InHand is leading the way though emerging technologies associated with handheld design to
continuously provide the very best to our customers. This page announces new technologies as they
become available for InHand's embedded platforms. Check back frequently, as this page will be updated
often.
ATP-Monahans
Advanced Technology Platform for New Monahans XScale® Processor
Designed for cutting edge low-power embedded device development, InHand’s ATP
for Monahans Platform Family is a unique reference platform targeted at OEMs of
next-generation handheld and wireless devices. Based on Intel’s revolutionary
new XScale processor, the ATP for Monahans Platform Family runs at over 800MHz
with increased code and data caching to greatly improve performance. It
incorporates InHand’s award-winning BatterySmart® power management technology to
reduce power consumption and increase battery life. The ATP for Monahans
Platform Family also incorporates a variety of new features aimed at improving
device designs, including support for NAND Flash and DDR SDRAM memory, and a
high performance graphics interface.
Complementing the performance and power management features of the ATP for
Monahans Platform Family is a rich array of integrated peripherals. Wireless
peripherals include WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Wired peripherals include
Ethernet, USB host, USB client, a host of configurable general-purpose I/Os, an
AC97-compliant audio codec, and multiple COM, I2C, and SSP/SPI serial ports.
Support is included for a wide variety of LCD displays and touchscreens, and a
complete LiIon battery power system (including charging and gas gauging) round
out this reference platform.
For advanced developers, experimentation with other peripherals is encouraged
via the full-featured daughtercard, Compact Flash, and SDIO interfaces. InHand’s
design services support your own efforts, and we offer consulting expertise in
all aspects of handheld and wireless design, from electronics and mechanical
packaging to ruggedization and production engineering. The ATP for Monahans
Platform Family, combined with InHand’s design services, allows you to quickly
and efficiently meet your project goals.
ATP-27x
Low-Power Advanced Technology Platform Based on Intel's PXA270 processor
InHand's ATP-27x combined with our professional
engineering services allows developers to quickly and efficiently meet
their project goals. The
ATP-27x is the launching pad for bleeding edge developers to create new device
technologies based on InHand's small, low power, advanced technology platforms.
The ATP-27x adds several new features that will enable wireless devices to
capture higher quality pictures, extend battery life, and deliver fast multimedia
performance.
The ATP-27x benefits from our extensive portfolio of power-reducing hardware
and software technologies and also incorporates new wireless device peripherals
and interfaces. The updated hardware architecture for the ATP-27x facilitates
better power management. A new version of InHand's BatterySmart dynamic power
management software designed for the ATP-27x provides greater ability to adjust
and manage performance, power consumption, and battery life.
Who should purchase the ATP-27x :
• InHand's ATP-27x platform is ideally suited for those companies
that are looking to get ahead of the curve in developing next-generation wireless
devices, whereas InHand's popular Elf3 and Fingertip3 reference platforms are
better suited for a rapid time-to-market with proven designs.
• The ATP-27x provides companies that will be working with InHand
to develop custom devices with a fully loaded advanced technology platform
as a starting point, to be used in parallel with InHand's design
services .
• The ATP-27x is priced at $9,995, which will include hardware,
software, documentation and technical support.
• The ATP-27x will be available as a Development Platform in Q4
of 2004.
ATP-27x brochure
Support for Transflective TFT Displays
Sunlight display readability is one of the most important requirements
for portable and handheld applications. InHand Electronics supports large,
sunlight–readable displays from Sharp Microelectronics, the automotive
6.4” LQ065T9DR51 and 10.4” LQ104V7DS01 VGA screens. We also support smaller
PDA-style displays such as the LQ035Q7DB02, which is a 3.5” QVGA display
that combines touch screen and white LED backlight. InHand also supports
two transmissive automotive displays, the 3.8” LQ038Q5DR01 and 5.0” LQ050Q5DR01.
Both displays are specified to work in the extended temperature range
from –30 to +850C. This new line of displays from Sharp Microelectronics
combines advanced TFT technology and transflective construction to create
unique large sunlight-readable displays.
Until recently, transflective LCD technology was used almost exclusively
in small and medium resolution passive displays. The new Sharp LQ065T9DR51
and LQ104V7DS01 ATFT displays bring crystal-clear 18-bit color to portable
applications. The 6.4” LQ065T9DR51 has a 400 x 240 resolution display
that is targeted for automotive applications and supports extended operating
temperature range of –300C to +850 C and consumes less than 0.5W in reflective
mode. The 10.4” LQ104V7DS01 VGA display has an operating temperature
range of –100C to +650 C and consumes 1W in reflective mode.
For more information on new ATFT display see technical spec sheets below:
Power Management Expertise
Low Power is the reason many of our customers turn to us when they are creating a custom design for their
embedded computing devices. To meet our customers power requirements, InHand uses a low-power system
microcontroller to manage the system power modes and an external LCD controller with built-in display
memory to refresh the display even when most of the system, including the XScale processor is in sleep mode.
In order to maintain fast response to the user I/O and external peripherals the operating system software
can be upgraded to provide fast-boot capability on the order of 100 msec.
InHand uses an existing microprocessor that is designed to switch to the idle mode operation where
the microprocessor shuts down its CPU, but maintains its power to the peripherals. This alone provides
10-15% of system-wide power savings and because the transitions between the active and idle modes are very
fast, it will not significantly impact system performance.
Our standard products come with our
BatterySmart
system software, which enables developers to fully
optimize both the run-time performance and the battery life of their XScale-based devices. BatterySmart
is designed to help OEM developers comprehend and adjust the computational and battery specifications for
their applications.
Packaging for Finished Products
InHand uses 3D models and drawings, Finite Element Analysis, photo-realistic rendering an remote design files to develop custom packaging designs for various finished products.
Customer Examples:
InHand started with a product concept from our customer for an embedded GPS system for helicopter pilots. We created a system design, based on specific requirements from our customer and used remote design files to bring the concept to life. Once approved, we used 3D models and SLAs to create the custom packaging. The end product was a fully packaged embedded military system, which can be strapped to a pilot's leg to log coordinates or display moving maps. The entire project from initial concept to complete design was 4 weeks.
Working on a tight schedule, InHand designed the electronics and packaging for a wireless communicator created to meet the requirements of the law enforcement industry. InHand created a daughtercard and integrated an embedded system into a packaged prototype, which included a 1/8 VGA, 802.11b wireless capability, and 2-way radio functionality. This effort required a substantial software effort to create new drivers for the peripherals, but was completed on schedule through the use of our standard reference designs, allowing software to proceed without having to wait for any custom hardware.
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