ASUS in the Mobile World

Some of ASUS's software solutions are only enabled by the MyPal A600's hardware. One such item is the ability to dynamically change the clock speed and voltage supplied to the Xscale PXA250. Using a combination of hardware and software, the unit's processor can vary in clock speed from 100MHz to 400MHz with core voltages varying from 0.8v to 1.8v. The current software solution for the clock and voltage throttling is a menu driven one. In its current form, the MyPal's clock speed can be defined by the user in general use as well as on an application by application basis. For example, the unit can be set to run at a maximum battery setting by default, then change to a more aggressive setting when Pocket Word is opened.

The company is also actively working on on the fly automatic clock and voltage throttling. Such a solution would allow the MyPal A600 to vary in voltage and clock speed depending on system demand. In this instance, the processor would use higher clock speed settings while launching applications and performing demanding tasks, but would automatically lower its speed (and hence power consumption) when the system is idle or is performing basic tasks. It looks like the first batch of MyPal 600s will not have this feature quite yet, but the company expects the feature to be properly implemented one or two months after launch. Such a feature would extend the already impressive battery life of the product even further.

Also extending battery life is the unit's LED lit reflective screen. The screen is 3.5 inches and boasts a resolution of 240x320 with 65,536 colors. To compare the light intensity of the MyPal A600 with a similar product like the Compaq iPaq, we can compare the nit ratings (a unit of measure that equals one candela per square meter) that both sidelights produce. In its maximum brightness setting, the Compaq iPaq produces 50 to 60 nit. The MyPal A600's sidelight is fairly similar, producing 45 to 50 nit. Obviously, turning on the sidelight to the maximum brightness setting quickly drains the battery life in any PDA. In the case of the iPaq, battery life drops to about two hours while the sidelight is on at full intensity. The MyPal A600, on the other hand, is able to last about four hours with the sidelight at maximum brightness. The two hour battery life difference is a result of MyPal A600's LED sidelight compared to the iPaq's fluorescent sidelight.

On top of all the interesting stuff we heard about the MyPal A600, we were also told a bit about ASUS' next generation PDA. ASUS promised that the company's third generation PDA will be even more revolutionary than the MyPal A600. The company hopes to continue the trend they seem to be setting with their current PDA solution by making the third generation product a leader for PDAs everywhere. Things were pretty tight lipped about the upcoming product, but it seems that it will be using a transitive reflective screen which should further aid in saving battery life. This is because current reflective screens must be side lit and as a result about 65% of the light produced by the backlight does not hit the screen and instead bleeds into the environment. Implementing a transitive reflective screen would allow ASUS to mount the backlight behind the LCD panel, ensuring that every nit of light used goes directly into lighting the screen.

We were also told that the next generation PDA will include some sort of hardware to aid in video playback. Whether this will be a hardware based MPEG-2 decoder or even an MPEG-4 decoder, we do not know. What we do know is that such as solution has the potential to bring high quality video to PDA devices.

We also heard that the next generation product will include more features in the same form factor. ASUS mentioned the possibility of integrating 802.11b wireless connectivity, although maintaining battery life with integrated wireless is a problem they are still trying to figure out.