308
Asustek
Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-894-3447
Fax: +886-2-894-3449
Chaplet
Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-298-8989
Fax: +886-2-298-8866
Chicony
Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-298-8120
Fax: +886-2-298-8442
Clevo
Taipei Hsien, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-299-1368
Fax: +886-2-299-5696
Dual Technology
Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-788-3919, 886-2- 783-4618
Fax: +886-2-783-0023, 886-2-783-4856
Elitegroup
Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-896-5859
Fax: +886-2-895-3991
First International Computer
Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-717-4500
Fax: +886-2-712-0231
Kapok
Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-298-2651
Fax: +886-2-298-2654
Intel-Taiwan
Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-514-4205
Fax: +886-2-719-6387
Market Intelligence Center
Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-735-6070
Fax: +886-2-732-1353
Mitac
Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-501-2650
Fax: +886-2-509-0979
Silicon Integrated Systems
Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-916-1619
Fax: +886-916-1618
Twinhead
Taipei Hsien, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-917-9036
Fax: +886-2-917-2675
Veridata
Taip
ei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Phone: +886-2-791-5490
Fax: +886-2-791-7390
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Mark LaPedus is a BYTE contributing editor based in Taipei. You can reach him via MCI mail at: 591-6955.
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