Hewlett-Packard Co is set to announce its Jupiter class handheld PC product using Microsoft Corp’s Windows CE, Handheld PC Professional Edition today (Monday). The machine will also be the first to use Intel Corp’s StrongARM SA-1101 chip, running at 190MHz (CI No 3,512). Previously, HP has used the Hitachi SH-3 in handheld products such as the 620LX and 660LX, but says the ARM chip gives it a big performance boost over the 130MHz SH-3, as well as supporting VGA-out and USB peripherals. HP, which introduced the first widescreen handheld in 1997 and the first color models this year, says it expects to hang on to its number one position in the handheld market this year with a 40% plus share. It expects the market to divide up between higher-end Jupiter handhelds that mostly use StrongARM and lower-end systems using the SH-3. It thinks StrongARM will make its handhelds better placed to act as extensions to full-blown Wintel systems. All the research and development for HP handhelds is done in Singapore. Hitachi said it won eleven of the first wave of seventeen handheld systems using CE to come to market with its SH-3 chip. MIPS Technologies Inc is also competing for a slice of the market. Philips Electronics Inc, whose Velo device uses the MIPS part, has said it won’t be introducing a Jupiter-class version.
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