Hitachi Ltd. said Tuesday it has developed a prototype personal digital assistant (PDA) powered by a fuel cell that runs about five hours.
Hitachi plans to make the PDA more compact and extend its operational hours in the hope of launching sample shipments in 2005, a Hitachi official said.
The prototype PDA weighs about 700 grams, more than twice as heavy as conventional PDAs, and Hitachi plans to reduce the weight to a level similar to conventional PDAs, the official said.
A fuel cell generates electricity when hydrogen from fuel such as hydrogen and methanol combines with oxygen leaving pure water as a by-product.
The fuel cell used in the prototype PDA uses methanol as a source of hydrogen.
A fuel cell is a pollution-free and highly efficient power source and it is expected to be used for automobiles and in households, although its greater cost than that of traditional power sources limits its applications at present.
The prototype PDA is the latest in a series of fuel cell-based consumer electronics products developed by Japanese consumer electronics companies.
NEC Corp. has developed a notebook personal computer (PC) powered by a fuel cell that runs for five hours and plans to extend the operating time to 40 hours for commercial sale in 2005.
Toshiba Corp. has developed a fuel cell-based notebook PC that runs for five hours and a handheld-device fuel cell that weighs 130 grams. Toshiba plans to commercialize them in 2005.
Sources: Hitachi, Kyodo News, E-Gear
