Handheld platform totes Bluetooth, GPS

Handheld platform totes Bluetooth, GPS
Rockville, Md. - InHand Electronics Inc.'s handheld computing platform combines a Bluetooth transceiver, global- positioning system (GPS) receiver, color LCD controller and Intel StrongARM CPU in a package that consumes less than a watt of power.

Known as the Elf2, the platform reportedly improves battery life from 10 to 30 percent in applications like battlefield computers, leak detectors and portable medical instruments.

A program called BatterySmart manages CPU clock speed so as to minimize power use. "Our software detects when it enters a zone that is not processor-intensive," said Andrew Girson, CEO of InHand. "When it detects certain thresholds, it drops the CPU speed. The user doesn't notice any degradation of performance, and the unit consumes less than 1,000 mW." Girson said the Elf2 always maintains power consumption of 500 to 1,500 mW, even with Bluetooth and GPS running and at 200-MHz clock frequencies.

The BatterySmart program's resource manager enables StrongARM peripherals like serial ports to significantly reduce power, and specialized analysis tools are said to provide developers with a deeper understanding of system power consumption.

The StrongARM SA-1110 CPU has up to 32 Mbytes of flash memory and up to 128 Mbytes of SDRAM, and supports 24-bit color VGA, QVGA, HVGA and SVGA video displays. The board measures 104 x 70 mm, and is 17 mm thick with two PCMCIA connectors.

It comes with Windows CE 3.0 and 4.0 installed. Engineers can also develop alternative operating systems such as Linux, VxWorks and QNX via libraries that supply direct access to board-level hardware. Pricing starts at $3,995.

Call (240) 558-2014
www.inhandelectronics.com
EETInfo No. 613