WIFI

There’s more to wireless computing than WiFi

With a GSM PC Card in your notebook you could sit in Hubli and use the GSM or CDMA network to get your mail, says Guhesh Ramanathan

While WiFi has put the spotlight on wireless computing, options like Infrared are already offering travellers the option of getting their e-mail using their cell phones. Cryptography is another area where vendors are adding security to notebooks; and legacy-free notebooks are becoming commonplace. That’s not all, says Prashant L Rao. Read on for more on the wireless world

Over the last six months, the shift toward WiFi has begun. The inflection point was when the Indian government delicensed 802.11b. A further boost came from Intel—the processor giant has integrated wireless onto the chipset with Centrino. The only thing holding WiFi back is the lack of access points. That’s slowly being addressed. The other bugbear is the fact that WiFi is limited to high-end models. While WiFi offers freedom from network connections, some common business chores still need a cable.

No more wires
WiFi isn’t the only option for wireless computing. A fairly common practice used by Indian business travellers is to use a notebook’s Infrared (IR) port to connect to a cellphone and use the phone as a modem to get mail or connect to a corporate VPN. IR is a mature technology in the notebook world and this is often the simplest way to get things done.

A new concept that is popular abroad involves using a GSM PC Card in your notebook to pick up your e-mail. "With this technology you could sit in Hubli and use the GSM or CDMA network to get your mail. This will take at least another year to catch on in India," says Guhesh Ramana-than, director and CEO of Help.com, a Bangalore-based IT support company that specialises in notebook support. The cost isn’t high—GSM-based PCMCIA cards come for Rs 8,000-9,000. These cards come with an antenna, and once you insert your SIM card you can get your e-mail anywhere as long as there’s a GSM network in place.

Centrino—the better option
Centrino is a platform around which notebook vendors can build their machines. There are three components: the Pentium M microprocessor, the 855 Chipset and wireless hardware called Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection. The Centrino platform already supports 802.11b and will support Bluetooth and 802.11a in the future.

The Pentium M is designed to run cooler, resulting in thinner notebooks. Notebook makers are using the space saved to install bigger batteries and offering 10-12 hours of battery backup in the process. Acer’s TM 800 notebook with Centrino offers 5.5 hours backup time with a single battery and 9 hours with two batteries.

"Six months from now, only Centrino-based products will be available from Acer. Soon, even the Tablet PC will be built on the Centrino platform," says Raghu S of Acer India.

Before the Centrino came along, notebook vendors were offering mobile versions of the Pentium 4 and Pentium III from the Intel stable. This time around Intel has reworked its mobile chip design from scratch. Interestingly, with this chip Intel is moving away from clock speed as a measure of processor performance. The Pentium M completes more instructions per clock cycle than its predecessor, the Pentium 4-M and has double the Level 2 cache. It’s also thrifty when it comes to power consumption—1.3 GHz and faster Pentium M chips consume less than 1 watt of power vs. 2 watts for the older Pentium 4-Ms.

Cloak & dagger
As notebooks mostly end up in the hands of the senior management, the data stored on their hard disk needs protection. Acer’s TM650 notebook comes with a smart card on which the user’s password and user ID are stored. The smart card can be used to encrypt or decrypt data using software bundled with the TM650. Top brass in the Indian Navy use this feature on their Acer notebooks. IBM offers Think-Vantage, a security solution built around the IBM Cryptographic Chip that encrypts and decrypts data on-the-fly. "Since these chips sit on the motherboard and are not relying on the hard disk to store cryptographic keys, the system is inherently more secure," says Alok Ohrie, vice president for IBM India’s Personal Computing Division.

Legacy-free notebooks
USB took a while to catch on in the PC world. Today USB2 is popular on top-end notebooks. Acer’s TravelMate 800 and Tablet PC, which are aimed at top management, are designed keeping in mind the fact that their target audience are ones who own gadgets such as digital handycams and digicams. USB2’s high speed (480 Mbps) makes it a good choice for transferring images and videos between digital gizmos and notebooks. In the process, legacy serial and PS/2 ports are fading into oblivion. Consumer notebooks are coming with Firewire for high-speed connectivity with digital gadgets. Parallel ports are still going strong, however. Infrared is still going strong more than half a decade after it became commonplace on notebooks.

Burning CDs and playing DVDs
Combo drives that let you burn CDs and play DVDs are becoming popular on high-end models. Acer’s models like the 283XC, 650 series (2 models), 800 series (both models) and the new Tablet PC ship with a combo drive. IBM offers combo drives on several ThinkPad models.

The ‘always on’ notebook
Intel’s Mobile Net PC supports GPRS, GSM, Bluetooth, 802.11 a/b using four antennas (in-built, of course). This ‘always on’ design has a second screen built into the lid of the notebook. This screen is always on and you can check your calendar and e-mail using it. The smaller screen consumes less power and shows you critical data that you’d normally need to carry a PDA for. Even when powered down, this concept machine picks up your e-mail and lets you manage your e-mail and schedule without switching on the notebook.

The design boosts battery life to 7 hours plus by using a LTPS (low-temperature polysilicon) 3 watts screen; today’s notebook screens drink in 50 percent more power than that and 33 percent of battery power is consumed by the screen on an average. An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts screen brightness. The prototype uses a Lithium polymer battery (cellphone technology) instead of LiIon (today’s stuff).