Sharp will reportedly launch a Linux PDA with an internal hard disk drive early next month. According to The Register, the Zaurus SL-C3000 will ship in Japan on November 10th, and will be based on a 416MHz Intel XScale PXA270 (formerly Bulverde) processor.

The new Zaurus SL-C3000 appears to have a clamshell form-factor similar to the SL-C860, rather than the vertical form-factor of the SL-6000 available in the U.S. According to The Register, it will have 16MB of ROM and 64MB of SDRAM. It will also include a 4GB hard drive. Another new feature is what appears to be a small trackball-like pointing device, which the website refers to as a “five-way navigator control.”

Additional features mentioned by the The Register include:

• Swivel screen for PDA or clamshell use
• 3.7in 640 x 480 LCD touchscreen
• SD and CompactFlash expansion slots
• IrDA (but no other built-in wireless)
• USB
• earphones
• QWERTY keypad
• “five-way navigator control”
• Kanji and western character handwriting recognition
• There's written text input too, with Kanji and Western character recognition

The Intel PXA270 is the newest ARM-based chip from Intel targeting mobile multimedia devices. It was announced as “Bulverde” in September, 2003, began sampling in April, and shipped in June. In addition to the 416MHz model used in the new Zaurus, the PXA270 is also available in 312MHz and 520MHz models. The chip includes power saving technologies that are likely to prove useful in a PDA with spinning magnetic media.

Additional details and photos are available at The Register

 
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