Intel plots $100 "NetTop" market with Diamondville

Intel hasn't convinced you yet that its upcoming Atom processors will be dirt cheap and pregnant with promise? Well the company has a new definition on the table to see if you'll reconsider. Intel is talking up a new "NetTop" concept of desktop PCs ranging in price from $100 to $299 -- the desktop counterpart to the Eee PC, if you will. Naturally, Intel plans for those desktops to be powered by its own Diamondville processor, but also has other plans like solid state storage, no system fans or CPU socket, optimized power supply unit and "cost optimized OS solutions." The machines will run on Linux or Windows, and Intel projects 60 million of 'em will be sold a year by 2011. Those crazy, cash-addled dreamers.

[jakem @ Mar 12th 2008 1:23PM]

Cost-optimised OS and Windows don't sound like they go well together.

[ScareyJ @ Mar 12th 2008 1:46PM]

Leave it to a fanboy hater to make me miss the "first" guys.

[Scott @ Mar 12th 2008 2:44PM]

The truth hurts, don't it?

[First Guy @ May 28th 2008 10:38PM]

FIRST!

[webon @ Mar 12th 2008 1:24PM]

do they really think SSDs price is going to drop so fast? lets hope they are right

[Brodie @ Mar 12th 2008 1:44PM]

They'll probably solder an 8gb MicroSD card to the Mobo and call it a "SSD." If you're in the market for a $100 desktop to access the internet, you don't know any better...

[Kamokazi @ Mar 12th 2008 1:49PM]

High-speed SD or CF cards read and write as fast as (or faster than) hard drives. Solid State drive just means that: Solid state memory used as the primary disk drive. I really see no problem with using them. What would be nice if it uses that new SATA-based CF card though, so you could add regular SATA devices.

[AlexL @ Mar 12th 2008 4:03PM]

Brodie: a SSD is just a flash memory-based storage device. A microSD card fits the category perfectly.

[rektide @ Mar 12th 2008 5:19PM]

As fast as a HD? You are misinformed. Sequential transfer rates for a 10k raptor are well above the level of any SD cards sequential.

[daedalus @ Mar 12th 2008 1:27PM]

Pregnant with promise?

Is that what happens when opportunity knocks... you up?

[Colin @ Mar 12th 2008 1:50PM]

OMG 8 years later and we return full circle to the original idea of the Intel "Timna" that spawned the whole pentium M glory...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Timna

[Wes @ Mar 12th 2008 1:59PM]

OMG, those bastards killed Timna!

[phanbouy @ Mar 12th 2008 2:41PM]

TIMMEH!

[Eric @ Mar 12th 2008 3:07PM]

Talk about full circle. Wasn't it Sun who tried to push a similar thing about 10-11 years ago? It was a POS system, but the "Network is the computer" (or whatever) so who needs a decent PC anymore.

[Adam @ Mar 12th 2008 2:24PM]

A $100 for a desktop? I'm buying it. I just can't watch my $2000 pc grinding its harddrive day and night d/l stuff :(

[YoJIMbo @ Mar 12th 2008 2:27PM]

I think the Intel presentation people need to read "Presentation Zen"
http://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Zen-Simple-Design-Delivery/dp/0321525655/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205346379&sr=8-1

[phanbouy @ Mar 12th 2008 2:33PM]

being a laptop user for a couple years, i've been trying to catch up on CPUs and chipsets. WTF, intel? Your product line is a mess and named like shit. NetTop? Puhhhhhhlease.

[Evan @ Mar 12th 2008 2:44PM]

I'm all for cheaper, less powerful home PCs.

The typical home PC today is more powerful than the computers used to design the majority of the aircraft in use today! And for what, checking email? I was checking email and browsing the web perfectly fine with 64MB RAM and 512MB HD a decade ago. If it wasn't for the grossly bloated Windows, "$100 to $299" PCs would be the norm today!

[Allen @ Mar 12th 2008 2:58PM]

A "$100" PC with "Windows?" ROFL.

With linux though, yah, I can see that.

[bebop @ Mar 12th 2008 9:06PM]

The special cut-down version of XP being offered on the eeePC costs ASUS less than $30 for each license, closing the gap with Linux considerably. $30 is still more than free, but its not a bad deal, either.

[UKNigel @ Mar 12th 2008 3:29PM]

They say "Windows & Linux: Riding the open source wave", but what they mean is "Linux: Riding the open source wave, Windows $99 extra"

[darkwolf6 @ Mar 12th 2008 3:52PM]

Uhmmmm, they sold some in 2007? Silly presentation :)

[mckoder @ Mar 12th 2008 4:01PM]

This is Larry Ellison's Network Computer vision finally coming to fruition.

[ScareyJ @ Mar 12th 2008 7:07PM]

I think you're spot on. Though Ellison focused mostly on distributed Internet applications, I think virtualization technologies are finally going to spawn the demand.

[Tomahawk @ Mar 12th 2008 9:48PM]

Hey Intel, I hate to burst your bubble....but HP has had a product out for a while now the the name NetTop: http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/48852-0-0-225-121.html?jumpid=ex_R2548_go/nettop .