GPS specialist Trimble introduces an innovative, well executed rugged UMPC
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

Trimble's corporate mission is to provide technologies that make field and mobile workers in businesses and government more productive. Their solutions are generally focused on applications requiring position or location -- including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. The Sunnyvale, Calif. company has successfully been doing this since 1978.

They have now entered a new era by offering, to the best of our knowledge, their first ever product that runs full Microsoft Windows instead of Windows CE, Windows Mobile or another handheld OS. What you see below is the Trimble Yuma Rugged Tablet Computer, quietly introduced on February 20, 2009.

While Trimble calls the Yuma a rugged tablet computer, technically it's more like a rugged UMPC (ultra-mobile PC) although it is missing the rudimentary keyboards such units often have below the display. The Yuma measures 9.0 x 5.5 inches, is two inches thick, and weighs 2.6 pounds with the standard battery. The sunlight-readable display measures 7.0 inches diagonally and offers WVGA resolution, which means 1024 x 600 pixel in the by now almost ubiquitous wide aspect ratio format. This is the same format used by almost all of the current crop of netbooks, though their displays are most often in the 9-inch range.

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.

What can you expect from the Yuma's N270's technology? Properly implemented and configured, an Atom N270-based system can consume as little as about seven watts and thus have excellent battery life. As of now, we don't have the battery specs of the Yuma. If it's anywhere like the 6-cell battery in Acer's Aspire One netbook, you may see eight hours. In terms of performance, N270-based systems perform about as well as Core Solo machines, i.e. they are not too terribly quick. They are also saddled by the fairly dated technology in the companion 945GSE chipset that struggles with graphics, 3D and doesn't support high def hardware decoding. Given that the Yuma runs Vista Business, it should be interesting to see how well it performs.

On the storage side, Trimble equipped the Yuma with a 32GB solid state hard disk instead of rotating media. That is a definite plus when it comes to ruggedness as SSDs are inherently better equipped to handle extreme temperatures, shock and vibration. On the other hand, Vista is not known for good SSD support, so, again, it'll be interesting to see benchmarks.

While we do not have all ruggedness specs yet, Trimble indicates a very wide operating temperature range of -22 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and MIL-STD-810F performance for drops, vibration, and humidity. From the looks of the nicely protected machine, and also by its light weight and lack of rotating media, we'd expect it to survive a 4-foot drop. The Yuma is exceptionally well sealed, carrying a IP67 rating where the "6" means total protection against dust, and the "7" that it is waterproof and can even handle immersion into water down to about 3.3 feet. We believe that as we took an IP67-sealed Trimble/TDS Nomad scubadiving down to almost eight feet.

For connectivity, the Yuma has 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0, GPS (of course), and not one but two integrated cameras that are both capable of geotaging, i.e. attach GPS coordinates to images taken. The machine has a 34-pin Expresscard slot as well as an SDIO slot. There are also two USB 2.0 ports, a docking port, and it can, of course, communicate via optional third-party cellular modems or a satellite phone.

The Yuma doesn't have an integrated keyboard or keypad and you use touch or the stylus to operate it. You can use an onboard pop-up keyboard or an optional external one for data entry. The device also has three programmable function leys and a navigation disc.

Since the Yuma may be used in a wide variety of applications, Trimble offers an optional office docking station (see above) as well as vehicle or tripod mounts.

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