Jul

Toshiba and Intel joins forces to develop educational tablet PC

CM1 tablet Pc

There have been rapid and revolutionary changes in the method of teaching wherein the latest technology has been harnessed to provide enriched teaching environment as well as content. A tablet PC designed jointly by Toshiba Corporation and Intel aims to add a commercial aspect to the academic’s by using their CM1 tablet Pc for educational purposes. The tablet PC in question is based on the Intel Classmate convertible laptops that was designed and developed by Intel as an educational tool. The Classmate convertible PCs are also used as a reference design by PC manufacturers who only have to make use of the design and development work that has already been done and are only required to tune it further and develop it into a viable product thereby saving on the design and development costs.

And this is exactly what Toshiba has done. And in fact, going by preliminary reports, they have been able to do a good job since what we have with the CM1 tablet PC is a device that is poised to usher in Information and Communication Technology based education on a global basis and promote ICT-supported education right from elementary and junior high schools. Intel and Toshiba wish to jointly promote this tablet PC on a global scale as an educational apparatus and will be demonstrating the PC at schools.

The display using touch screen technology measures 10.1 inch by dimension and has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The screen can be rotated all of 180 degrees and is actually convertible so that it can be twisted and folded down over the keyboard to give rise to a tablet like form factor. The screen is coated with slip resistant rubber to enable easier pen input. This provides students the ability to write on the screen itself and this in turn adds further interest to the learning process. Also, the screen being receptive to pen inputs, it allows the students to practice handwriting while a spill-resistant keyboard means there won’t be any spill over issues to be bothered of.

The LCD screen is backlit and incorporates power saving technology so that the tablet PC is more in the possession of the students than being hooked up to the charging station. Total weight of the device is 1.8 kg which adds to the factor of ease for students as that is all they will need to carry while books would be stored in the gadget itself as e-books. There’s also a handle that makes it easy to carry around the tablet.

The CM1 tablet PC encompasses the hardware specification from Intel Learning Series and amalgamates that with Toshiba’s core abilities with notebook PCs, that of building robust, shock resistant and low power consumption devices. The tablet is built around an Intel NM10 Express Chipset having Intel Atom Processor N450 running at 1.66 GHz. The processor supports 2 GB of onboard memory while storage options include a 160 GB HDD space. The tablet also includes 2 USB ports. Connectivity option on offer with the CM1 tablet Pc is by means of 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, which gives the tablet PC the capability to connect to electronic blackboards and projectors via a wireless media.

The device also has a rotating webcam and comes with built in stereo speakers. Then there is a microphone and two USB ports along with one RGB and one 100 Base TX/10 Base T. OS for the device is Windows 7 Professional which is a 32 bit OS.

The CM1 tablet PC is actually based on the 4th generation Classmate design that Intel has launched at the Cebit electronics show held in Germany in March this year and is going to be introduced in the Japanese market in the start of August 2010.

You will have more on this here as they becomes available along with all the latest tablet PC and e-reader news.

Also, a brand new July edition of the Good E-Reader Magazine is already out!

Sovan Mandal (1917 Posts)

Sovan Mandal is the senior tablet and tech corespondent for goodereader.com. He brings a international approach to news that is not just applicable to the North American market, but also Asia, India, Europe and others. Sovy brings his own writing flavor to the website and is interested in Science Fiction, Technology and Writing. Any questions, send an email