What Will be Inside Your Next Laptop?

The computer industry is gearing itself up for the most significant change of technology since the IBM PC appeared back in 1981.

Since then, Intel has ruled the CPU. There have been challenges from other chip manufacturers but only AMD has made any significant impact.

The Intel CPU has had to grow and transform itself significantly over the years to meet modern computing demands, but each stage has had to maintain compatibility with the last. You can still run an old 16-bit DOS system on a modern 32-bit Pentium-based system.

But this compatibility has come at a price.

Intel hasn't been able to take advantage of significant developments in processor design so their CPUs are now very inefficient and waste a lot of power as heat.

Consider a modern mobile phone. It has the roughly the processing power of a 400Mhz Intel Celeron but the efficient design means it doesn't generate much heat and can run for days on a tiny battery.

This Sharp Zaurus hints at the power we can expect from small PCs in the next few years.

Why can't your PC do that?

Well, it looks like it will soon be able to.

A new streamlined architecture is in the final stages of development based around new highly-efficient ARM-based CPUs. (ARM is what remains of the original Acorn Computers who designed the BBC Micro).

However, these new CPUs won't be discrete components, as they are now, they will be part of larger integrated chips which will manage many more of the functions inside the computer. The standard integrated functions will including Bluetooth communication and wireless networking .

This means the number of components inside your laptop will be significantly reduced, making them efficient and very cheap to manufacture.

The other major power eater, the disk drive, will also disappear from your laptop. Memory manufacturers are now shipping 6 gigabyte flash chips. A few of these will provide all the storage you'll need – completely silently – and barely sipping from your battery.

Overall, the power savings mean you'll get closer to twelve hours battery life from a battery half the size of that in modern laptops.

Prototypes of these smaller, more powerful machines exist now and are running Linux and Symbian. It remains to be seen if Microsoft will support the new architecture with a version of Windows, although, given the significant advantages, it would seem unlikely they would miss the opportunity.

Rumours suggest Microsoft agrees.