Allen's Vulcan develops wireless Mini-PC

Thursday, January 9, 2003

Allen's Vulcan develops wireless Mini-PC
Handheld unit debuts at Consumer Electronics Show

By DAN RICHMAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A hitherto unknown group within multibillionaire Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. techno-empire has designed a compact, lightweight, wireless computer that is expected to debut by Christmas for between $1,200 and $1,500.


		Vulcan Inc.
	The Mini-PC is about half the size of a small laptop. No makers for the machine have been named yet.

The device, which Seattle-based Vulcan calls the Mini-PC, was previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday.

Vulcan hopes it will attract mobile computer-users willing to pay for wirelessly transmitted movie trailers and other content -- some of it produced by companies in which Vulcan has invested heavily, including the Dreamworks SKG movie studio.

The Mini-PC is slightly larger than a personal digital assistant, but PDAs -- unlike the Vulcan machine -- can't use Microsoft Corp.'s full-featured Windows XP operating system or run all the programs that operating system supports, said Mike Agostino, a technology associate in Vulcan's investment management group.

And the Mini-PC is far smaller than a conventional laptop computer -- about the size of a paperback book, 1 inch thick and weighing about a pound. Compared with the Sony VAIO U1, a small laptop, it's less than half the size and about 60 percent of the weight, with about the same display size, Vulcan says.

It has a folding 5.8-inch screen with 800 by 400 resolution, a 20-gigabyte hard drive and a downsized keyboard designed for thumbing or hunt-and-pecking. An external keyboard and mouse can be attached.

Batteries last for up to four hours on a single charge. Software is loaded through a USB 2.0 port on the back, which accommodates an external CD-ROM drive.

The Mini-PC will come with up to three types of wireless networking built into the motherboard, depending on the computer maker's preference: Wi-Fi for Internet access from airports, coffee shops and other places offering such services, plus two rival cellular technologies for connecting from any location.

Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp., conceived of the Mini-PC 18 months ago, and it's now "a lot further along than we thought we'd be at this time," spokesman Michael Nank said. Preliminary versions of the machine will be released in the second quarter, he said.

Vulcan will license the design to computer makers, who will produce the units by this winter. No makers have been named yet.

The prototype being displayed in Las Vegas carries the logotype "VULCAN," a name that until now has never been associated with products but only with investments in cable and wireless companies.

The product emerged from a collaboration between Vulcan's investment management group -- which was formerly known as Vulcan Ventures -- and the newer technology research-and-development group, Agostino said.

The latter group has existed for two years, doing research into interactive television, video on demand and applying artificial intelligence to consumer applications, he said. The Mini-PC is the first product the group has designed.

P-I reporter Dan Richman can be reached at 206-448-8032 or danrichman@seattlepi.com

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