During an event held by Transmeta at COMDEX 2000, a host of Crusoe-based laptops, webpads, and other devices were laid out for a horde of hungry enthusiasts. One of the surprises to cross our path was a first generation prototype of a WebPad Hitachi is working on. The device is based on the Crusoe TM5400 processor. The "Personal Internet Appliance" was one of the few WebPad devices in the midst of many sub-notebooks at the event.  As Dec. 7, 2000 Hitachi has announced that it will "immediately begin shipping its Crusoe-based Internet appliance in Japan. The company also plans to introduce the product in the U.S. as the result of demand at Comdex."

"Hitachi's new device lets you put the Internet in your hand and surf the web with the stroke of a pen," said Dave Ditzel, chief executive officer, Transmeta Corporation. "Transmeta's Crusoe microprocessor allows Hitachi to put all the performance of a PC into a handheld computer with up to seven hours of battery life."

The Hitachi webpad employs a touch screen, so fingers (or a stylus) can be used to navigate through the web a la Netscape's Gecko browser running on Mobile Linux - no one was positive what version of Mobile Linux was being utilized however. Thanks to a Crusoe TM5400 processor, and the lack of a hard drive, the unit will run for about 8 hours on one battery. Hard drives have a tendency to drain the power from a battery faster then solid state storage mediums like Flash Memory. Keeping this in mind, Hitachi incorporates a 48 MB compact flash card, which can be expanded to 64MB. No fan is built into the device, ensuring silent use.

Seeing as the webpad is designed for "ease of use, mobility, and long lasting battery life" it will be interesting to see what happens when a user wants to  do more than just surf the web and send email. The obvious memory limitations almost completely rule out services like Napster...

Navigation is awkward with the fingers as the full-sized keyboard is squeezed into the span of touch screen. The keyboard can be enlargedo on the screen to make typing by finger easier without hitting errant keys. However given the key density, it's much better suited to the use of the stylus for typing onscreen. What information on the technical specs of this Hitachi WebPad are listed on the next page.