Latitude ON is an instant on

Instant on

In computers, instant on is the ability to boot nearly instantaneously, so one can get online or use a specific application without waiting for a PC's traditional operating system to launch. Instant-on technology is today mostly used on laptops, netbooks, and nettops because the user can boot up...

 computer system made by Dell. It is a combination of software and hardware developed by Dell

Dell

Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...

 and used in some of their Latitude

Dell Latitude

Latitude is Dell's business laptop brand, designed and manufactured mainly by Compal and Quanta.-Overview and product type:The Dell Latitude is targeted for business use. This means that standardized parts are used throughout the line and are available for several years for support purposes...

 laptops. The system is based on a dedicated ARM processor (Texas Instruments OMAP 3430) that runs a custom version of a Linux OS. It was announced on August 12, 2008 along with other laptops, including a potential competitor to the Asus

ASUS

ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated is a multinational computer technology and consumer electronics product manufacturer headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Its product range includes motherboards, desktops, laptops, monitors, tablet PCs, servers and mobile phones...

 Eee PC and arrived a year later on 28 September 2009.

Latitude ON runs MontaVista

MontaVista

MontaVista Software is a software developer that develops embedded Linux system software, development tools, and related software. Its products are targeted at other corporations developing embedded systems such as automotive electronics, communications equipment, mobile phones, and other...

 Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 on an ARM

ARM architecture

ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...

-based subprocessor. This so-called MontaVista Montabello Mobile Internet Device Solution provides a customizable, Linux-based Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform the laptop is able to boot almost instantly and view Email

Email

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

, document reader, calendar, contacts and access the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

.

First laptop models to include Latitude ON were E4200 and E4300 released in February 2009. Last laptop model introduced so far is Latitude Z600. Dell claims that battery life can be extended to days.

Latitude ON Reader is similar to Dell's MediaDirect

Dell MediaDirect

Dell MediaDirect is a software application that is published by Dell, Inc. and is pre-installed on the computers they sell. It attempts to provide DVD and CD playback and recent editions include features such as an address book and calendar. It is a custom version of CyberLink PowerCinema...

 where the software is located in a separate partition on the system hard drive and has a dedicated button to power on.

Versions

There are several versions of Latitude ON:

• Dell Latitude ON | Reader - Dell's initial release of the technology. The Reader software resides on the main partition of the hard drive, boots in 15–25 seconds, uses the laptop's CPU, and provides read-only access to e-mail, calendar and contacts from the last synched version of the system's Outlook data. No Internet browser.
• Dell Latitude ON | FLASH - runs on a flash module, but uses the system's CPU, without significantly increased battery life. Features: boots in 8–10 seconds, supports Wi-Fi and LAN, thin client capabilities with Web access or Citrix, VMware and RDP clients, multi-protocol IM, VoIP (Skype, using the built-in webcam if present), Microsoft Office
  Microsoft Office
  Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
  
   document viewer and editor (requires Internet connection), Java, Adobe Flash.
• Dell Latitude ON | ECM - boots in 2–3 seconds and runs on the dedicated sub-processor, with Wi-Fi or Mobile Broadband support. Includes document reader, and read/write access to e-mail, calendar and contacts, and Firefox, but without Adobe Flash or other media plugins. Supports Novell GroupWise
  Novell GroupWise
  GroupWise is a messaging and collaborative software platform from Novell that supports email, calendaring, personal information management, instant messaging, and document management. The platform consists of the client software, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the server...
  
  and Cisco VPN. Long battery life (about 17 hours on a 6-cell battery).

Latitude ON Comparison Chart

External links

• Latitude ON Video