Intel To Refine Mobile PC With “Florence”

Intel this week at Intel Developer Forum will show off its latest concept PC, dubbed “Florence”, which emphasizes mobility for different lifestyles and features a second LCD panel plus an embedded wireless mouse that also doubles as a VOIP phone.

If this sounds like an introduction to an automobile line or the latest fashions, theres a reason: like Detroits carmakers, Intel is now showing off its visions of the future. In other words, forthcoming machines that it has encouraged its OEMs to build and popularize.

Intel will show off three Florence notebooks to the Intel Developer Forum crowd. The “concept PCs” Intel will show are actually the companys vision for 2005.

Later this year, the hardware features will be summed up in a “Mobile Platform Vision Design Guide” that will spell Intels requirements out in more detail.

Intel has designed three models: one for the “on the go” road warrior, another for the virtual office, and a third for the digital home. All anticipate the resurgence of the consumer notebook sector by 2005, when consumer notebooks are expected to rank second in overall retail growth, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

Each notebook will contain certain basic capabilities, including a detachable LCD that may or may not double as an LCD monitor or touchpad; enhanced user authentication that supports the Trusted Platform Module 1.2 specification, also tied to Microsofts “Longhorn” OS; and Extended Mobile Access, a small LCD display built into the notebook chassis.

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