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The Core of Computing
By Thomas Staudter
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Today's peripatetic lifestyles have spawned a massive dependence on portable computing devices. As users become increasingly reliant on laptops and PDAs, they desire ever more convenient computing options that will enhance their productivity while fitting seamlessly into their busy lives.
In an attempt to better understand how users will interact with such devices, and to determine the type of pervasive infrastructure required to support them, IBM has undertaken a research project involving the construction of a prototype designed to answer these questions. Meta Pad, a 9 oz., 3 by 5 inch portable computer core boasting the ability to run Microsoft Windows XP® software and all its attendant applications, quickly transforms into handheld, desktop, laptop, tablet, and wearable formats. Meta Pad is not intended as a product; rather, it serves as a creative vehicle for studying the technologies necessary to develop more powerful pervasive computing tools.
"The Meta Pad definitely has the potential to be a real game changer in the way people react to and interact with information," says Ellen Yoffa, director of personal and visual systems. "It extends the reach of information to a larger part of your life, wherever you need it to be."
One body, many parts
The Meta Pad stemmed from other research projects in similar areas of technology, including modular computers and an IBM Research project code-named "VisionPad," a wearable device like a PC fitted into a helmet.
"VisionPad was actually an exercise in packaging," says Ken Ocheltree, a research staff member at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York. "The idea was to see how small we could make a computer, and so what we did, in essence, was shrink a ThinkPad®. But the result wasn't really a modular unit: there were still too many plugs for the mouse, monitor, and so on. What we discovered, though, was how small in size a computer could become."
Two years ago, Ocheltree's work focused on modular computers and VisionPad, but Intel stopped manufacturing the ultra-small processor chip used in these projects, thus thwarting further work on them. But at about the same time, Ron Smith of corporate design was promoting another new, wearable computer in the form of a harness for the torso, like a bandoleer — perfect for field and industrial use by doctors, inspectors and others who need computing capacity away from their desks. This new computer configuration sparked Ocheltree's imagination.
"My thought was, why build the computer into the harness? We should be able to separate the computer itself from the wearable configuration so it could be used in other configurations, like a desktop or laptop computer," says Ocheltree.
Ocheltree's key concept was to create a core unit where all usage outside of processing, data storage and computer software applications — i.e. the power supply, display and input/output connectors — would be treated as accessories. "In formulating the idea for the Meta Pad, we essentially ripped a PC in half and separated input/output functions and the power source from the rest of the system," Ocheltree says. In other words, instead of optimizing an existing product like a PDA and giving it some new, snazzy features, researchers endowed Meta Pad, a device the size of a PDA, with the capabilities of a full computer.
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Meta Pad handheld with touchscreen next to a Meta Pad core.
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"A totally new PC architecture centered around a processor and I/O signals was quite an evolutionary step," says Randy Moulic, senior manager of client systems. "On Meta Pad, we've re-partitioned the PC system and physically separated it into various pieces by pushing aspects of the architecture out into the physical packaging. Now, the configuration or construction for a particular user's needs can be accomplished with the Meta Pad by simply plugging together or taking apart various blocks or elements-something like loading a videotape into a VCR."
This careful partitioning of system functions lets the user design and interchange the interfaces between the elements, resulting in combinations tailored to the environment in which the computer is used.
After researchers presented the Meta Pad concept to a group of computer industry analysts and ThinkPad executives, the project won increased funding. By December 2000, Ocheltree, with assistance from fellow engineer Robert Olyha and other IBM staffers in New York, North Carolina and Japan, had begun work on Meta Pad prototypes.
A big idea in a small package
Ocheltree's solutions to past design space constraints, such as piggybacking processor and memory chips as single modules instead of placing them apart on a circuit board, helped pave the way toward building a Meta Pad-sized computer, but other factors contributed to the process as well.
The utilization of a 5-gigabit disc drive, measuring only one and eight-tenths inches across, also helped shrink the computer's packaging a great deal. Advances in circuit board miniaturization, plus surface connect laminar technologies (driven by the work of cell phone designers), kept the Meta Pad's assembly package small and tight as well.
Low- and variable-power systems operations made possible by a Transmeta 5800 processor and four memory chips stacked in a single low-profile package-like a pancake-made the Meta Pad a bona fide computer. But rather than posit several accessory cables into such a small and elegant design, Ocheltree turned to a single docking connector comprising all the signals needed to connect I/O to a computer including mouse, keyboard, audio, video, USB and Card Bus. These could be plugged into a hand-held docking device — complete with visual display — or Meta Pad desktop dock, for use as a PC or laptop. After some final debugging last summer, Ocheltree and Olyha demonstrated the Meta Pad within IBM. According to Yoffa, skeptics who wondered how small and light a computer could possibly become were impressed.
The many faces of Meta Pad
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IBM researchers Ken Ocheltree and Bob Olyha inspect their "Meta Pad" computer core invention — a 3-by-5 inch, 9-ounce prototype device that can transform in seconds into a handheld (shown), desktop (shown), laptop, tablet or wearable computer. To make Meta Pad so small, IBM researchers pulled the power supply, display and I/O connectors out of the core — leaving processor, memory, data and applications. Components removed from the machine become accessories, and individual users decide how they want to use the device.
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Surrounded in his laboratory at the Watson Research Center by more than a dozen computers, Ocheltree is only too happy to demonstrate his Meta Pad to visitors. Using the pocket-sized computer with its handset docking system and visual display-together weighing less than one-and-a-half pounds and no bigger than a paperback book-Ocheltree quickly runs through the Microsoft Windows XP menu, stopping to type in commands on the display's transparent keyboard and view some of the crystalline graphics.
He then pops the Meta Pad out of the handset, places it into the desktop dock, and without missing a beat is right where he left off, thanks to a newly patented, 2-hour-long suspend battery. Since users can carry their entire computing environment wherever they go, there is no need to transfer, or "sync," data going from, say, a PDA to a PC. The data remains consistent everywhere; it's just accessed using different input/output configurations. Therein lies the Meta Pad's promise as a new tool in pervasive computing-its flexibility and mobility.
"The concept of personal computing 'anytime, anywhere, any way' is truly brought closer to reality by permitting the user's data and computing environments to be with them at all times, and available in many different forms or configurations," says Moulic.
"Information is only useful when you have access to it," Ocheltree continues, "The Meta Pad brings data closer to people; it allows individuals to interact with their data all the time. But the beauty of the Meta Pad is that it doesn't force you into any one interface; in fact, you don't have to give up what you're already comfortable with, whether it be a laptop, PC or whatever, to try out new interfaces.
And some of the new interfaces for computers will make the Meta Pad even more flexible and convenient. Imagine being able to use a speech interface with your Meta Pad while driving down the highway to access and answer your email. Or use a pen and pad accessory to process notes right into Windows programming. Or link your digital camera up to store photos on the spot. "Meta Pad eliminates transcription problems for those who need to bring their data from place to place," says Ocheltree.
What's ahead for Meta Pad? "We've accomplished the technology through a combination of inventions, engineering and design solutions," says Yoffa. "What we need to do next is get prototypes into people's hands so we can better understand the ways in which Meta Pad can be used."
Investigating people's interaction with the technology will help researchers answer a number of questions. Will people be comfortable carrying around the core? Will they use Meta Pad with other devices? Which devices? In what fields and industries will the Meta Pad be useful-government, military, medical, manufacturing, retail?
In the end, it is the users who will validate the Meta Pad, Yoffa admits. "We're excited about studying the ways in which people use Meta Pad — and using what we learn to influence the next generations of our personal systems research."
