General Dynamics MR-1: Amazing Compact Laptop

April 7, 2009 By: Don Jewell

One device the warfighter likes and uses is a GPS handheld computer from General Dynamics (Itronix) known as the GoBook MR-1.

I have had the MR-1 in my possession for more than three months. Fortunately, General Dynamics (GD) was very understanding about my long-term test drive. I just keep finding new uses for it. While at the NSS, I finally saw a couple of the MR-1s connected to an Iridium phone that was being used as a modem for voice at the top secret level and for data up to the secret level.

Kudos: The MR-1 is truly an amazing device. Our warfighters obviously think so as well because they are buying it. The folks at FOSE, the Federal Office Systems Exposition in Washington, D.C. last month, voted it the GCN or Government Computer News 2008 Best of FOSE Award Winner for handheld computing devices. GCN put it this way when awarding the MR-1the Best of Show award: “The GD Itronix MR-1 ultramobile notebook PC … is a compact rugged laptop PC. Though only 4.3 inches by 6 inches and weighing only 2 pounds, it has all the features of a full-size notebook. It runs a 1.2 GHz Intel Core Solo processor. The 5.6-inch DynaVue display is easily viewed outdoors. It also features a user-removable shock-mounted hard drive and fingerprint reader.”

Rugged: A very nice description of a great product, but it only touches the tip of the iceberg for this amazing little device. It is true that when the MR-1 was first released the government users and warfighters were purchasing it because it is a small, rugged (it can be dropped repeatedly on to a hard surface from three feet), and fully functional windows computer that is easy to use and fits neatly in a BDU (combat uniform) or flight-suit pocket. Then warfighters started using it in theater, and the rugged MILSPEC device was found to be able to handle everything Iraq and Afghanistan threw at it and more; it meets MIL STD 810F & IP54 specifications. Plus, it passed my ruggedness tests with flying colors. Please note that the device is water resistant, which means you can spill a cup of coffee or water on it or use it out in the rain and just wipe it off with no ill effects, but I would not recommend immersing the device in a liquid, although it did pass my snow bank test.

User Friendly: The MR-1 is definitely ergonomic. You can carry it in one hand, and the MR-1 is also very easy to use. While it has a full QWERTY backlit keyboard, touchpad, micro-joystick, mouse thumb buttons, and direction pad, this 2.0- pound computer also has other features that make it a snap to use. It required no operating manual either for the computer or the GPS functions. It is obvious that General Dynamics has thought through the man-machine interface to such a degree that on-the-go computing is indeed painless. Maybe Rockwell Collins should talk with the GD folks about the user interfaces for GPS devices.

One minor feature or tiny key that works extremely well, considering that this is a Windows-based machine, is a single CTRL-ALT-DEL key. It is in a location where you won’t hit the key accidentally and it saves several keystrokes and time. Just one of those nice to have features.

DynaVue: Earlier I mentioned the DynaVue touchscreen. This is the second GD Itronix device that I have reviewed with this very viewable screen. It is viewable in all conditions including bright sunlight and, even more difficult, sunlight reflected off snow. Once you see this screen you will never want another handheld device that does not feature this day-night all-weather viewable capability. Plus, GD manages to incorporate the screen on a touchscreen device, which makes it even more important to be able to see the screen in all viewing conditions.

Specifications, Communications, and GPS: The MR-1 may be small and that is a good thing, but the processing power is considerable and works well with this device. The 1.2 GHz Intel Core Solo processor powers all the necessary computing functions, and the GPS SiRFStarIII chip, with its own processor, works the GPS functions. The two are integrated nicely.

Both standard hard drives and solid-state drives are available for the MR-1. My test version had the 80 GB hard drive with a standard heater, very necessary in the mountains of Afghanistan. A 40 GB version is also available, but one of the MR-1s at the NSS had the optional solid-state drive, and I thought that device was just a wee bit faster than the MR-1 with the standard drives. It is probably a difference you can’t measure without a precise, say, a GPS atomic, clock, but the point is the solid-state drives also make the device more resistant to drive failures, since there are no moving parts. This is an excellent storage option for our warfighters.

With the SiRF GPS chip and all the inherent GPS capabilities in the MR-1, which I will get to later, it is certainly desirable to have wireless communications capabilities, and the MR-1 has them in spades. From a wireless mobility point of view, the MR-1 keeps you connected for ultimate mobility and productivity. The MR-1 offers multiple wireless options including WWAN, (wireless wide area network) WLAN (wireless local area network), 802.11a/b/g, PAN (wireless personal area network), embedded GPS, and Bluetooth. The MR-1 can also connect to an outboard communications device such as the Iridium phone I mentioned earlier. And when the MR-1 is connected to Iridium and uses the special GD compression software for data and images, the relative transfer speed is much faster than you might expect. I tested a 1MB digital photo file that was compressed by 80 percent via the GD software, and the file transferred to my home computer is less than 20 seconds — not bad for a 2400 kilobit pipe that is more typical of Iridium data speeds and without compression would have taken several minutes to download.

For communications, the MR-1 may be one of the most flexible handheld computers I have ever used in the field, and this is indeed where the MR-1 shines. You can easily connect up to three RF (radio frequency) modems and have a GPS receiver integrated all at one time. The MR-1 is engineered for minimum radio interference and allows you to obtain maximum wireless coverage regardless of your location. It has superior wireless power management, to extend battery life, with the MobilityXE software for secure wireless access and seamless roaming between your wireless or wired WAN and LAN coverage areas. With multiple modems, the device can be hard wired and configured for wireless reception at the same time.

The MR-1 has Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 802.11 a/b/g network connections with dual-band diversity antennas in the 2.4 and 5.0 GHz range. For secure authentication, the system uses WPA (Wi-Fi protected access) and WPA2, 802.1X (EAP-TLS, TTLS, MD5, PEAP, LEAP, EAPFAST), EAP-SIM.

For secure encryption the MR-1 can handle 64-bit and 128-bit WEP (wired equivalent privacy), AESCCMP, CKIP, and TKIP. I could spend all day boring you with explanations of all these acronyms, but the fact is if you need them you already know what they are for; suffice it to say the MR-1 device is as secure as you or the military need it to be and can handle receiving and sending information across the Iridium band and other approved military radios at the highest classification levels.

If you need to communicate anywhere across the wireless telephone bands for voice or data, the MR-1 has the following WAN options. It can send and receive data and voice across the EDGE/UMTS and HSDPA bands/networks. It has mini-card WWAN radio modules and has integrated 800-2500 Ultra-wideband antennas. What all this really means is that your MR-1 can likely communicate seamlessly and wirelessly across almost any wireless telephone network you might encounter, especially in theater.

It also has a useful capability with Bluetooth II options. The MR-1 incorporates Bluetooth version two, and class two capabilities with a sensitive and integrated Bluetooth antenna. For those of you that read my January review of the Ricoh combat camera, you may remember that I mentioned streaming video and data from the camera to a Bluetooth-equipped computer or recording device. The MR-1 is one of the devices I used, along with the Trimble NOMAD, to test the camera, and it worked seamlessly. This combination gives you an almost unlimited number of photos you can take, store, and forward via any of the computer’s communications connections, but it works wirelessly via the Bluetooth connection. Indeed, the camera and computer pair together very well.

Cables: While I was attending the AFCEA symposium earlier this year, I met a cable manufacturer that makes custom cables for the military. The engineer in the booth demonstrated a multifunction cable for an MR-1 he had on display that connected the device to power, an external battery, an external back-up hard drive, an Iridium phone, a military radio standard connector, and a projection device, all at the same time — plus there was an option for an external GPS antenna as well. So it is obvious that the GD MR-1 is garnering some attention from government and military users and is a value-added device in theater for our warfighters. Unfortunately, I misplaced the business card from the cable manufacturer I just mentioned, but I promise to find it and mention the company in a future article.

Batteries: I also mentioned an external battery for the device, but it is rarely necessary. The MR-1 has a long battery life and excellent power management software. Whether connected to GPS or external devices, you can typically keep working with the 3- and 6-hour battery-life options enhanced by the proven General Dynamics Itronix Power Saver utility and an ultra-fast charging capability. The MR-1 I had as a test demo typically charged from a fully depleted battery to a full charge in less than 30 minutes. Initially, I was not sure how good this quick charge feature was for the main battery on the MR-1, but the GD engineers assured me that quick-charging a Lithium Polymer battery is not detrimental to the life or longevity of the battery if accomplished correctly. The standard main MR-1 battery is a state-of-the-art Lithium Polymer 4000 mAH (29 Wh or 29-watt power adapter) device on the standard machine, which is typically good for about three hours, and which can be upgraded to an optional 8000 mAH (59Wh) Lithium-Ion extended battery pack, which significantly lengthens your work time to six hours. This is actual work time. When the machine is in standby mode, it draws very little power. I frequently used the MR-1 device all day, only powering it on when I had a task to perform, and otherwise maintaining it in standby mode. The battery lasted most of an 8- to 10-hour workday. Technical note: a milliampere-hour (mAh) is one-thousandth of an ampere-hour or 3.6 coulombs.

Stealth: A special feature of the MR-1 for our warfighters is that the device has what is called a stealth mode, which allows you to boot the computer with all connections without any sound or light emissions. Can you say snake eater?

GPS: Finally, we need to discuss the MR-1’s GPS capabilities. The MR-1 comes with an option for an integrated GPS module and antenna. I cannot imagine having the MR-1 without the tightly integrated GPS capability. The MR-1 has a very sensitive high-performance quadrifilar helix antenna that allowed me to receive 5-6 satellites in a subterranean room with minimal windows. On the first floor of any building it was not a problem to routinely receive 8-10 satellites while indoors. Winfast Navigator GPS software comes standard with the machine. I ran several after-market GPS programs, and as long as they would load on a Windows machine they worked flawlessly on the MR-1. I incorporated TomTom’s street navigation software and received very accurate turn-by-turn navigation in my automobile. I loaded several military grid systems and they all saw the GPS module and connected with it seamlessly. That is the primary advantage of having a GPS handheld device that is first and foremost a computer with many integration capabilities. I connected an external GPS antenna only because I had one available from another, less sensitive machine that needed the antenna, but it became readily apparent that the internal helix antenna for the MR-1 was more sensitive than the external antenna. Although there may indeed be some circumstances where terrain masking might require an external antenna, I never encountered them, even in the Rocky Mountains.

This just further highlights the amazing capabilities of this handheld computer and GPS device for our warfighters or for anyone that needs a rugged handheld computer and GPS to use in the field.

The MR-1 comes with a standard and very generous three-year warranty and has more accessories than I can begin to list, and there appear to be more and more options for it showing up almost daily. I hated to send my demo model back. There are just so many uses for a rugged machine like this. I hope you all have a chance to try one. I highly recommend it.