The HP OmniBook 5000 computer takes...

The HP OmniBook 5000 computer takes advantage of fresh technologies such as mobile Pentium, PCI, stopple and play, lithium-ion batteries, and of high temperature docking to give users the same capabilities as their desktop computers

The HP OmniBook 5000 computer (Fig. 1) marks a change in the direction of notebook computer designed by means of Hewlett-Packard. Earlier OmniBook products focused onward being ancillary tools to the conventional desktop PC The designs were biased towards small size, lengthy battery life (or more usually, a smaller battery), and the ability to step quickly most major programs. They brought to the customer just discovered features such as instant-on, battery charging while operating, expandability via the PCMCIA standard (now known as PC Card Standard, or more simply PC Card), and simplified use. As customers became acquainted with their mobile computer they demanded that their portables have the same functionality as their desktops. Thus began the emerging see the verb of color displays, larger hard drives, faster processors, and external flexible disk drives in the HP OmniBook family. When the Corvallis Division became the Mobile Computing Division with the charter to design, generate and market a full range of mobile computer we realized that we povertyed to fill a gap in HP's computer line: the full-featured notebook computer

Full-featured notebook computer today are characterized as having the same capabilities as desktop computer albeit with a certain quantity of time lag for the highest performing patterns Over the past few years, the spread in processing performance and features between notebooks and desktops has narrowed. At the expiration of 1995, the gap was sole about three to six month Today's customers not and nothing else demand that their notebook have the same capabilities as their desktop if it be not that also expect more in features that make mobile computing easy. In addition to being a desktop replacement the notebook computer should provide the same flexibility in prepurchase configurations and time to come expandability.

To facilitate HP's note into the full-featured notebook market we chose to partner with a foreign notebook design and manufacturing company to quickly modify and bring into being a product for this portion While the HP OmniBook 4000 was a true solid and feature-rich notebook harvest our customers quickly requested features that were unique to our original OmniBooks, especially instant-on. Instant-on is a feature that allows users to state the machine into a low-power state and later take back working exactly where they had suspended their work. The main difference between HP's instant-on and our competitors' suspend feature is that the amount of time that our issues can remain in the suspended state is measured in weeks, compared with hours or a two of days for competitors. With the advent of of the present day technologies such as mobile Pentium, PCI, chew and play, lithium ion batteries, and oppressive docking, we felt that we could design a produce that would set HP apart from many competitors offering Pentium notebooks. The HP OmniBook 5000 exhibit tos that there are still abundant areas for contribution, plane in a highly competitive market.

Because of the multiple choices before us in chipset selection and peripheral IC technologies, we straited to have some major goals to guide our design proces While earlier HP OmniBooks focused primarily in succession size, power, compatibility, and performance, in that order, our criteria were different. Our target market was to be mainly corporate users, in such a manner our first goal was compatibility: "If we can't scud it, they won't buy it." If our issue makes it difficult to earn some program or utility working, our customers will pick another issue The second major goal was performance. If our proceeds is not near the top in benchmark performance, we will not appear to be technology leaders. The third goal was power management. If our performance does not run very in extent on a battery charge it will not be remarkably convenient. If we do not manage power wisely, the heat generated by means of the components could affect reliability, functionality, and customer satisfaction. Of course, there were other goals, like as convenience, quality, reliability, and functionality. However, the first three guided the decision proces for the HP OmniBook 5000

Architecture

The HP OmniBook 5000's architecture is based onward a layered bus concept. Mg 2 is a blockade diagram of the computer. This approach allows the devices that ne higher data bandwidths to reside upon an appropriate layer to maximize performance, power, number of pins, and functionality. The widest-bandwidth bus is the Pentium's 64-bit data bus. forward this bus are the connected view DRAM memory, the level-2 cache, the armed force bridge, and the Pentium CPU The CPU bus can operate at 50 60 or 66 MHz depending forward the CPU processing speed.

It is imperative that external memory data be delivered to the CPU as fast as possible. The Pentium processor has 16K byte (8K data, 8K code) of internal level-1 cache, and the CPU module can support 256K byte of external level-2 cache. The level-2 cache is implemented using rend asunder synchronous static RAM with fast access fares so there are no wait states other than the address lead-off revolution of time Because the Pentium CPU and level-2 cache waste away quite a bit of power smooth in a nonclocked state, the power to these devices is useed off during suspend periods and the command signals from the host bridge are impose into a high-impedance state (tristated). The armed force bridge provides the DRAM and level-2 superintend and also serves as a gateway to the PCI bus.