Its 20 minutes until the world cup starts here in Germany. Its 27 degrees, the roads are quite and the smell of Barbecues the sound of TV and garden parties fill the air.
So, here goes for a speed-post. Please ignore spelling mistakes!
VIA CoreFusion
President an CEO Wenchi Chen announced that the next in the Core-Fusion range of single chip CPU/Chipsets (Codenamed ‘John’) will be available before the end of the year. This is a great step for minaturisation as it combines the C7-ULV and the VX700 chipset (combined north/southbridge) on one package.
ASUS R2H in July.
Asus confirmed that they are aiming for a July launch for the R2H. No further confirmation (or denial) of pricing and specs. This will bring some competition in at the 900-1100 Euro mark.
Intel sub 1-watt processors.
Intel senior vice president Anand Chandrasekher said that Intel will have a new Ultra-Low Voltage Core Duo CPU ready during the second half of this year that will consume “a median average” of just 0.75 watts. He also reported that HP, Dell and other vendors are already developing PCs which will use the chip. ‘Median average’ is a strange term to use and kind of gives the game away that the real average utilisation will be something above that 0.75Watt figure.
Epios development.
The Epios linux team showcased low-power VIA-based low-power PC’s. Significant is that they now have support for C7 and the related chipsets. I’m interested to know if they are working on small-screen GUI’s. If so, it could give via-based UMPC users a great alternative to Windows.
LCD power-reductions
The news came through that backlight technology on LCD’s could change by the end of the year bringing 30 minutes more to the battery life of existing UMPC’s. Anything that gives an extra 20% battery life is a good thing!
Pepperpad 3
Pepper computer announced the AMD-based Pepper Pad3 multimedia web-pad.
Averatec.
Averatec announced more details of the AHI UMPC including a challenging price-point. The device looks great and most other people seem to have made the same comment.
ECS H70
The ECS H70 (AKA Founder mininote) was displayed with a Pentium M CPU option. This would make it the first Origami UMPC to have a Pentium processor. Its an expensive part but ECS say they are aiming for a $900-$1100 price point.
And thats it! Kick off in 10 minutes.
Good luck to all teams taking part.
Fingers crossed for England of course!!
Steve / Chippy.
