We browsed the ECS Elitegroup suite with Alexander Tao, GM of the Systems Business, and Chien Shih, VP of Tech Operations.

Chien Shih and Alex Tao show off ECS's modular mobility products. It's really a laptop without the screen. Keep the LCD display on your desk, unplug your system, take it home, plug it into an LCD there, and back again. Like carrying a loose leaf folder around. IBM has done some work in this area, too.

ECS is branching out into all kinds of areas.

Purple motherboards were the norm, and when asked why purple, the response was, "because all the other good colors were taken." It was a classic remark, one for the PC-technology history books!.

ECS also showed us their Concept PC with no floppy drive.

Goodbye floppy drive

This is the beginning of a trend, or something. A drive bay solely made up of slots and USB ports to handle solid state media, compact Flash, and other memory stick-iness.

If Comdex is the legacy of a fading tech revolution, then maybe it's not so bad if the PC says adios to its own legacy and we all move on. At least until the next tech revolution comes along, and some other clever sadist figures out how to herd us back to this city while charging a fortune for a cup of coffee.

Please follow-up by reading Comdex 2001 Day 2: ATI's New Drivers .