Shuttle Shows Instant-On Media Center PC

TAIPEI -- Shuttle, which specializes in small form-factor PCs, has developed a technology that can start up a Windows-based PC in a matter of seconds, a company official says.

Shuttle's Always Ready technology allows a PC running Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system to start up in under five seconds after being put into a suspended state, says James Lin, special assistant to the chief executive officer of Shuttle.

Lin demonstrated the function by putting a PC in the Always Ready state and then bringing it back to normal operation at the Computex exhibition here.

"The idea is to find a way for the computer to reboot more quickly," Lin says.

Stand By

The Always Ready state doesn't turn the computer off, Lin says. Instead, the power state keeps a very small amount of electricity running through a PC, just as it would in Stand By mode. However, the computer can be reactivated more quickly than with Windows' Stand By capability, he says.

The Media Center-based Shuttle XPC M1000 computer will be the first PC to incorporate the technology, Lin says. It is expected to ship in "a couple of months from now" and will be priced above $1000, he says, noting that exact pricing and availability have not been decided.

The Shuttle XPC M1000 is based on an Intel Pentium M 740 processor and has support for IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networking, Lin says.

Computex runs through Saturday.

For more coverage of Asia's largest technology show, see PC World's Computex news page.