On Tuesday next week (6th June) the Computex trade show opens in Taipei.

There’s a few things to watch out for at the show that could be relevant to UMPC’s including devices based on the new Intel ultra-low voltage processors with Yonah (65nm) core. (Celeron-M and Core Solo 1.06Ghz CPU’s.) The VIA VX700 integrated north/southbridge chipset which is perfect for UMPC’s should get a showing too.

Expect to see new UMPC’s announced in Taipei too. Not only becuase its an important trade show and there will be over 1200 exhibitors there, but because of what was written at the Enquirer last week:

[Daniel Robinson] cites VIA as predicting designs half the thickness of the ill-fated Samsung Q1 at Computex in Taipei next month.

There’s a strong ultra mobile PC flavour at the Via technology Forum too with the Ultra mobility track. Speakers at the forum will include Otto Berks, GM Mobile Plaforms division at Microsoft, Rob Enderle from the Enderle group advisory company, Phil Hester CTO at AMD and Dennis Luo project manager for UMPC’s at Microsoft.

All-in-all it could be a significant week for UMPC’s. We’ll be following closely.

Steve /Chippy.

From the “we should have reported this earlier and didn’t” department comes news from [url=http://www.emsnow.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=19360]emsnow.com[/url] that the Asus R2H has been delayed from release until July or August.

Asus’s product manager Alvin Chou said, “The performance and reliability of the machines, particularly in boosting the gaming experience and battery life, are being maximized to offer users a much better overall experience.” The company is also working on getting better specs in time for the release in the system.

According to Asus they will also be using their Power4 Gear + technology on their battery and say it will give them 30 minutes more over the Samsung Q1.

As for price they also revealed that the system will be under $1,000 and are trying to hit under $900. The system will include a version with and without GPS built in so there will be cheaper models available.

[update- Chippy] I’ve spotted on [url=http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=&s=1582&a=179311&po=10,00.asp] PCMag.com[/url] that the Asus was spotted at WinHEC “listing it’s ultra mobile PC with an Intel Core Duo processor.”
[update2 02.06.06 21:31 CET] ASUS Germany have told us that the CORE DUO STORY is not true. “Die Aussage mit dem Intel Duo Core Prozessor stimmt nicht.” (The story about the core duo processor is not true.) Shame. The excitement was good while it lasted!
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