Slimmer Acer Aspire One ZG8 / A0530 at the FCC
March 11, 2009
We’ve been hearing about the rumors and leaked information since last month, and now we have some confirmation - This new netbook/ultraportable has now shown up at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for testing of its communications hardware (WiFi, etc.). The document dates are listed as March 9, 2009, with some of the submission documents listing March 4, 2009 in the headers, while some of the documentation lists application dates of February 11, with test dates of February 27, 2009.
One of the documents lists this information:
We, Acer Inc, hereby declare that ZG8, Aspire one, AO530 (model name) can not be used for operation of HSUPA and CDMA2000 1xRTT/EV DO function. The HSUPA and CDMA2000 1xRTT/EV DO functions of this EUT are disabled by firmware control, which the users cannot enable it.
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Dell Inspiron Mini 10 - More Information?
February 6, 2009
Engadget has a link to a slide from what looks to be presentation about the upcoming 10″ Dell Inspiron Mini 10. We’ve already had a false start or two about the Mini 10. While it was announced and discussed at CES last month, very little is known. The slide has quite a bit of information.
Their target customers are (and I quote):
- Youth social networking/entertainment
- Vacation/coffee shop companion
The primary usage they see from the Mini 10 (again, I’m quoting):
- Mobile web & communication
- Video entertainment
- Social networking
Specifications:
- Display: 10.1″ 16:9 (1024×576) or 1366×768 (close to 720p)
- CPU: Z520 1.3GHz, Z530 1.6GHz Intel Atom Silverthorn
- Weight: 2.2 pounds
- Battery: 3-cell (3-4 hours) or 6-cell (6-8 hours)
- OS: Linux (Probably Ubuntu) or Windows XP Home
- Colors: black, white, red, pink, blue, green, “Picasso”
- HDD: 2.5″ 120GB or 160GB - (unsure if SATA or IDE)
- RAM: 1GB or 2GB DDR2
- I/O: 3x USB 2.0, 2 headphones(?), HDMI
- Wireless: 802.11g/n + WWAN options
- Internal Options: GPS, TV Tuner
- Multi-touch Touchpad
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MSI Wind U110, U115, U120, U300 Details
December 10, 2008
A very good article was posted on LAPTOP Magazine’s blog concerning MSI’s upcoming plans for January’s 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), as well as their general plans going into the first part of 2009. The information came from a discussion with MSI’s Director of U.S. Sales Andy Tung.
Highlights:
- MSI Wind U100 and U120 will be “parallel products” - the U120 won’t be replacing the U100 and will instead be sold alongside it (the U120 has a new design).
- The Wind U110 and U115 (end of January 2009) will have Intel’s new platform, Silverthorning, with the Intel Atom Z530 CPU.
- The U115 will have both an internal Solid State Drive (SSD) AND a conventional hard drive which allows for some interesting power-saving options.
- A touch-enabled Wind will be demonstrated at CES 2009 (no idea if it’s a convertible or not).
Also, MSI will be revealing a 13.3″ U300 (not to be confused with Toshiba’s U300 series). All that we know is that it will be thin and light and that people will be “shocked”.
The Intel Atom Z530 is an interesting upgrade, as it supports hardware virtualization and slightly lower power consumption (around 20% lower). It was originally geared for MIDs.
Read: LAPTOP Magazine
Dell Inspiron Mini 12 Announced, Review
October 27, 2008
It looks like the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 has a big brother. Yesterday, Dell announced the new 12″ Intel Atom-powered Dell Inspiron Mini 12 netbook. Yes, a 12″ display is really pushing the definition of just what a netbook is (and this is the first 12″ netbook). It’s pushing it more than even the Asus N10 and its dedicated NVIDIA graphics chipset.
For the first time, faster Intel Atom CPUs are being offered: The Z520 (1.33GHz, 512KB L2) and Z530 (1.6GHz, 512KB L2), both of which may have some hardware virtualization capabilities (depending on whether they are enabled or not). Windows Vista Home Basic is the OS of choice for the initial launch model, but Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP Home will also be offered later on. Dell claims a battery life of three and a half hours.
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Intel Atom Benchmarks vs Celeron M
May 20, 2008
PC Watch has obtained the desktop version of the MSI Wind PC.
They ran some benchmarks against it, including against the Intel Celeron M-powered 900MHz Asus Eee PC 900 as well as the 7-inch 630MHz Asus Eee PC.
Now while this may not seem like that valid of a comparison - for the most part it’s going to be pretty close, as the desktop specs are very similar to the eventual Wind PC ultraportable/ sub-notebook (It is a Diamondville-based system instead of a mobile Silverthorne).
In the overall PCMark05 Build 1.2.0 benchmarks, the Atom beat the 900MHz Celeron by around 30%, but in the CPU benchmarks, the Celeron M was around 20% better. Memory benchmarks saw the Atom do around 30% better.
I found it interesting, but battery life is what’s going to be most important to most of us - it was clear from the pictures of the desktop Wind PC that cooling requirements are much lower than we are used to and (and they’ll be even lower on the mobile version). If the Atom can offer a substantial difference in battery life over the Celeron M, then there might be quite a few Eee PC owners willing to sell their Celeron-based systems to upgrade to the Atom-based systems.
Read: PC.Watch.Impress.co.jp (Translated)
Read (Japanese): PC.Watch.Impress.co.jp
Thanks to Vince for the link.
Intel Diamondville - No Dual-Core
February 26, 2008
According to CNET, Intel’s Diamondville mobile processors, due out later this year, will not be dual-core designs.:
Intel’s upcoming low-cost Diamondville notebook processor will break from Intel’s multicore strategy of the last few years and be primarily a single-core processor.
In this respect Diamondville is not that different from Celeron, a long-standing design (introduced in 1998) that has been exclusively single-core until very recently. The reason for the single-core strategy is simple: With Diamondville, Intel has a “fanatical focus” on low power and low cost, according to Dean McCarron, founder and principal of Mercury Research. A single core means fewer transistors and lower power consumption.
Diamondville is not Celeron, however. “It’s a clean sheet of paper design,” McCarron said. It is a tiny 45-nanometer processor that employs a simpler design (called an “in-order pipeline”) than standard Intel processors, as spelled out in an ISSCC presentation earlier this month.
The Diamondville mobile CPUs will be used in devices like the Asus Eee PC and other “netbooks” (as Intel refers to them) and performance should be on par with Intel’s previous Pentium M offerings. Diamondville is derived from Intel’s Silverthorne platform.
Leaked: HP Compaq 2133
February 19, 2008
About six hours after I posted my speculations about an HP UMPC, my inbox gets flooded with almost a dozen emails pointing the way to the Engadget story that came out today.
Yep, it’s a doozy, it would appear that the HP UMPC is not only alive, but much closer than we think. Based on documents Engadget obtained (and they look legit), it looks like it will be called the HP Compaq 2133.
It was speculated that it would compete with the Asus Eee PC on price, but I’m not sure how they can, based on the leaked specs.
Specifications:
- 8.9″ WXGA 1366×766 with a scratch-resistant coating
- Wireless LAN (a given)
- Near full-size QWERTY keyboard
- ExpressCard/54 slot (this is is interesting)
- Optional Solid State Drive (SSD) (makes a lot of sense)
- Around 2.5 pounds
- Microsoft Windows Vista or some form of Linux
If they can get this down to well under $1000, there’s no reason why it won’t sell extremely well. Putting aside HP’s branding helping, it’s a very good compromise between portability, size, and weight.
To be honest, I don’t lump it in with the Asus Eee PC, but rather the Fujitsu P1620. While the P1620 is a Tablet PC convertible, this is still about the same form factor, albeit a lot lighter.
Intel Montevina = Centrino 2
February 18, 2008
Digitimes and others are reporting that Intel is moving away from location-based naming (such as Carmel, Sonoma, Napa and Santa Rosa) and moving back to an easier-to-remember name. This means that Intel Montevina will now be simply known as “Intel Centrino 2″. It should be much easier to recognize and understand this as an improvement over the previous generation (people wouldn’t necessarily know Napa from Santa Rosa, but they would know that Centrino 2 is newer than Centrino).
In addition, Digitimes announced some news that ultraportable fans would find very interesting:
Intel will then launch seven 45nm SFF (small form factor) notebook CPUs, similar to those used in Apple’s MacBook Air and soon other ultra-portable notebooks, in the third quarter of this year.
