Fujitsu set to debut AMILO GraphicBooster external graphics card

We've heard plenty of promises of external graphics solutions for laptops in the past, and it looks like Fujitsu Siemens is now about to join the party as well, with it reportedly set to debut its AMILO GraphicBooster in the "next couple of weeks." That word apparently comes from a leaked presentation from the company which, unfortunately, doesn't include all the details we'd like, but does at least reveal a few tantalizing bits of information. As Notebook Review reports, the device is based on ATI XGP technology, which supposedly provides a 4.7X boost in graphics performance over a standard Fujitsu AMILO laptop (it's not clear if they're talking about integrated graphics or not), or a score of about 8,000 in 3DMark06 benchmarks. What's more, the device will also apparently let you connect up to three external displays to your laptop, with both DVI-D and HDMI ports provided. Of course, there's no word on pricing or availability, which could lead one to suspect that this is yet another device we'll still be hearing about a year from now -- if you're the cynical type, that is.

[Thanks, Master_P]

[IT-Accountant @ May 16th 2008 1:53PM]

IF this thing is legit, I will buy it immediately.

Does anyone else think this is too good to be true? I smell vaporware.

[Flashpoint @ May 16th 2008 2:09PM]

Hook this to a Wii and you can play CRYSIS.

[Ray @ May 16th 2008 2:28PM]

I would also buy this immediately... Srsly, 8000? I would buy this thing and buy a crappier but smaller notebook that has a fast processor.

Im drooling already

And this doesnt need extra connection, i can see this thing being connected to ethernet and possibly using 2 usb's for power, but more than likely a separate wall connection, either way i'd be happy

[TMFAN @ May 16th 2008 2:03PM]

Fujitisu?!

[slarity @ May 16th 2008 2:14PM]

Exactly... its most likely not worth a damn unless nvidia or ati has their hand in it as well.

[duffman @ May 16th 2008 2:05PM]

Considering they don't even have a picture of a prototype, I'd be willing to bet this is pretty far off.

[jackflash @ May 16th 2008 2:36PM]

I don't understand how these external cards get around the bandwidth issues. What bus can handle the amount of data moving between the cpu and the video card?

[Raymond @ May 16th 2008 2:39PM]

They could make a propriety PCI-E Dock Port I guess?

[w00t @ May 16th 2008 3:05PM]

No need! ExpressCard is PCI-E :)

[gentux @ May 16th 2008 7:48PM]

But ExpressCard can only handle 2.5 GBit/s that makes 10 lanes but PEG has 16 lanes.

[gentux @ May 16th 2008 7:57PM]

Oh I think I've confused GBit/s and GByte/s so there's just one lane. That would be just double the speed of PCI, or same as AGP 2.0.

I think today's Intel IGPs are faster than that.

[J @ May 16th 2008 2:20PM]

won't work well unless it gets at least 8 pcie lanes. That was the main problem with the asus solution...

[Bevo4138 @ May 16th 2008 2:26PM]

Fujitsu-
Netgear called- they say they want their router case back.

[donuteatinsob @ May 16th 2008 2:36PM]

I call shenanigans on this one. I am still waiting on the Asus version which was supposed to be here "Q3 2007" and is still MIA. It would be too much to ask that we could have something like this to give us a small laptop that we could use with something like this to get some pretty good gaming performance out of for us not so hardcore gamers.

[gentux @ May 16th 2008 7:51PM]

are you still in 2007? Oh poor, so happy new year and all the best in 2008 :D

[IndustrialJones @ May 16th 2008 2:49PM]

Just saw this earlier on tomshardware.com. It's priced with a review. I think they said it will be released in June or so.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vidock-expresscard-graphics,1933.html

[David Gray @ May 16th 2008 8:25PM]

mm very interesting, so i guess the technology can work..

ROFL at the MAc edition, thats a hefty bitchslap

[IndustrialJones @ May 16th 2008 3:11PM]

The ExpressCard doesn't have the same bus speed as PCI Express. Expresscard is about 2GB and PCI Express is around 40GB throughput, but ExpressCard is probably the fastest you're going to get in an external connection on a laptop.

[Stranger @ May 16th 2008 6:09PM]

Expresscard is nothing but PCI-E X1 and USB2 used in another format. It's plenty of information available on wikipedia. It would be quite simple to build a docking station with the same throughput as a X16 port, especially since a standard for this has already been developed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

[dee908 @ May 16th 2008 3:17PM]

Hi, i'm interested in a MythTV setup but just began reading up on it this week, would this benefit me at all?

[ET's Dad @ May 16th 2008 3:31PM]

They could use optical fibre instead of Expresscard.

[Mavric @ May 16th 2008 3:53PM]

PCI-E is only 8gb/sec not 40gb/sec like mr. uninformed above and express card slots are 2.5gb/sec, not too shabby. my assumption is that this is an up-converter and graphics card. that way a lower res stream can be sent to the external then up-converted before running through the ATI and out to your screen...

[Richard Lai @ May 16th 2008 8:42PM]

Asus, where the hell is your XG Station???

[loosely_coupled @ May 18th 2008 3:27AM]

8000 3DMark06? Wow. If thats really true, this will be an incredible external solution for laptops... two 8700M GT cards in SLI score about 8000, and a 8800M GTX scores about 9,000. The 8800GTX is currently the best card available for laptops

[bikehorn @ Nov 18th 2008 2:32PM]

Remember the mid to late 90's, when it was all about 3DFX Voodoo cards that you would use in series with your existing display adapter to get sweet-for-the-time 3D performance and play the original Quake which your original software graphics accelerator would never allow? I remember my buddy's dad had a K6-2 500 desktop with a Voodoo 3 plus two Voodoo 2 cards in SLI mode(nVidia only did this years after buying up 3dfx) and we used to play Tribes 2 at max resolution thinking we were the shit. For three video cards we had a total of 32 MB of video RAM. Ah the bad old days....

[Kira @ Nov 19th 2008 1:44AM]

www.magma.com was the first one to come out with Expresscard to PCI Express expansion chassis.
If you actually have a 100K PCI express protocol analyzer, most ATI video cards don't use more than x8 bandwidth. With ATI graphic cards, x2 lane is more than enough to handle most bandwidth. However, Nvidia graphic cards require at least a x8 bandwidth. Since AMILO graphic booster (ATI) is PCIe gen2 at x1, it's equal to x2 PCI Gen1 bandwith. I've tested with 3D Mark'06 and Crysis on both ATI and Nvidia at x1 vs x4 vs x8 vs x16.

[mackyu2000 @ Jan 18th 2009 1:36AM]

is this already on the market??