The last 12 months have not been the easiest for the technology sector, to say the least, but 2002 still saw plenty of interesting and innovative products. So whatever 2003 holds in terms of economics, it's a fair bet that there will be more than a sprinkling of exciting new technologies and gadgets to keep us occupied. Here's what we reckon will be the key milestones in the coming year.
Q1 2003
Intel Banias
Mobile computing will receive a shot in the arm early in 2003 when Intel launches its long-awaited Banias processor. This is a ground-up redesign of Intel's mobile platform, aimed at delivering long battery life, enabling compact device form factors, and providing built-in wireless connectivity. Expect to see a new generation of ultraportable notebooks, Tablet PCs and other devices when the 1.3-1.6GHz Banias – which will shortly receive its official name – launches. Banias will provide particularly stiff competition for Transmeta, the specialist maker of low-power processors for mobile systems.
Smart Displays
Smart Display is the official name for what we used to know as 'Mira', Microsoft's technology for providing access to your PC from anywhere in the home. A Smart Display is a cordless LCD monitor with a passive touch-sensitive screen, which connects to your main PC over an 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless network. Extras such as a pop-up soft-keyboard for text entry (the Grafitti-like Transcriber is also supported) and built-in speakers for playing music are offered. Some models have a docking unit that provides wired PC, keyboard and mouse connections, allowing them to be used in desktop as well as portable mode.
Dell Axim X5
Until recently, one of the main criticisms of Pocket PCs was their high price. But this is unlikely to be the case with Dell's forthcoming Axim X5, which is currently available in the US at US$349 for the 400MHz version and just US$249 for a 300MHz model. Both identical-looking products are also well stocked with features, and the 400MHz unit includes a docking cradle. The Axim X5's one shortcoming is its size: it's not the sleekest or most compact Pocket PC you'll find. As yet, Dell Australia hasn't released its plans for local availability of the Axim, but you can read our full review here.
AMD Athlon 64 & Opteron
Intel's arch-rival is concentrating on 64-bit computing, where it feels it has a technological advantage thanks to its extended x86-64 architecture. Arriving in late Q1, or possibly early Q2, the Athlon 64 (formerly codenamed Clawhammer) will be the first 64-bit processor for desktop and mobile systems. Aimed at the high-performance market sector, the Athlon 64 is also designed to run legacy 32-bit applications with little or no performance penalty. By contrast, 32-bit programs running on Intel's 64-bit Itanium processor run significantly slower than they do on a 32-bit CPU of equivalent clock speed. AMD's 64- bit server/workstation-class Opteron processor (formerly codenamed Sledgehammer) will also launch in the Q1/Q2 timeframe.
Q2 2003
Windows .Net Server 2003
Currently in its final pre-launch testing phase, Microsoft's .Net Server 2003 is a major upgrade to its server platform, adding support for XML-based Web services to more traditional server duties such as file and print, email, remote access/VPN and directory services. Also due to launch in April is an upgrade to the Visual Studio .Net development suite, which will be called, logically enough, Visual Studio .Net 2003.
Windows XP Media Center Edition
Already available in the US, Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition remains something of a mystery in terms of Australian release dates. Formerly codenamed Freestyle, the Media Center Edition (MCE) is partly an enhanced version of XP and partly an application that runs under XP. It's designed to provide remotely controlled audio and video, live TV and TV-to-PC recording on consumer PCs. One reason for the delay in the MCE appearing in Australia is the need for localised electronic program guides.
802.11g wireless networking
Although products using 802.11g wireless networking technology will appear before Q2, it's likely to take this long for the current draft specification to become an official IEEE standard. The appeal of 802.11g lies in its backwards compatibility with 11Mbps 802.11b kit, thanks to its use of the 2.4GHz frequency band, and theoretical data transfer rate of 54Mbps. This is the same speed as 802.11a, which uses the 5GHz band and is therefore not backwards compatible with existing 802.11b products.
Q3 2003
Microsoft Office 11
With no significant competition left for its Office suite, Microsoft no longer has to fight the 'feature wars'. Instead, to persuade businesses to upgrade their Office installations, Microsoft's focus for Office 11 is on the benefits it will bring to organisations through 'empowerment of their information workers'. The new suite will include a revamped and more usable Outlook, enhanced collaboration tools and support for XML libraries and Smart Documents.
Intel Prescott
The next major development of the Pentium 4 architecture will be a 3.2GHz CPU built on a 90-nanometre (0.09-micron) process. The transistors within this chip, codenamed Prescott will have 50nm gate lengths -- that's 2,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair! Intel claims that the new 90nm architecture is extendable to 10GHz, giving plenty of headroom for future speed increases.
ZDNet Australia's Alex Kidman contributed to this report.
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