No Chalk For This Tablet

January 1, 2001

By Joshua Dean

one are the days of the one-room schoolhouse where students took notes on their own chalk tablets. But, because successful ideas are commonly appropriated, modified and repackaged as new, the computer industry is gearing up for an electronic reincarnation of that old chalkboard. At Comdex, the glitzy, personal technology trade show held every year in Las Vegas, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates offered his vision of this new product, hoping that electronic tablets, like personal computers, will become ubiquitous. "There's a radical step that can be taken, we believe, when you get to a form factor that's truly tablet-sized, and has the ergonomics of a tablet-something that you would take with you into a meeting," Gates said. What is a tablet computer? Just strip off a laptop's keyboard, add a touch-sensitive screen and an electronic pen, and there you have it.

That, of course, is a simplified description. Computer manufacturers have been trying for years to create a successful tablet. But the "form factor" introduces a wide variety of technical problems. A tablet requires a powerful but miniature processor that doesn't use much power and that stays cool. A tablet must retain a charge for a long time to be useful. Then there is the issue of the screen. Not only is the screen a display, it is the tablet's interface with the user, the place where the user writes-by hand. And to take that to the next level, accurate handwriting recognition-changing handwritten text into a computer typeface-is desirable. Voice recognition would be another plus.

Microsoft's tablet is slated to appear in 2002. A prototype had a 10-gigabyte hard drive and a touch screen. Microsoft expects future units to come with 128 megabytes of memory, wireless networking and a 500 or 600-megahertz processor. The tablet will feature a full-size screen and, according to Microsoft, weigh less than a laptop. The unit will rest on a cradle where a keyboard and mouse can be hooked up.

Microsoft wasn't the first to develop a tablet. Fujitsu Ltd. has offered fully functional pen tablets for years. A new player, Aqcess Technologies Inc., has been hawking its Qbe Tablets. Sony recently debuted a mobile tablet computer and television, the Airboard, in Japan. It may be introduced in this country soon. But neither company has found mainstream acceptance, something Microsoft and its band of partners have accomplished in spades.

HARDWARE

Laptops and Leather

Laptop computers and leather portfolios await lucky federal employees who fill out customer service surveys from the General Services Administration. This month the General Accounting Office gave GSA's Public Buildings Service the green light to award prizes to employees randomly chosen in drawings to increase responses to customer satisfaction surveys.

The agency, which maintains 40 percent of federal office space, distributes satisfaction surveys to agency employees working in GSA-managed buildings. In January 2000, the Public Buildings Service launched a pilot program to see how awarding prizes affected the survey response rate. The rate rose from 32 percent to 51 percent during the pilot program. In October, GSA sought GAO's opinion on whether the Public Buildings Service could use appropriated funds to pay for the prizes. GAO approved, finding that customer satisfaction information helps GSA carry out its mission and no one is required to fill out a survey.

The cost of the prizes-estimated at $35,000-will come out of GSA's Federal Buildings Fund. Prizes include 11 laptop computers and 150 leather portfolio cases filled with work-related items.

Pentium 4s Ever Faster

Intel Corp. debuted its newest line of Pentium computer processors, the Pentium 4, in November. Major computer manufacturers, including Gateway Computer Inc. and IBM Corp., immediately announced systems that would use the new chip.

The Pentium 4 will offer speeds of 1.4 and 1.5 gigahertz, or 1400 and 1500 megahertz.

Last March, Intel revved its processors to the 1-gigahertz milestone. Computer chips undoubtedly will continue to get faster, according to a theory that has become computer "law." In 1965, Intel's Gordon Moore posited that every year the number of transistors that processor manufacturers can fit on a chip would double.

Gateway announced new desktop models based on the Pentium 4: the Professional S series and the E-4600. And for those with applications that need even more power, IBM announced workstation units designed for high-performance jobs such as computer-aided design. The IntelliStation M Pro 6849 can be configured with multiple 2D and 3D graphics card options. The M Pro 6849 will appear in 1.4, 1.5 and even 1.6-gigahertz Pentium 4 flavors.

-Kellie Lunney contributed to this report.

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