Microsoft listed some intriguing details on their track sessions at this year's WinHEC. UMPC press will want to pay special attention to the "System Fundamentals - Mobility" subtrack.

From the Microsoft WinHEC page:

• Building Remote and Integrated Auxiliary Display Devices with Windows SideShow
• Touch Interface for Tablet PC
• Ultra-Mobile PC Design: An Introduction

Building Remote and Integrated Auxiliary Display Devices with Windows SideShow

This session briefly introduces the Windows SideShow platform and the opportunities that are available for hardware component manufacturers, device manufacturers, and PC original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to build their own SideShow devices or integrate SideShow functionality into their existing devices. It covers the software architecture, how a simple gadget is written, and how to implement a driver to interface with the Windows SideShow platform.

Touch Interface for Tablet PC

This session introduces the Tablet PC touch-based input features that will be available in Windows Vista. It focuses on touch interaction scenarios, usage, and form factors, software features that touch hardware can enable, driver guidance for touch hardware, considerations when choosing touch digitizers, and Windows logo guidelines. Palm rejection and requisite hardware support are covered as well.

Ultra-Mobile PC Design: An Introduction

This session introduces the key elements of ultra-mobile PC design, including general attributes, interaction design, component selection, system architecture, and Windows Vista logo program guidelines. It includes form factor, usage model, and scenario considerations that are unique to this PC category and influence the overall hardware design. The session also discusses major challenge areas and expected hardware trends that will impact future designs, such as wireless wide area network (WWAN) integration and enhanced CPU and chipset implementations. Overall performance characteristics and tradeoffs are also covered.