Blurring Lines — Dual Core Atom To Lift Netbooks 204
CWmike writes "'The next innovation coming to Atom is on dual-core,' Intel CEO Paul Otellini said recently of the company's low-end chips, which delivered the modern netbook but also found their way into embedded devices, and in the future, into mobile devices like smartphones. His statement comes after close to two years of accelerated growth, and with the initial euphoria around netbooks now subsiding. HP has already advertised a new netbook, the Hewlett-Packard Mini 210, running Intel's upcoming N455 chip, one of the Atom-series processors, on Amazon.de. The N455 supports DDR3 memory, an upgrade over the DDR2 memory in most netbooks today. The DDR3-capable processors should allow data to be exchanged faster between the memory and CPU, translating to better overall netbook performance. Prices of laptops have been falling and the days of netbooks being a novelty have disappeared, said Jay Chou, research analyst at IDC. Laptops are bridging the pricing gap with netbooks, while offering better performance. 'You're getting something really attractive in the $600 range for better-performing notebooks,' Chou said. 'The original intended message of letting people expect netbooks to behave differently or less effectively is not really ringing.'"
Re:Not a Netbook (Score:5, Informative)
I have one of the early EeePCs - I think it's the 900A - with a 4GB SSD and a 9 inch screen. It runs for at least 5 hours, and depending on the pants I wear it can fit into a cargo pocket. *That's* a netbook.
The EeePC I bought a few months ago has a 100+GB hard drive, 10 or 11 inch screen and runs for at least as long (the battery display claims 9 hours but I don't quite believe it). The only downside is that it barely fits into my jacket pocket, but I couldn't live with a screen any smaller than it has anyway.
Don't the new dual-core Atom systems use less power than the old single cores?
Re:Not a Netbook (Score:4, Informative)
First netbooks had small screens and awesome battery life. Then they made bigger screens, which used more battery. Then they put in larger and larger spinning hard drives, faster processors, and now dual-core?
So we go from a tiny, long-lived netbook to a large (and heavy) powerful and short-lived netbook. Also known as a laptop.
What's next - a high end graphics card so people can play games?
I have one of the early EeePCs - I think it's the 900A - with a 4GB SSD and a 9 inch screen. It runs for at least 5 hours, and depending on the pants I wear it can fit into a cargo pocket. *That's* a netbook.
Since when is a 5 hour battery time in any way impressive? You do realize there are a lot of notebooks out there with 8-12h battery time?
Re:Computers are a commodity (Score:4, Informative)
Will people jump off the upgrade treadmill and simply wait until their current machine dies before purchasing a new one?
I believe you'll find that 95% of people do that already. I'm still trying to decide how much longer I can live with my 2003-era Windows PC (with 2005 graphics card) before I have to give in and buy another one for gaming, and my laptop is literally dying which is the only reason why I'll replace it in the next year or so.
The difference that cheaper PCs has made to me is that I buy more of them for specific uses, rather than trying to do everything on one expensive system. Netbooks are a good example of that as people who wouldn't have paid $1000 for a laptop a few years back will pay $300 for a netbook.
Dual core Atoms came out in Sept 2008 (Score:5, Informative)
What this article should say is that new lower-power dual-core Atoms are about to be released.
Re:Replacments (Score:3, Informative)
Dell's are very funny about ram, make sure that you use ram specifically for Dell either Crucial or Kingston. [velocityreviews.com]
Are you running an all Dell shop and only swapping RAM between them? I swear, people will take a crapshot at Apple without looking at what they are currently running. It was a lot cheaper for me buying ram for my B&W G3 back in the day than a Dell Dimension.
Re:Replacments (Score:4, Informative)
The ability to easily swap hardware in a full desktop rig will trump laptops any time
Who cares? Seriously, what percentage of computer owners do you think ever upgrades their computer by any mechanism other than buying a new one?
Moreover, desktops usually offer more powerful hardware options
Again, who cares? My three-year-old laptop is still fast enough for everything I need it for (although it could do with more RAM). You do realise that laptop sales past desktop sales a couple of years ago? For most people, convenience is more important than speed. Computers got to the point where they were fast enough for a significant proportion of the market around 10 years ago.
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Re:Replacments (Score:5, Informative)
while most laptops are maxed-out when they come from the factory.
Since when? Most laptops come with one DIMM of the lowest density RAM they can put in the machine and are easily upgradeable. RAM is one of the only components that can easily be upgrades in almost all laptops except Macs and some Dell Latitude E-series machines since you only have to open a service door or remove the palm rest to upgrade RAM.
If a screen breaks on a desktop you either drag out that $7 CRT you picked up a few years back at a garage sale or buy a ~$200 or less monitor, or, if you have a good graphics card, just use your HDTV.
Every laptop has some form of display out (VGA, HDMI, or DisplayPort) that can be used to hook up a monitor, projector, or HDTV (especially one that isn't crippled to 1024x768). The machine is still usable at that point even if you lose portability. Almost every one also has USB and most have bluetooth so you can hook up external devices.
If your power supply dies on a laptop and the laptop is out of warranty, the laptop is dead. If your power supply dies on your desktop you just throw in a new one.
LOLWUT??? You realize that there are very few laptops with external power supplies. The AC/DC conversion usually happens in the AC adapter, and it can be replaced by a ~$100 vendor specific or $50 universal AC adapter.
Re:Dual core Atoms came out in Sept 2008 (Score:4, Informative)
Atoms are (and always have been) low-power, it was the chipset that caused problems. Using older 945 chipset caused power/heat to rise, the new low-power chipsets have been out for months now, as shown on boards like the D510MO mini-ITX board from Intel.
Re:Replacments (Score:3, Informative)
Add ram to that list too. Laptops in my experiance have at most 2 slots and the largest laptop sticks out there are 4GB (and even those have only become a viable option fairly recently).
On the desktop side many higher end boards have 4 or even 6 slots which with 4GB modules (afaict 4GB is the largest that most current desktop boards support) gives you 16GB or 24GB of ram. Workstation boards give you even more.
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