New PC designs for a Deep impact

By PETER GRIFFIN

The boffins who while away their hours in the labs of the world's big computer companies have been given a mission - to create a breed of PCs that use simplicity and style to disguise an increasingly complex jumble of hardware.

Macintosh started the ball rolling with the iMac range, but Toshiba, Compaq, Intel and Dell have quickly responded with a host of futuristic and funky-looking concepts that threaten to make it onto the market.

And as the desktop PC market faces growing pressure from the rising popularity of handheld and notebook computers, looks are becoming all-important.

Enter Hewlett-Packard's vision of "the far future" of office computing, the curiously named Deep Forest, ready to bring some pizazz into a world dominated by bland-looking square boxes.

The lunchbox-shaped machine is a legacy-free, Bluetooth-enabled "e-PC" that harnesses the power of Intel's new Pentium 4 chip and comes with seven USB (universal serial bus) ports for connecting everything from keyboard and mouse to external disk drives and printers.

Auckland played host to one of only three Deep Forest prototypes in existence recently as Hewlett-Packard continued an Australasian road trip designed to gauge interest. If this concept PC makes it into offices around the world, it will do so at a price of around $US4000 ($8990).

It may look like an oversized lunchbox, but according to Gerhard Schiele, Hewlett-Packard's marketing manager for commercial desktops in Asia Pacific, Deep Forest represents everything the fashion-conscious PC user needs these days.

"This is the most powerful PC per cubic inch on the planet," says Mr Schiele.

"The development process for PCs has changed. We are not just talking about different designs and colours but different technologies."

Hewlett-Packard has designed Deep Forest with multiple uses in mind. Use it horizontally as a surface for scribbling notes or a perch for the office coffee pot. Plastic casing lets you adorn Deep Forest with photos or schedules.

Concept PCs come and go and only a fraction of the stylish prototypes unveiled at computer trade shows and product launches actually make it onto the shelves of computer stores.

Links:

www.intel.com

www.hp.com