When Intel came to us they had been quietly working on a new category of consumer electronics. Intel's engineers from the "Emerging Platforms Lab" developed the technology for a new breed of portable devices called the PVP, which stands for Personal Video Player. The PVP is a highly compact device with a nice size backlit LCD, an internal hard drive, and firmware capable of handling a wide variety of formats.

Intel wouldn't actually be manufacturing PVPs, they're responsible for the technology and concept, but they wanted to take the idea to other OEMs and let them run with it. As this was their pet project, they have some recommended key features and suggested tech specs, but the final products would be up to individual manufacturers.

HouserWorks took its part by CNC machining, constructing and finishing the first few prototypes for Intel. This job required the prototype cases to be a quick turnaround. The case consisted of two thin walled shell halves and a set of very small buttons. There were also two different case designs with their own distinctive buttons. Each completed case design was finished with one of 3 different surface finishes concluding with a total of 6 unique models.

Second to the short lead-time, the next biggest challenge was the actual design. The PVP cases needed to be very slender and the design called out for very tight tolerances throughout. Likewise the small buttons for each platform required some special tools and extra attention. The finished pieces turned out to be beautifully simplistic, light weight and quite strong; perfect for housing the latest Intel MP4 technology.