WiMax in a UMPC
WiMax has had a very difficult roll out, by anyone’s estimation. When WiMax first came on the scene as a revolutionary replacement for WiFi, it was assumed by many people who are supposed to “know” such things that by now it would be the wireless standard. Like the paperless office, that has not exactly come to pass yet.
Many people say one of the key speed bumps that WiMax has hit has been a dearth of consumer products that implement the new standard, and I am inclined to agree. However, it is a traditional chick-or-egg scenario. Until WiMax networks are readily available to consumers, why produce products for them…but if there are no products, why spend the capital to deploy networks? Another blow came last week as Intel announced it was delaying until the end of the summer the long awaited Centrino Montevino chip that will include WiMax as an out-of-the-box wireless option.
However, hope may be on the horizon as VIA announced a new UMPC reference design called OpenBook, which is built around WiMax and other 3G technology (EV-DO and HSDPA) as well as WiFi.
According to the press release from VIA:
The VIA OpenBook mini-note reference design offers unrivaled broadband connectivity options though two internal modules, with the first one featuring WiFi, Bluetooth, and optional AGPS connections and the second one offering a choice of WiMAX, HSDPA, or EV-DO/W-CDMA options. In addition, the VIA OpenBook also comes with three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, and audio-in/audio-out jacks as well as a 4-in-1 card reader (SD/SDIO/MMC/MS) and a 2 mega-pixel dual-headed web camera.
Sounds pretty good to me, as do the other specs found in the press release. An OpenBook based UMPC could easily become a road warrior’s weapon of choice due to the vast array of connectivity options. Another point worth making is this is an open source reference design, under a Creative Commons license which allows the CAD files to be freely copied and used as long as VIA is credited with the initial design. This strikes me as a great way to help get the technology into the consumer market as quickly as possible, and likely some interesting improvements will be made as different vendors try their hand at the same basic design.
All in all, I am looking forward to eventually getting a hold of an OpenBook based UMPC…whether I have a WiMax network handy or not. Who knows…maybe if I have the device, the network will come.
See the whole press release from VIA HERE.
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