Name: Intel Horseshoe Bay

Development: 2012 - 2013

Role: Lead Industrial Designer

Team: Ben Dekock, Shawn McEuen, Mark Macdonald

Horseshoe Bay is an Ultrabook laptop designed with a convertible form factor to allow for flexibility between traditional laptop and tablet use. Designed to run Windows 8, the main focus areas of the device were usability, reliability of the convertible hinge, and integration of the passive thermal solution.

Horseshoe Bay is a Technology Development Vehicle (TDV), designed to showcase the thermal and mechanical innovation developed by the Platform Technology Development Team located at Intel’s Hawthorne Farm facility in Hillsboro, OR.

Hinge Design
A number of different hinging methods and mechanisms were considered, the “folder” hinging technique was concluded to be the most desirable because it was the least mechanically complex and had the fewest user steps to accomplish the transition. Design and engineering worked closely to prototype a novel geared hinge mechanism that allows users to go from traditional laptop mode to a tablet experience in one continuous motion. The hinge was manufactured using a combination of CNC and wire EDM manufacturing methods. This resulted in a hinge that was incredibly strong but also tracked 1:1 as it was opened, eliminating the dual axis from shifting and displacing as was a common problem on other iterations. The main barrel of the hinge was hollow, which allowed power and cabling from the screen in the lid of the computer to be transferred down to the main board in a low profile and discreet way.

Opening Affordance
Due to the multiple use cases (laptop mode and tablet mode), there were a couple areas of the computer that needed special consideration. When in tablet mode, the keyboard became exposed to the resting surface, raising the risk of potential damage. To mitigate this, a unique concave/convex nesting relationship between the lid and the base of the computer was designed. This created a natural opening affordance that ran the width of the computer, and also created a discreet foot for the computer to rest on in tablet mode.

Thermal Solution
Horseshoe Bay utilizes a completely passive thermal technology. A heat pipe is located underneath the top portion of the keyboard and is directly attached to the CPU. The thermal solution works by drawing in cool air through the intakes located underneath the hinge bar, passing it over the heat pipe, and exhausting the hot air through an opening discreetly integrated into the keyboard well.

Main surfaces: Anodized aluminum, brushed, 50% gray

Chassis: CNC aluminum, bead blasted, anodized black

Perimeter surface: Machined ABS, painted soft-touch black