The need for portability has determined a bunch of known and unknown manufacturers to come up with all sorts of concepts for ultra-mobile PCs, and the latest in the apparently never-ending series is Amtek.

Intel gave the signal back in April, with its Ultra Mobile PC platform, on which Fujitsu, Samsung or Asus have built their own prototypes. Nokia’s N95 smartphone and its Internet Tablet have followed the same trend of providing access to Internet everywhere, while Palm tried to catch up with its Foleo “sidekick” for Palm PDAs and smartphones.

The latest addition to the UMPC platform is Amtek’s U560, with sliding screen and built-in slot-loading optical drive and a stand.

The gadget is powered by Intel’s A110 CPU, which runs at 800MHz, and has 512MB of system RAM. It also packs a 1.3 Megapixels camera and a 40GB, 4000 rpm hard drive. The display used is a 4.8" 1024x600 which slides up to reveal a backlit split-qwerty keyboard.

A docking station can be attached to the device, which offers enough space to integrate two USB 2.0 ports and a CompactFlash slot. Wireless connectivity can be achieved through Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and 802.11a/b/g technologies.

The Amtek U560 is expected to launch in the second half of this year with an expected price tag of around $1,200 USD.

(image courtesy of Aving news)