Top companies in the mobile computing industry have announced Mini PCI, a proposed standard for integrated communications that targets small form factor products such as notebook PCs, docking stations and printers. The new specification is a joint effort of the Mini PCI Roundtable, a group of 10 leading companies including 3Com Corporation, AMP Incorporated, Compaq Computer Corporation, Dell Computer Corporation, Gateway, Hitachi PC Corporation, IBM Corporation, Micron Electronics, Inc., Mobility Electronics, Inc. and Toshiba Corporation.
Mini PCI defines an extremely small daughter card (as small as 2.75"by 1.81"by .22") that is functionally equivalent to a standard PCI expansion card and developed specifically for integrated communication peripherals such as modems and network interface cards (NICs), explains 3Com SA`s channel director, Dirk Bosmans.
"The proposed Mini PCI daughter card standard maintains the essential electronics, functionality, PC signals and software drivers of standard PCI expansion cards," he says. "The new specification also gives hardware manufacturers greater placement flexibility of these integrated communication peripherals at a reduced cost."
"The new Mini-PCI standard is just what is needed to address the issues that have hampered the integration of communications services inside notebook computers," says Ernie Raper, Senior Market Analyst at VisionQuest 2000. "In the final analysis, the result will likely be that manufacturer`s cost will decline, user`s will gain a significant benefit, and the market will get a nice boost as well. It is a credit to the industry for having the foresight to have invested the efforts necessary to bring about this long overdue standard."
Introduced in the early 1990s, PCI local bus technology provides a processor-independent data path between the CPU and high-speed peripherals.
3Com`s Bosmans says that PCI is widely accepted in the PC community as a robust interconnect mechanism that accommodates multiple high performance peripherals for communications, graphics, full motion video, SCSI, LAN and other functions.
"The Mini PCI Roundtable submitted the new specification today to the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG) steering committee in Seattle, Washington. The proposed specification represents over 12 months research and review by the participating companies," he adds.
While smaller size, greater placement flexibility and reduced cost were the fundamental drivers for Mini PCI, additional benefits of the Mini PCI specification include:
- An open architecture for integrated communication peripherals, which will create competition and lower prices.
- Improved time-to-market for manufacturers who implement a Mini PCI interface by separating peripheral (i.e., integrated modem and NIC) development from system development.
- Ability to obtain country regulatory approvals for modems independent from the host system which also improves time-to-market for manufacturers.
- Enhanced ability for manufacturers to deliver build-to-order and configure-to-order communications options to better meet customer needs.
- Standardization facilitates ease of field serviceability compared with proprietary daughter card designs, reducing total cost of ownership and repair time.
"The concept of an open architecture based on well established and standard PCI technology translates to decreasing prices, an immediate win for the end-user," says Shannon Pleasant, Industry Analyst with Cahners In-Stat Group. "The specification responds to the increasingly demanding build-to-order PC model, and enhances competition in a market that continues to move towards integrated communication peripherals."
"Development of Mini PCI has been a collaborative, consensus-driven effort for well over a year,"says Kip Meacham, Chairman of the Mini PCI Roundtable. "These are experienced mobile hardware and peripherals manufacturers who recognized the need for a smaller, more versatile form factor and dedicated significant time and company resources to create the new specification."
Editors Note
3Com Corporation enables individuals and organisations worldwide to stay more connected by communicating and sharing information and resources anytime, anywhere. As one of the world`s preeminent suppliers of data, voice and video communications technology, 3Com has delivered networking solutions to more than 200 million customers worldwide. The company provides large enterprise, small and medium enterprise, carriers and network service providers, and consumers comprehensive, innovative information access products and system solutions for building intelligent, reliable and high performance local and wide area networks. For further information, visit 3Com`s World Wide Web site at http://www.3Com.com or the press site at http://www.3Com.com/pressbox.
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