Intel Planning Thumb-Sized PCs For Next Year 101
angry tapir (1463043) writes Intel is shrinking PCs to thumb-sized "compute sticks" that will be out next year. The stick will plug into the back of a smart TV or monitor "and bring intelligence to that," said Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group at Intel, during the Intel investor conference in Santa Clara, California. They might be a bit late to the party, but since Skaugen mentioned both Chromecast and Amazon's Fire TV Stick, hopefully that means Intel has some more interesting and general-purpose plans.
Probably not the same thing at all... (Score:5, Interesting)
Chromecast and the Roku thumb sized machines are very specialized hardware that likely won't have the capabilities or flexibility of an Intel variant. They likely not to be in the same class at all.
If anything, they might be comparable to some generic Android stick and possibly not even that due to the limitations of Android.
This might be more like a Chromebox.
Re: (Score:2)
640kB ought to be enough for anyone
640KB is enough for some things. Every time you increase it by an order of magnitude, it becomes enough for more things. Eventually, the set of things that it's not enough for becomes too small a market to justify the R&D investment.
Re: (Score:2)
Most OSs are now 64-bit. The theoretical limit of that memory is 1.844674407×10^19 bytes. Let's say you halve that, you still have a humongous amount of memory that would cover pretty much everything. So while the OSs may have de-facto limits like 64GB or 8TB or whatever, we won't need to move to a 128-bit OS like we had to go from 16 to 32 to 64-bit OSs.
So not only is TheRaven right, but chances are that there is nothing that any of the current 64-bit OSs ain't enough for.
Re: (Score:2)
we won't need to move to a 128-bit OS like we had to go from 16 to 32 to 64-bit OSs.
We probably will, just not any time soon. I think 4GB of memory was unimaginable to most computer engineers when 16-bit was becoming the norm. In fact I recall reading an RFC where somebody argued that a 64-bit IP addressing system should be enough to address the combined memory AND hard disk of every computer in the world, therefore it's unlikely we'd need anything higher. (See IEEE RFC1475, section 2.1.) Only five years later that was changed to 128-bit, and five years (totaling a decade) after that it wa
Re: (Score:2)
However, the gaps ain't as big. Going from 32-bit to 64-bit has meant crossing the 4GB barrier in memory. However, it would only be necessary to go from 32 to 64 when - and IF - 1.844674407×10^19 is the minimum you have in memory.
The IPv6 analogy is not a good one. Since in reality, IPv6 is an overlaid 64 on 64 bit address, as opposed to a flat 128 bit address, as 32-bit IPv4 was. I know that IPv6 sounds a whole lot, but when you look at the strict assignments & rules that have been placed o
Re: (Score:2)
Not quite, but we're getting there. This is part of the reason why lots of people are moving to smartphones and tablets as their primary computing platforms: something with the computing power and memory of a laptop from 5 years ago is ample for their needs. If it can browse the web, play back music and video, send and receive emails, and edit basic office documents, then that's enough for a massive chunk of the population. It's not enough for everyone, and some of the people that it's not enough for hav
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Probably not the same thing at all... (Score:2)
who needs to compute anything anymore...
Is there an app for that?
What DRIBBLE! (Score:1)
The HARDWARE is more generally powerful and functional on a current ARM SoC - ARM SoCs having focused on accumulating the raft of supporting hardware IP (like sound, image, video processing) for FAR longer than Intel- Intel expected such functionality would lie with plug-in boards or chip-sets.
Intel has ONE advantage, and one only- and that is when an Intel SoC is running FULL-BLOWN Microsoft Windows. Now, its Android vs Windows, and in terms of software support it isn't even funny- Google's weak-sauce lock
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
..i agree, but I think he was holding back for some reason.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: What DRIBBLE! (Score:1)
IPad Air 2 is faster than atom, and more power efficient. Other than that chip (A8X), I think you're right.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
When I was on Cox, I had a 400GB (unenforced) Cap. Moved, and now I have Comcast. 250GB cap and they bill me $10 for evert 50GB over that cap.
Re: (Score:2)
That's what I thought. I have TWC, and they have unlimited data no matter which plan I'm on: I just have to pay depending on how fast I want my connections to be. At 15Mbps, I'm a happy camper.
I don't use Verizon's cellular data connections unless I'm flying b/w cities.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You left out the blackjack and hookers...
Home File Servers (Score:2)
I hope they at least let you mount disk drives using Samba or NFS or whatever from your own file server at home, in addition to whatever walled-garden functionality they may be selling. Much of their target market is going to include people who have those, either purpose-built servers or terabyte-disk USB/Ethernet external drives or their old Windows box with file sharing turned on.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you think Google is rolling out its own unlimited use fibre networks? The realized that ISPs are a threat and decided to either force them to offer a decent service simply drive them out of business.
Re: (Score:2)
I have a Chromecast already. I took it out of the box, hooked it up to my TV and set it up to work with my tablet and computer. I then put it back in the box. What a waste of $35 dollars. It's so locked down as to be useless. If that's Intel's idea of a product then they can keep it.
Re: (Score:2)
more power (Score:2)
great to make tiny pc's but that doesn't help those of us who want more computing power.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Get a core i5 NUC..
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/overview.html
I always liked 'full sized' PC's myself, but the NUC can't be beat for some things, and is more than enough for 90% of all 'normal' computer users.
Plus..
When someone is all cranky about having computer issues it is so nice to just walk over to them, pull out this little thing, swap it and just bring their pc back to shop to re-image/repair.
Get a fast GPU and run CUDA/etc. (Score:2)
If you really need computational horsepower, get yourself some kind of PC with a fast graphics card and run CUDA or one of the other GPU-based computation packages. (In my case, I went with a Raspberry Pi :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We've been using NUCs as mini development servers, and so far I've been disappointed with their reliability. Apparently there are widespread problems with the USB3 when connecting to external drives (intermittent, only happens on some of our NUCs). Additionally, they intentionally crippled their driver stack to not support Windows Server.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Current Atoms are equal to high-end core2 duos coupled with a good-enough gpu and h264 accelerator. Not that bad.
Re: (Score:2)
great to make tiny pc's but that doesn't help those of us who want more computing power.
Just like powerful desktop CPUs doesn't help those who want tiny PCs, but I didn't see anything in the article to suggest they are abandoning high power chips in favor of small low powered ones.
Re: (Score:3)
mount a few dozen of these on your clothes and have a wearable beowulf :)
Re: (Score:3)
Imagine a beowulf wardrobe of those!
Re: (Score:2)
This is for those that don't need the computing power. This is something in between a normal PC and a ChromeCast. Not as locked down but just as slow.
Now ChromeCast has a specific market: easy video streaming with your Android device as a remote. Whether this offers enough over that to find a real place in the market remains to be seen.
It does offer full windows or linux. That means the possibilities are far greater. Whether the processor is sufficient for enough of those possibilities will probably be a de
Been there, done that (Score:4, Interesting)
So, just like any of the countless ARM-based Android mini-PCs that are already out there right now. Except this is quite more expensive.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
http://hexus.net/tech/news/systems/76025-intel-bay-trail-powered-hdmi-stick-pc-available-online/
Just like countless arm-based android mini-PCs.
Except not Arm based, running intel and you can run most of your normal business and entertainment software on it.
So not like arm at all.
Re: (Score:1)
The trouble with the "countless arm based android mini-pcs" is that they quickly become pretty useless.
Unsupported mystery builds of android running on undocumented SoCs that can pretty much only run said mystery android build that they shipped with.
Intel, on the other hand, has a pretty good reputation with documentation and portability. Your intel stick will run windows, any flavor of linux you want, chromeOS, etc.
Will likely be a lot faster too. Since baytrail Intel's low end cpus have been competitive w
Thumb? (Score:1)
My, what big thumbs you have!
Re: (Score:1)
So that I can play Assassins creed with you, granddaughter!
Re: (Score:1)
For the love of god tell me you're not a proctologist.
First World Problems (Score:5, Funny)
And here I worry about losing memory sticks because they're so small.
"Dammit! I left my computer in my pocket and it went through the wash..."
Re: (Score:2)
"Honey, that's not what I meant by 'cleaning up windows'!"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
well, then yu'll be after a general purpose, platform agnostic appliance. Which, according to the summary, is what Intel are planning.
Keep watching this story, you might be pleasantly surprised. I know I am. RasPi is great an' all, but I'm not a programmer, I'm not in it for the imagineering aspect of computing a la ZX81 Program-It-Yourself, I'm at that stage in my life where I want shit to just work. Hell, I have the same build image on my Win7 laptop I built in 2005 (updated for latest/last versions, obvi
Re: (Score:1)
Get a Zotac CI320, a small SSD and a 4GB DDR3L SO-DIMM: Should cost you less than $200 and is a completely silent system (no fan, less than 15W max) with a quad core Intel CPU. IR remote receiver, wireless LAN and SD card reader built-in, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, Display Port, four USB 3.0 ports (back), two USB 2.0 ports (front), eSATA. Can be mounted to the back of the display.
Re: (Score:3)
my database server is a VIA Epia M MiniITX with 512MB DDR and 1TB spinny SATA. Runs off a 35W solar pile. If you don't include the solar pile, the whole setup cost me change out of £140 (I bought the board in 2005).
Re: (Score:3)
don't take this the wrong way, but my database server works fine. It's not a Warcraft hub. It has a maximum of six concurrent ordinary users (all whitelisted with a denial-by-default access portal and localhost-only admin access). It doesn't need four cores or 16GB of RAM. It's future proofed for its purpose until the universe dies. Or it does. Or the database itself outlives its utility. Which is unlikely because I've been stress testing it for 5 weeks now and it hasn't even twitched through several millio
Re: (Score:2)
One aspect of optimizing systems is that you don't get any performance boost by adding a resource you already have a surplus of.
Most database servers built from low end technologies have CPU cycles to spare. That's beause boatloads of CPU power is cheap, but I/O bandwidth is expensive.
yeah. Except RAM, CPU, and bus bandwidth (Score:2)
> One aspect of optimizing systems is that you don't get any performance boost by adding a resource you already have a surplus of.
Yeah. Well except fot the last 15 years Linux has utilized all available memory to cache up to the entire contents of your drives, making data access several thousand times faster. Even Windows is trying to do this a little bit now. So more memory is always faster, until your RAM is bigger than your drive.
And of course modern CPUs speculatively execute instructions, which is
Re: (Score:2)
Branch predicting HLT isn't that much of a speed boost.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, branch prediction doesn't get you much when most of your CPU cycles are going unused. Caching stuff in RAM can be a big win -- under certain circumstances. If adding more RAM means you can increase the probability of a cache hit significantly, good for you. But the fundamental fact remains that if a system is performing well enough, making it more powerful has limited practical utility.
I speak from decades of experience working with database sytems. It's wasteful to take a shotgun approach to perfo
Re: (Score:2)
> You need to find where the bottleneck is, then widen that.
Abso-friggin-lutely. Customers frequently come to me wanting to switch to a new processor (which means new motherboard and RAM) when their CPU is practically idle - they need faster storage.
At the same time, if 10% more money buys 25% more _anything_ it's probably a good deal, for a server. Server operating systems will make use of as much RAM as you can give them. Also the fundamental tradeoff in comp sci in speed vs size. If you have a syst
Intel press releases (Score:1)
Intel has been doing this for decades now. They releases a press release saying that they will "as early as next year" have a device available for purchase that (insert chip use that is currently not served by Intel chips).
And then they actually release the product *years* later. This goes for their server line, their atom devices, and more recently, their Edison chips and now this.
Honestly, if you have any use for a device this small just buy the damn arm version that already actually exists, or the more r
This only works if... (Score:2)
...you guys stop designing the worlds worst interfaces for things. DO NOT HIRE ENGINEERS TO DESIGN THE UIs. It's important. Really.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Intel: Don't announce until the product is ready. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You are ignorant of how marketing and sales work, aren't you? Step one, generate hype.
Re: (Score:2)
No. You're talking about a niche of a niche market. That little geeky market doesn't matter
This article is something for mainstream, huge customer base
I used to want something kind of like this (Score:2)
But then that became completely unecessary with the advent of cheap phones, tablets, and netbooks.
Re: (Score:3)
Basically, a minimal PC that you would plug into all the I/O hardware, so that you could bring it anywhere, plug it into someone else's hardware, always have all your files and programs there.
This is what I want in my phone (in addition, or course, to the phone actually working as a phone)
Re: (Score:3)
it's called a 16GB usb flash drive (£8.99 at PC World! The hell happened to the price of flash memory??) with a bootable Debian derivative installed on it, plugged into $random_terminal and booted.
The ONLY prerequisites for such a system are the flash drive, the terminal being x86/32 compatible, having 512MB RAM or more and able to boot from USB.
Re: (Score:2)
You missed the whole having to plug it into a working computer part.
This IS the computer. All you need is a display and a keyboard/mouse.
Actually, given that you would still need an input device, they should just build this into a keyboard, with a trackpad.
Then you just plug a long HDMI cable in so you can sit at a comfortable distance from the screen, add power...
Re: (Score:2)
Well my OS boots off a USB2 120GB SSD but anyway... :)
The point here is that there is no need for a terminal - all you need is a TV or monitor with USB and HDMI ports.
Re: (Score:2)
£8.99? Ouch! In the US, you can get a 16GB flash drive for $8.99 - a LOT cheaper.
Re: (Score:2)
I did say PC World, they're a brick-n-mortar store. I'm pretty sure I could get it for a quarter that at eBuyer, but I don't tend to shop online.
Re: (Score:2)
Well - even brick and mortar hits that price point on sale at least once a month somewhere around. I guess I just don't buy that sort of thing when it's not.
Thumb-size, you say? (Score:2)
I already know what I'm gonna do with mine.
Re: (Score:1)
Where's the profit ? (Score:1)
VPs need to be seen to be coming to the market with "innovative" new products. Note is cloning a chromecast an innovation ?
This is the right announcement - eight/ten years late. Chromecast is out there and ARM owns this market segment. The time to get into thumb-size TV set-top box additions was 2004
Also didn't Intel recently sell off it's TV division ? Now it's getting back in, in the USB stick/chromecast side... WTF. Hey - make a decision and stic
5 Photo Orang SPA atau Mandi Dengan Minyak Mentah (Score:1)