Hello There, 

I am responsible for providing specifications for a custom built
tablet / handheld device. I cannot get into too much details and I
needed some help kicking off the research. I have already exhausted my
limited list of keywords to search for in Google and I did find some
interesting articles, but mostly sales material of products which are
overkill and too expensive.

Since we know exactly what the device will do and it's not intensive
enough to justify buying one of the off-the-self products. Rather, I
am hoping to reduce the overall price of the device by selecting
cheaper (possibly older) alternatives to various components and then
optimizing the architecture to meet certain expectations.

1. OS must be either Windows XP embedded or Windows CE.Net with Internet 
   Explorer
2. Must be able to run 20-30 Frames Per Second Video
3. A hard-disk is not required since the actual application will have a very  
   small footprint and therefore can run off the flash
4. Wireless capability. 

What I am looking for is some direction on finding out which
combination of components (CPU vs Chipsets vs Graphic Controllers Vs
Memory vs etc.) would be needed at a minimum or recommended to meet
the above expectations and reduced cost. I am assuming that certain
components will effect the expectations above and others will not. The
goal is to optimize the architecture of the device by selecting the
best combination of components which will effect the expectations
above and minimize the cost of the components which will not effect
the expectations.

Thank you

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Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 27 Sep 2004 09:24 PDT

Hello vedante -

Are you looking to produce a large quantity of these?  Also, as an
answer to your question, would you be interested in the contact
information for a consulting company that could assist in this regard?

jbf777

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Clarification of Question by vedante-ga on 27 Sep 2004 10:40 PDT

Eventually, this will be mass produced. The contact information for a
consulting company would be useful, but I would rather get the
information from an idependent specialist before I digging through the
company's sales material.

---

Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 27 Sep 2004 10:53 PDT

The consulting company would be a "specialist" that could help you
directly -- you wouldn't have to dig through any sales material.

---

Clarification of Question by vedante-ga on 27 Sep 2004 11:42 PDT

I agree. I just wasn't sure whether the consulting firm will help me
with this question/request or will they help me build the custom
tablet. I was really hoping to just have the question answered. We
will have another phase where we will look at possible OEMs.

Thank you

Developing your own Tablet is not quite the same as assembling a PC
from components.
10 years ago I wasted GBP 200,000 on just such a project.

What you have described so far sounds like a pretty new configuration.
Embedded XP is about 1 year old, reasonable colour LCDs are relatively new.

We found that buying compnents in relatively small quantities was
incredibly expensive, since those components seem to be destined for
the supply lines of major manufacturers.

Can you specify the size of the LCD, do you want touch screen, if so
what method, also the power supply (if any) - that can get nasty.

I have heard of something that might possibly fit your requirements,
it seems to be used for in-car control systems, which I gather is
becoming a hobbyist market in the USA.

However, I seriously believe from my experience that you would be
better off finding a fully configured machine from a reliable
manufacturer.
Even then, you need to test it rigorously (my main client intends
sueing the large and reputable manufacturer of the 'tablets' they
kitted up with two years ago - the hardware goes bananas under certain
circumstances).

We were hoping to contact tablet manufactures and ask them to reduce
the over all price of the tablet by replacing particular components
which are either "older" in technology or less expensive.

The LCD will be at a minimum 10.4 with Touch Screen standard. The use
of a stylus will not be required.

Power Supply - The battery should run from 4-6 hours. Again, depending
on price, it may make sense to have 2 batteries each running for 2-3
hours as opposed to 1 battery.

The bottom line is that all of the tablet manufactures are providing
these over priced tablets with so many powerful and expensive
components. Some of these components are maybe required to run the OS
and some features, but really, with the stuff we need the tablet to
do, we don't need such "beefed" up tablets.

Thank you for your comments.

Now I follow what you are up to.

I think you are in for some unpleasant suprizes, with a few exceptions
I have found that old technology is /more/ expensive than new
technology.

This is because most of the 'new' features are built in at chip level,
and older chip production lines get torn up and replaced with the
latest generation.

Machines also become obsolete incredibly fast.

You could find a specialist manufacturer that is supporting an
existing client base of users. However these people tend to be more
expensive than larger manufacturers - or rather, that is my
experience.

For some reason XP (Intel based) machines seem a lot more expensive
than CE machines - possibly because of volumes produced.

Also I had bad experiences with three UK design houses and one freelance designer.
What I am going to suggest may sound odd, but it is the result of 14
years dealing with semi-custom touchscreen machines.
You could find a mass produced laptop that is pretty similar to the
'tablet' that you require - then rip off and re-mount the screen.
I remember seeing a French company doing that some years ago.

However, if you are talking about seriously large volumes, then it
might be an idea to go direct to the 'real' manufacturers (not the
people who badge them) in which case we are talking about the Chinese.
Yet again I would recommend basing the machine on a re-jigged laptop
in order to latch onto existing component supply chains.

I want to thank you for looking into this and providing your
experience on the business/cost aspects; I am sure I will take all of
these suggestions into consideration, but I believe I may have asked
the question incorrectly. I was really looking mobile hardware
specialist that can tell me the recommended hardware configuration to
meet the expectations. For example, as a former web developer, I know
that I really don't Pentium IV 2.8GHz to run Internet Explorer to
display a static web site. I hope this helps.

Thank you

A couple of key questions for you to consider.
1: Is this for outdoor use or indoor?
2: Resistive or capacitive touch?
3:By wireless do you mean 802.11b, bluetooth, digital cellular?
4: Where are you going to use the appliance?

We've built a device ourselves after spending far too long reviewing
tablets and rugged handhelds. Ours is 10.4 1300nitt capacitive but has
a built in sognal booster for digital cellular and a printer since we
use it to accept and process credit cards.

I can put you onto some of our contacts if you are interested.

Hi notwired-ga 

Your tablet sounds really interesting.
I went down the 'build your own' line in 1993-5 and wasted a small fortune.

I provide the software for an onboard Duty Free sales system and my
major client has been having real problems.
I am extremely interested in learning more about your system.