Your New Field PC – A Rugged Tablet from Trimble?

Rugged Tablet PC, the Trimble Yuma

The full Specs so far (from here):

  • Intel Atom 1.6 GHz processor
  • 32 GB solid state hard drive
  • Integrated WiFi b/g
  • Integrated Bluetooth 2.0
  • Integrated GPS
  • 2 integrated cameras
  • ExpressCard slot
  • SDIO slot
  • Outdoor rugged design
  • 7″ sunlight readable touchscreen display
  • Light Weight (2.6 lb. with standard batteries)

The outdoor rugged blog (affiliated with Trimble?) has a few more details, like that it will run Windows Vista Business, and have WVGA resolution (1024 x 600, wide aspect ratio), have battery life in the 6 hour range, have an operating temperature in the range of -22 to 140 degrees farenheight, has two USB 2.0 ports and a docking port. Still no price as far as I can tell.

Regarding the Atom processor, Conrad Blickenstorfer of Outdoor Rugged says:

The Yuma also shares its processor with the current generation of netbooks. It’s powered by the 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, a supremely power-efficient processor with a thermal design power of just 2.5 watts. That’s less than a tenth of your average notebook chip, just a quarter of the low voltage processors usually used in rugged tablets and half that of Intel’s most miserly Core processor, the 1.2GHz Core Solo U1400. The N270 usually works in conjunction with a low power version of the Intel 945 chipset, the 945GSE.

 

Trimble Yuma rugged tablet PC, front view
(Photo from OutdoorRugged)

 

The solid state hard drive means no moving parts so it should be very tolerant of vibration and drops. Along those lines, the Trimble Yuma Project Manager just reported that they successfully completed the MIL-STD-810F testing for drops, shock, vibration, humidity, etc.  I look forward to hearing more about cool machine.