Ultramobile PC to boast everything from GPS to Breathalyzer interfaces

A new company is launching its first product, based on a type of computer that’s even newer: the ultramobile PC.

Black Diamond Advanced Technology, based in Tempe, Ariz., this week unveiled the SwitchBack UMPC, a 3-pound, 2-inch-thick rugged computer about the size of paperback book. The handheld got a showing at Intel’s booth at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston.

The overall format is similar to the Microsoft–Intel Origami platform announced earlier this year. The first SwitchBack model will run Windows XP Professional. But future models will let users choose from several operating systems, load two of them and switch between them for different applications and to maximize battery life.

The name “SwitchBack” refers to a replaceable and customizable module that screws into the back of the computer. This plate can be designed to hold various wired and wireless interfaces, including GPS receiver and terrestrial radio, and peripherals ranging from bar code readers to Breathalyzers.

The company that birthed this device started in July 2005, backed by a group of angel investors. The co-founders have backgrounds in defense weapons and communications systems with a need for electronics that could survive extreme environments.

Targeted at industrial, outdoor and public safety applications, the computer has been designed from the inside out to meet the demanding requirements of these users, according to Justin Dyster, Black Diamond’s president.

“The UMPC is a smaller version of the [Microsoft] TabletPC,” he says. “But the tablet’s weakness was it lacked flexibility in ports and interfaces. We wanted to build a basic model that could be customized with a range of ports and interfaces, based on the customer’s specific requirements.”

Black Diamond’s rugged handheld is a big step forward for the UMPC, says IDC’s personal computing lead analyst, David Daoud. “At the launch of Origami, the idea [of the UMPC] was a newborn concept, with its creators essentially looking at it as a consumer product,” he says. “Things have evolved since then and several emerging players are looking beyond the consumer market and into industry applications.”

“The rugged UMPC has great potential for success in niche vertical markets,” Daoud says.

The basic initial model has a 1,024-by-600-pixel WSVGA display, viewable in bright sunlight. The built-in wireless interfaces include GPS, 802.11b/g and Bluetooth. There is a 40GB removable hard drive, upgradable to 60GB, and 16GB of solid state memory, upgradeable to 32GB.

The CPU is a 1-GHz Intel Celeron M (or optionally a 2.0-GHz Pentium M). A future model will let you add a second CPU, an Intel PXA270 chip, which can run Windows Mobile 5.0 or a similar handheld operating system, including Linux variants. Programs with a lot of graphics would use the Celeron, while e-mail would make use of the less powerful chip.

The base unit has one USB 2.0 port and a power port.

When the battery runs low, it can be pulled out and replaced with a new one without having to shut down the computer. Applications remain up and running.

The computer is designed somewhat like a BlackBerry – to be largely controlled through thumb movements as it’s held in two hands. A button to move the screen cursor is on the right side, two smaller buttons on the left are for the left- and right-click functions. Also within reach, below the display is a membrane-based keyboard, which users a condensed qwerty display, again similar to some recent BlackBerry devices.

All of this runs in a handheld designed to surpass military specifications for shock, vibration, dust, moisture and extreme temperatures.

The customizable backplate, for which Black Diamond has filed a patent, can add four USB 2.0 ports; a 10/100/1000 Ethernet interface; high-performance graphics port; CompactFlash; and a long list of peripherals, including another hard drive or battery, a mag-stripe reader, laser range finder or digital camera.

“We give you some ready-to-use options and we can create custom backs,” Dyster says.

A police officer might have a SwitchBack outfitted with a camera, bar code scanner, fingerprint reader, mag-stripe reader and breathalyzer. During a traffic stop, standing by the driver’s door, the officer can photograph and print the driver, read the license bar code or mag strip, and have all this information entered automatically on an electronic form while wirelessly checking for outstanding warrants. A ticket can be created via a mobile Bluetooth printer.

Beta tests for SwitchBack begin in October, with certification by the FCC expected before year-end. The product is scheduled to ship at year-end or early in 2007.