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Hardware

NEC Launches "PowerMate Eco" Green PC 249

Posted by michael from the leave-only-footprints dept.
jdstahl writes "NEC has just released the PowerMate Eco, billed as the world's first environmentally-friendly PC. Based on a 900 MHz Transmeta Crusoe (thanks Linus!), it is ultra-compact, ultra low power, and nearly silent. Its motherboard contains no lead, and the case is made from recycled plastic. Its expandability is limited, so this is probably not a geek-box, but it seems like an appealing choice for Joe Desktop."
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NEC Launches "PowerMate Eco" Green PC More

NEC Launches "PowerMate Eco" Green PC

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  • New improved FP version 4.0 (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Get your own!!!
    Now with 500 hours free.
  • While I'm sure this definitly does produce much less heat then an average PC, the lack of a fan kinda scares me. Especially when used in an office with a bunch of other computers, people, during the winter when the heater is cranked on.

    • Re:No fan (Score:2, Informative)

      by Justen ( 517232 )
      The second generation of iMacs were fanless. Running with the G3 chip and convection cooling allowed Apple to ditch the fan and make an (almost) silent computer. The new iMac G4 does have a fan, but it is fairly quiet and energy-efficent in its own right.

      jrbd

  • But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by jzs9783 ( 612647 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:07PM (#4376554)
    Is it biodegradable?
    • Is it biodegradable?

      "If it's true ... that plastic is not biodegradable, well then the Earth will just create a new paradigm: The Earth + Plastic."

      • He also said that maybe, that's the whole reason we're here. The earth couldn't make plastic on it's own, so it created us to do it. Now that we've created plastic for the earth, we're expendable, and the earth can now move on to the next great stage in it's evolution.
        • He also said that maybe, that's the whole reason we're here. The earth couldn't make plastic on it's own, so it created us to do it. Now that we've created plastic for the earth, we're expendable, and the earth can now move on to the next great stage in it's evolution.

          Absolutely... he said:

          It might be the answer to the age old question:

          Why are we here?!

          "PLASTIC ... ASS-HOLE!"

    • Re:But... (Score:4, Funny)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:43PM (#4376849)
      the hell w/it being biodegradable.

      What I *really* want w/a PC is an EDIBLE one. You use it for 2 or 3 years and you are ready to move on to a new one...

      You take out all the components you want to save and you eat the rest! Yummmy. Thanks Linus :)

    • Not quite on the subject of computers, but my parents bought a German Trabant car 10 years ago (one of the last production ones)... and the body is made out of a compressed paper, and you can get this special chemical which dissolves it completely!

      Although with a 2 stroke engine (almost like a lawnmower) and for gasoline you have to a 1/4 oil per refill, it ain't that great on the emissions front, but slipstreaming behind HGV's works a treat!.

      • A Trabi? Ok, the body is semi-recyclable (actually, chopped, compressed plastic, not 'paper').
        BUT, the 600 cc, 2-cycle engine emissions more than makes up for it, and if you get in even a minor ding, the whole thing is toast. Along with you.

        German Trabant = ex-East German Trabant. Quite possibly the most disgusting, unsafe vehicle sold in the last 50 years.

  • but how about the manufacturing process? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by quinophexx ( 602554 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:07PM (#4376559)
    Ok so the motherboard is lead free as is the tft boron free. So what about all the nasty chemicals used to build components? what about when the machine reaches end of life? where will it go? Sounds like marketing FUD to me, although hopefully this is a step in the right direction I doubt it really is a "green" pc.
    • So what about all the nasty chemicals used to build components? what about when the machine reaches end of life?

      Ummm, those are the concerns that make it valuable to eliminate the lead and boron from the manufacturing process (and from the discarded system). It's not because you'll be licking your motherboard.

      As you said, it's a step forward. It's not like angels will come down from heaven to declare "Green!" has been achieved.

    • Re:but how about the manufacturing process? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Gerry Gleason ( 609985 ) <gerry@@@geraldgleason...com> on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:26PM (#4376733)
      It certainly could just be marketing, but the real question is what should a company that really wants to put eco principles into practice. One organization that I have come across that helps businesses improve there processes is The Natural Step [naturalstep.org]. Part of their pitch is that it is also more efficient==cost effective.

      Also, we can't get there in one jump, but need to concentrate on the big ones first and keep going until we get a system that is sustainable. That's the only way we and are descendants will get to stay here in the long run.

    • Re:but how about the manufacturing process? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Bobb Sledd ( 307434 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:28PM (#4376739) Homepage
      I believe it's correctly termed "green" because the manufacturer has clearly put time, effort, and thought into making the machine as reasonably environmentally friendly as possible with the current technology available.

      You could say something like "this nuclear power plant is environmentally friendly." Well, true that it may not harm the environment as *much* as other alternatives, but it isn't totally pollution free either; but there really isn't much manufactured that is.

      Point being, I think "green" is a term much deserved by manufacturers who are thinking about the environment when building their products. I think it shows responsibility and even has a tint of higher geekdom to it.
    • Sounds like marketing FUD to me

      Not all lies are FUD. FUD is fear, uncertainty, and doubt. When MS says the GPL is a virus that will infect all your source code, that is FUD. If I say my widget will process 3 trillion zonks per second and was made entirely from recycled used toilet paper, it may be a lie, but it isn't FUD.

    • where will it go?

      Asia, probably.. [bbc.co.uk] but it is a step in the right direction. Even though most computers can be useful enough to donate to other less fortunate countries, people need to be more aware of how to achieve this [bbc.co.uk] and have easier accessabilty to do it.

    • Re:but how about the manufacturing process? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Waffle Iron ( 339739 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:49PM (#4376891)
      So what about all the nasty chemicals used to build components?

      AMD had been working on a new CPU fabrication process based on hemp fibers and herbal extracts instead of silicon and solvents, but the government shut the project down after lobbying from chemical and mining companies.

    • As far as I know, LCDs are not any more eco friendly than lead glass CRTs, due to the use of mercury in their backlights...

      • LCD danger... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by zenyu ( 248067 )

        mercury in their backlights

        1) LCD's do not need to use fluorescent lamps, they can use LED's. Even with fluorescent lamp it's a step in the right direction.

        2) The power savings of using an LCD is significant.

  • CDRW (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jhines0042 ( 184217 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:07PM (#4376560) Journal
    Does anyone know how to recycle a used and discarded CDRW? Seriously. How many of these get thrown out yearly now and are they just sitting in landfills taking up space or are they recyclable?

    Also applies to all those AOL CDs.

    • i have light shows in the microwave with them

    • Well for CD's in general (apart from the usual drink coaster option), they're great for agricultural use with regard to scarecrows... string loads of CD's on one and they move in a gentle breeze (as well as the reflectiveness of them) and frighten off any birds.

      Although the scarecrow to CD ratio may not be enough to deal with a minute amount of those damn AOL CD's floating around the planet.

    • Re:CDRW (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Cheeko ( 165493 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:14PM (#4376635) Homepage Journal
      Well as far as the AOL CDs, send them to these guys [nomoreaolcds.com]. Their web design skills aren't great, but they have a cool idea for all those spam CDs. I found the statistics about how much space and weight all those CDs take up to be rather interesting. Would be fun to see the look on the faces of the AOL execs if these guys ever get around to delivering these.
    • Do you mean CDR? Wouldn't you just re-use a CDRW with new data? Assuming it is undamaged, of course.

      A while I remember a site that sponsored a contest for the most creative use of AOL CDs. One person covered there car with them. Looked kind of like fish scales, only bigger. I may have even seen it on slashdot, but it is too far back to remember for sure.

      • Re:CDRW (Score:2, Funny)

        by GigsVT ( 208848 )
        My theory: AOL cds can be used for a low cost (almost free!), heat deflecting, RF radiation blocking, roofing material.

        The key is to not crack the cds. You need to use flexible washers of some sort and drive the nail through the center hole of the CD, making sure to overlap them like you would normal shingles.

        Note that I have not tried this yet, but I plan to build a small outbuilding to house a generator in the not so distant future, and I have started saving up AOL CDs. One hinderance to my stockpile is that they are so much fun to shoot with a pellet gun. :)
    • One usage could be for christmas ornaments - even gluing the faces of two AOL cd's together, hanging off a christmas tree would make a cool looking reflective ornament.
      Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the art departments in colleges/schools would take them. They could make very interesting pieces of artwork.
  • It seem like a good idea, esp. for environmentalists. If it packed more expandability and more up-to-date features, it may be a pretty good idea/seller.
  • 24" CRT monitor! Sure, the lights still dim when I turn it on, but Man, I'll bet bluecurve will look mighty perty!

  • Isn't Lead just one of the problems? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I was under the impression that there's more than lead that's a problem in motherboards.
    • The bromide comes from fire retardant coating on the plastic. This thing uses a fire retardant that is silicone based, and mixed in with the actual plastic.

      Also, the computer doesn't contain any lead, barium, boron, cobalt, or any of another 32 toxic chemicals found in regular computers. I don't think that includes the hard drive or CD-ROM, though.

  • Business plan. (Score:3, Funny)

    by coopaq ( 601975 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:10PM (#4376585)
    1. Create enviro friendly PC.
    2. Pray to god, rich Green Peace Loving geeks didn't all buy MACs.
    • > 1. Create enviro friendly PC.
      > 2. Pray to god, rich Green Peace Loving geeks didn't all buy MACs.

      3. ???
      4. PROFIT!

      Sorry, someone had to say it.

  • Will Joe Desktop pay $1600? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lawbeefaroni ( 246892 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:10PM (#4376589) Homepage
    At $1600*, I don't see this being for "Joe Desktop" either. Maybe corporations will buy them for energy and space savings or your average home user will like the "green" aspect, but there a lot of other, cheaper options. Hopefully it does well, but it's the old "too expensive for the non-enthusiast, too limited for the power freak" problem.

    * Price from PCConnection here [pcconnection.com].

    • I haven't seen power consumption numbers, but over the life of the PC, it's quite possible that the machine will save the difference in lower energy costs. Just switching to an LCD on a desktop makes a significant difference in power consumption.

      • Re:Will Joe Desktop pay $1600? (Score:4, Informative)

        by Target Drone ( 546651 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @06:06PM (#4377005)
        I haven't seen power consumption numbers, but over the life of the PC, it's quite possible that the machine will save the difference in lower energy costs.

        The spec says it requires 18V DC at 4.44 amps. I believe that works out to about 80 watts. So then assuming your saving about 200 watts over a conventional computer then

        200 watts * 160 hours per month = 32 kWh

        Electricity goes for about 8 cents per kWh so you save about $2.56 per month. Even if you have the machine for 5 years you only save $153.

        • Re:Will Joe Desktop pay $1600? (Score:4, Informative)

          by Alan Cox ( 27532 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @06:10PM (#4377031) Homepage
          If Joe Desktop wants a cheap box thats going to use low power then the VIA Eden boards are much more credible platforms.

          Not only are they low power but you can get cheap mostly metal cases (in black too) and they are almost silent, including an option of no CPU fan.

          Finally as sites like www.mini-itx.com show you can recycle insane things like bread bins, sparc ipx's and even a nes as cases for them
    • Nope, only Johnny Apple would be foolish enough to pay that for a computer.
  • It looks like the cpu is in the base of the monitor. When the CPU is outdated, can I use the screen with another computer? If I can't then it doesn't seem very evironment-friendly.

    Are Transmeta microprocessors manufactured in a particularly environment friendly way?

    Why is NuCycle plastic good?

    • Re:Questions (Score:2, Funny)

      by jzs9783 ( 612647 )
      Why is NuCycle plastic good?

      I don't know, but I hear that GNuCycle plastic is open-recipe.

    • NuCycle Plastic: more info (Score:4, Interesting)

      by L-Train8 ( 70991 ) <Matthew_Hawk AT hotmail DOT com> on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:28PM (#4376743) Homepage Journal
      A press release with a lot more details than the product page is here [necus.com].

      From the press release:
      In addition, the PowerMate eco is also made of NuCycle(TM) plastic - an NEC patented plastic that is 100% recyclable. NuCycle is made of polycarbonate resin mixed with a special, flame-retardant silicone compound. Other computer plastics have flame retardant brominated coatings applied, which do retard flames, but produce harmful gases in the process. NuCycle's flame retardant is non-toxic and built-in, requiring no toxic coating.
    • Seriously, you weren't buying a 900MHz Transmeta box to run Gamez on, and X Windows is fast enough for displaying almost anything else. So you don't need to plug the screen directly into a graphics card, just run X to talk to your new fast CPU-server box. This also lets multiple people share the new fast box, which is good ecologically even if it's disappointing to the box-sellers.

      And you can also recycle the Windows Operating System when you do that, because you'll be using Linux.

  • So this PC is environmentally friendly. IMHO, that's a Good Thing, in fact a Very Good Thing. A higher cause than free technology.

    However, I understand that the Crusoe chips use patented technology. How would someone more zealous than I react to this clash between environmental protection and technological freedom.

    Would the consensus be simply that being environmentally friendly is a good thing, but that a more open design could be made even more environmentally friendly due to peer review?

  • retail price: $1,599.00 at CDW [cdw.com]. That seems a little pricy for a computer without paralell ports, serial ports, USB2, Firewire, or a modem.

    But I do like the ecofriendly aspect.

  • Question: (Score:4, Insightful)

    by drhairston ( 611491 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:14PM (#4376629) Homepage
    Q:Will an average American pay more money to be environmentally sound?
    A:Rarely. Sales of SUV's greatly outnumber sales of hybrid vehicles.

    This item will experience low sales volume.

  • Thanks Linus! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Altheus ( 237916 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:14PM (#4376631)
    You engineer software for Transmeta, but what the hell, we'll just give you credit for creating their processors too!

    (Saying thanks Linus is about as absurd as thanking your local mechanic for the sleek body styling on your new BMW.)

    • Re:Thanks Linus! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by blakestah ( 91866 )
      You engineer software for Transmeta, but what the hell, we'll just give you credit for creating their processors too!

      You don't get Crusoe.

      Crusoe uses RISC instruction sets, which allows computing with FAR fewer transistors than x86 instruction sets. The WORLD has been locked into x86 because Microsoft's support for other instruction sets has been lacking (they killed Alpha NT, and now they are slow to the mark with the new McKinley 64 bit chips which will STILL support legacy x86 instruction sets). X86 is just inefficient, and that causes CPU power consumption to go up.

      The software engineering is critical - they have to take in x86 instruction sets, map them to RISC instructions, and execute them in near real time. This is the CRITICAL aspect of Crusoe. Instead of using an inefficient CPU, use an efficient one and map those inefficient instructions to efficient ones.

      Without this remapping it should be possible to run linux on the NEC machines (which, BTW, ship with Windows installed), but it would not be possible to run Windows.
      • This is very wrong.

        Crusoe isn't a RISC processor like you claim. It's a VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) processor. Diferent things here. That's where it get's it's simplicity from, by doing most of what the hardware usually does in software.

        As for RISC vs. CISC... Intel hasn't designed a CISC chip in years! Today's x86 chips (Intel or AMD) are much more RISC chips than they are CISC. They run a small instruction set and then a small piece of software (the microcode) that does the translation of the x86 instructions to the basic hardware-level instructions.

        This is how they're able to produce these stellar clock rates. Very small instructions (hence the RISC) that are composed to form the x86 ISA in all it's glory.

        A good decision would probably be scraping the backwards compatibility cruft from x86 and moving on to a cleaner x86 based ISA. As far as I know the x86-64 from AMD still supports code for the 8086 and that is just crazy.

      • Re:Thanks Linus! (Score:3, Informative)

        by Waffle Iron ( 339739 )
        FYI, all modern X86 CPUs (other than Crusoe) remap the x86 instruction set to a RISC-like core. The Crusoe remaps x86 instructions to a VLIW core. Another key difference is that the Crusoe runs software to remap the code, whereas conventional CPUs use a dedicated hardware unit.

        Much of the Crusoe's power savings can be attributed simply to not trying to push the performance curve so far. IIRC, Intel responded to Transmeta's products by putting out a slower, power optimized Pentium-III that was almost as frugal as the Crusoe. This was done with mainly with process tweaks and underclocking.

      • Re:Thanks Linus! (Score:3, Informative)

        by Sebastopol ( 189276 )
        X86 is just inefficient, and that causes CPU power consumption to go up.

        That statement is wrong on both counts.

        CISC and VLIW can be far more power efficient than RISC because the large instruction is executed with special hardware, rather than emulated by lots of little RISC instructions.

        Power in the architecture goes up when you try to get fancier and fancier with caching, prediction, and parallel execution to get the most out of any instruction set.

        Crusoe get's its power gains (or losses) from slowing itself down or sleeping alot. Crusoe is also lower power because it sacrifices a lot of performance. But this point was beaten to death years ago.

  • .. for work. I do a lot of reading, emailing, and PHP coding. Frankly, this thing'd be easier on the eyes *and* it'd take up a lot less desk space than what I have now. $1,600 seems a little pricey for it, though. I could get a comparable laptop for that, plus I wouldn't need a UPS for it.

    This'd be a killer item at half the price.
    • For $100 less, you could get a G4 iMac which has similar footprint details, comes with twice the drive space, same RAM, same optical media drive, and gets you the sexiness of Mac OS X.

  • "thanks Linus!" ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Vic ( 6867 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:14PM (#4376640) Homepage
    Why are you thanking Linus? Does he actually have anything to do with designing the processor? I thought he was just helping on the OS side of things from Transmeta. There are probably other Transmeta engineers who deserve more thanks for that hardware, eh?

    Not that Linux doesn't deserve help for starting Linux! :)

    Cheers,
    Vic
    • In "Just for Fun" linus mentions how he doesn't do linux for transmeta. He works on the x86 translation part of the code morphing software. So all the other replies that say "without code morphing this cpu would suck" are right. While it was odd to thank Linus in an unrelated topic (green computers that just happen to have a crusoe in them), it isn't without some merit.

  • and what matters most to consumers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jjshoe ( 410772 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:15PM (#4376651) Homepage
    is price, and this isnt the price of a "recycle able machine"


    sure. my dual proc setup is full of nasties, but i'll sell it someone after two years who will use it for another five at a quarter of the price of a green pc which will be outdated quicker and wont be able to be expanded.


    price will always make or break just how "Enviromentaly friendly" something is. atleast how seriously people will take it

  • This PC is pretty cool, but it doesn't have much kick and it can't run my favorite GUI wrapper for OpenBSD. I love enviromentally friendly stuff, but I'm not interested in sacraficing the power I need (read: nead as in I don't need an SUV, a huge house, but I do need a potent computer). Still very good for your e-mail and word prossesor type.
  • At $1,599. Not exactly cheap for "Joe Desktop" I'm afraid.

  • So what if the motherboard didn't use lead? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by t0qer ( 230538 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:18PM (#4376673) Homepage Journal
    They don't even bother to mention the other waste by products that are created from the manufacture of PCB's.

    Flux wash cycle comes to mind. Sometimes some really nasty chemicals are used after a PCB or a fully assembled board goes through.

    THere's some companies like culligan that provide negatively ionicly charged microbead epoxy balls to clean the flux wash of the flux and any other impurities that come out. What happens to those?

    Another item to consider is the ventalation stacks coming from these pcb wash machines, most of the time they are just there for "ventilation" and do not have filtering systems on them.

    I know these things because I have worked around the Dixon Landing road exit off of the 880 in Fremont CA in a number of consulting positions to these companies. Whenever you're sitting at the desk of some salesguy trying to fix his "insert windows issue here" they cannot resist telling you in great detail about the process and how wonderfully enviromentally friendly their shop is.

    This is how bad it is in USA, I don't even want to think about what my wife saw in Malasia and the phillipines where these things are probably manufactured(shudders)
    • I worked at a PCB manufacturing plant in Atlanta Ga as an assembly line worker before I could get into college.

      I pretty much deadened my sense of smell, and quit after noticing that the (few) women working there were (all) going bald.

      If you are familiar with the toxicity/corrosivity/flammability danger scale, several of the chemicals used in that plant (when I was there) were 5/5/4 or the like...

      I remember kicking the sulfuric acid barrels (and running away) to get the fumes out of the barrel so that we could insert the (hand) pump to refill a tank on some machine.. If you didn't kick the barrel, the fumes would overflow when you inserted the pipe, and you REALLY didn't want to mess with those fumes.

      And then there was the acid-bath machine..
      Oh, did I mention the chlorine-wash machine that we had to clean out every few hours or so because it kept getting blocked up with green&blue crystals?

      Ever so fun!

      Its not a nice place to work.
    • your right, but lead is alos a uge problem, and thay have removed it. Personally, I'd like to see that with all motherboards.
  • Instead of spending money on one of these, I prefer spending my spare time collecting old components and making use of them by bringing life back into old i386 and i486 computers. I have a couple of these at home that I just hack around with and constant play around with different OSes (BSD and Linux). Plus I usually learn something.
  • Um... no lead? When you make a silicon integrated circuit chip the end product contains something like 1/1000th of the raw materials used to make it. The rest of the components, like the drives, may not be quite as bad, but who are they trying to kid?! Eco-friendly my *ss.
  • It's powered by a bicycle. Hampster models sold seprately.

  • my computer biodegrades, what does yours do? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by taxman_10m ( 41083 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:25PM (#4376725)
    When it comes down to it, even the most crunchy granola eco-friendly environmentalist isn't going to fork over cash for a computer that simply doesn't offer what you can get at Dell for half the price.

    Marketing anything as "eco-friendly" doesn't make it all that more enticing. That's why most "eco-friendly" items that find any wide use at all are there because it is regulated to be that way.

  • Crusoe is not a desktop processor (Score:4, Interesting)

    by FWMiller ( 9925 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:29PM (#4376751) Homepage

    I've been using a Fujitsu laptop now for about 3 months and I've decided that I will probably not buy another machine with a Crusoe chip in it. The function is fine and the clock speeds are reasonable.

    The problem is, it "feels" slow. There's just this little bit of latency, particularly as something starts up for the first time, i.e. as the morphing is doing its bit. The more you are exposed to it the more annoying it becomes.

    Its little things like this that are what ruin companies. Transmeta needs to do something about this or they will never make it as a mainstream desktop processor.

    • Re:Crusoe is not a desktop processor (Score:4, Informative)

      by steveha ( 103154 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @03:38AM (#4379283) Homepage
      The problem is, it "feels" slow. There's just this little bit of latency, particularly as something starts up for the first time

      It is very unlikely that you can really notice the speed of code morphing. It seems much more likely that you have a very slow laptop hard disk.

      Stuff your laptop full of memory; put as much in as it will hold. Then see if it feels better. Things will still be slow, as they load from disk, but once they are loaded they should be much faster.

      This is especially important if you are running a RAM hog of an OS such as Windows XP. When your system is low on memory it swaps some memory pages out to your hard disk; swapping to a slow laptop disk will be painful.

      Also, if you have XP or Windows ME, be sure to turn "system restore" off!

      Maybe someday you can install Linux on it; I would be interested to know if Linux feels any better.

      steveha
  • ...surely will go down in history as the day Ed Begley, Jr. finally got e-mail.

    ObSimpsonsParaphrase: [thesimpsons.com] "This PC is fully biodegradable, dissolves instantly in water, and is powered completely by my sense of self-satisfaction."

    ~Philly
    • Ed Begley, Jr. has had a computer since the 486. As of a few years ago, he was still using it.

      he has gotten email for quit some time. I have heard several of his interviews, and he has a pretty good grasp on the practical matters of recycling.
  • I almost bought a powermate with a pentium I 150 mhz back when I was 19 in 96. That was the last I have heard of them.

    I forgot all about them and they have seemed to stop selling them in the retail sector. I assumed that vanished.
  • ...but it seems like an appealing choice for Joe Desktop.
    ...or Barbara Streisand.

  • Tree hugging bunny fuckers! (Score:5, Funny)

    by sam_handelman ( 519767 ) <samuel...handelman@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @05:53PM (#4376917) Journal
    Tired of those self righteous earth freaks and their santimonious love for the "environment?" If you are, buy one of our EcoHostile (TM) PCs.

    1) Comes pre-installed with our special Cartmania! Linux distro. Whenever you open an xterm window, it hacks into that network of things they put on spermwhales to track them, and causes the tracking device to emit a lethal shock, killing the damned stupid animal and notifying the japanese of the animal's position so that you can collect your bounty. If you provide it with a list of god damn dirty hippies, it will notify them of each of the oversized fish you kill so that you can call them up and listen to them cry.

    2) Uses silicon doped with enriched uranium, which has no desirable semiconductor properties, for no reason.

    3) Onboard gasoline powered generator serves as an uninteruptable power supply, and runs constantly, even when machine is off.

    4) Using our patented "bassmaster" technology, fan produces constant, 110 decibel throb (roughly as loud as a car horn,) at a frequency of only 175 Hz, to maximally penetrate floors, walls and ceilings. This places you in handy violation of most of those intrusive noise ordinances that red meat eating, tree hating Americans despise so much. For a small extra fee, we can supply you with special "superscreech" hard drives to supply treble.

    5) Special catalytic circuitry produces extra ozone - with the fan running at full capacity, and a constant supply of ozone-free air, the mother board alone produces 25 mg of ozone per minute; that's enough to sustainably exceed the OSHA safe limit of 5 ppm in a 5,000 square foot room. Don't worry! At ground level, ozone is a deadly pollutant - it won't rise into the upper atmosphere and can't do anything to screen out the sun's deadly ultraviolet rays.

    So, if you're a real american, and if you hate the earth, you should definitely try our EcoHostile PC. Building a more dystopic tomorrow!

  • Integrated Monitor Environmentally Unfriendly (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Given that computer monitors need to be upgraded much less often than the actual computer, it makes no sense to build an environmentally friendly PC with a monitor build in. They're trying to pawn off an overpriced disposable monitor as environmentally friendly.

    What we really need are for the $200 machines to shrink down to a 1/4 size form factor, lose all the moving parts (especially the fans), and use Crusoe amounts of power. It would be extra-spiffy if there were a better small-component specification such that they could still have components upgrated. On the other hand the only thing I upgrade is the video card for better 3D performance.

  • in my gas guzzling SUV!

    Yes, I am a hypocrite, and I can't spell either!

    Now to hit previe
  • If this was a laptop, i'd be interested.

    If it was also low cost, i'd be super interested.

    Wow, theres a novel idea - a light, lowcost, low power laptop.
  • I just wish there was more laptop technology used
    in desktop components. Modern desktops, even the
    simple "just office work" PCs, are too
    power-hungry, too hot, too loud. If desktops used
    notebook CPUs, a major problem of these computers
    would be solved...

    Yes, I'd love to buy a Transmeta desktop mainboard
    at my local PC reseller. At present, I can only
    get a developer board at high prices through
    imports. I want a consumer version. Please...

  • Why? (Score:2)

    by El ( 94934 )
    Isn't this essentially a laptop with an external keyboard? Seems like a "green" laptop would be just as usable, with the added advantage of being portable. And don't try to convince me this thing is cheaper than a laptop; it's got a laptop display which probably accounts for 75% of the price.

  • Mobos (Score:3, Interesting)

    by foo fighter ( 151863 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @10:17PM (#4378398) Homepage
    So when are we gonna get some Crusoe mobos?

    I have a couple labs where I'd love to stick some inexpensive, quiet, low-power systems that have decent speed.

    I've talked to at least a dozen people with Crusoe laptops and they really like how long the battery lasts, how cool the system runs, and how surprisingly quick it is.

    I want that on the desktop, damnit.

  • Already better: $200, 30 Watts (Score:4, Informative)

    by shoppa ( 464619 ) on Thursday October 03, 2002 @04:56AM (#4379406)
    The VIA C3 EPIA motherboard [viavpsd.com] in the ITX form factor, while mainly targeted at home entertainment-type applications, also makes a really spiffy server as well as a desktop. Mine draws 20W at idle, 30W at load, with a 7200 RPM drive in it; that's a third what the "Green PC" needs.

    And most impressive: it's got a solid-metal case that's much more recyclable than any plastic, and costs one-eighth ($200) [caseoutlet.com] what the "Green PC" does ($1600).

    • $200 is a little misleading. For that price, you get a system with:

      1. No memory
      2. No hard drive
      3. No optical drive
      4. No display
      5. No keyboard/mouse

      It also has no Windows license. Not that one is necessary, but it's included in the $1600 price of the eco-thing.

      You're also comparing the power draw of a headless box to that of a box & LCD.

      That said, I'd still choose the VIA C3 over the eco-thing. It's cheap (even after you add the above components), configurable, small, and quiet.

  • I personally like curose chips...For mobile devices...For laptops the technology is great(if it ever delivers), since it should significantly extend battery life...

    As a desktop, the chip is utterly useless...Typically the cost of the morfing code its 20-30% reduction in apparent speed...So basically a 900 MHz crusoe would actually feel like a 600-700 MHz equivilent pentium processor...But this does buy you the fact that the chip is using significally lower power...Unfortunatly in a desktop, the decreased power usage really doesn't do anything for you and in no way makes up for the very poor performance....

    Adding to the sad state of affairs with this desktop is price...For a third of the cost one can have themselves a machine with a processor that performs almost 2 to 2.5 faster just based purely on processor speed(the actuall performance differance is significantly higher due to other considerations such as pipelining and such)...I am not sure any fool would spend $1600 for a desk top that is clearly inferror then an e machine...(Well not counting Mac users..:-) )

  • The IBM PS/2 Model E [tripod.com] was launched in 1993 as the 'green PC'. It has an LCD display which powers down when the machine isn't in use - amazingly, this was done by having passthrough connectors for keyboard and mouse hanging off the monitor, so it would know when there was user activity. The machine also supports the VESA power saving standard and its 2.5inch hard disk spins down when not in use. The PSU is a teeny 25 watts and there are no fans anywhere.

    The single ISA slot is taken up with a PCMCIA adaptor, you can insert two PCMCIA cards in the front and two in the back. In fact the machine is really a laptop in a desktop case, but it makes a very cute (and very quiet) general purpose PC. The 486SLC2 processor won't win any performance awards, but with the onboard XGA-2 graphics hardware it's snappy enough. The machine can happily run Linux or NT, although limited by a maximum 16 megs memory.

    And I don't think that IBM's effort was the first attempt at an energy-saving microcomputer, although it might have been the first hyped as 'green'. (The PS/2 E's case has a green stripe round the outside.)

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