And now, a little visit to the "Why not?" department: NVIDIA is showing off an HP
Mini 1000 at
CTIA that it has totally gutted, replacing the laptop's stock Atom-based circuitry with its own
Tegra wares atop a bone-stock Windows CE build. At first the move seems counterproductive since Tegra can't run XP or Vista, but if you look at this as the first prototype of a large Tegra-powered
$99 MID, you're thinking along the right lines. The concept isn't indicative of any sort of partnership between NVIDIA and HP, but the chipmaker is looking at this as an opportunity to demonstrate to manufacturers how easy it is to make a device like this -- and like other Tegra devices we've seen, this thing could easily have HDMI, run fluid 3D graphics, and generally make the world a better place at a stupid cheap price. We were also shown a Tegra single-board computer measuring no larger than a single small-outline DIMM like you'd find in a modern laptop, proof that this action can be scaled
way down depending on the kinds of devices manufacturers are looking to make. Check out a video of the Franken-Mini after the break.
posted Apr 2nd 2009 8:55AM
All very snazzy, but I bet the batteries don't last long.
The mini 1000 weighs 2.45 pounds with the standard battery, even tripling the battery wouldn't push the weight past 3.5 pounds. I think that's acceptable considering the power you get.
Why would you bet that? It's a cell-phone CPU.
If my friggin' laptops lasted as long as my phone (3-4days, maybe), I'd be ridiculously happy about it. I'd buy one of these in a minute if it had support for anything other than Windows CE. Give me some super-pared-down 'nix kernel, a simple window manager, and it'd be perfect. Or maybe one of the instant-on OSes...
(Scratch that: less than a minute.)
10 hours of HD video, 100 hours of music.
$100.
In one word: FINALLY!!!
I have been led to believe that the power drain on Tegra is significantly less than on Atom. Couple that with an embedded OS, and you should theoretically get a significant boost in battery life. Of course driving all those pixels cannot be that kind to your batteries.
Do want!
Yes, your LG flip phone may last for 3-4 days, running a 50mhz cpu with 32kb of ram and a 176x220 screen resolution, but have you ever tried something running CE/WinMo for more than a day? I have a Touch Pro with a 600mhz cpu and a 3D capable video card in it, and the battery lasts for 12 hours on moderate usage (around 3-4 hours of internet use and occasionally checking the time). My Moto Q would run me about 8-10 hours, I would be hurrying home to plug it in after work. Granted, the Tegra takes what, half a watt? Even so, I'm fairly certain this thing won't be getting more than a day of use on a battery charge.
How big is the battery on your touch pro though? Something like this could have a battery many times the size!
@ insane.uk
"All very snazzy, but I bet the batteries don't last long."
They will when NVIDIA creates their own battery department... and gets sued for it.
someone seriously needs to put this in a phone and sell a companion netbook shell that you can drop it into. the phone becomes the touchpad, and the netbook shell provides the keyboard, extra storage, more battery life, and a screen. that would seriously be the ultimate moblie computing platform.
99$ MID -------------> FTW
I'd rather it be 200$ then use that shitty keyboard that HP uses on their mini
I tried it in the store and the keys were all wobbly it was so damn annoying.
@Mike
Store display models usually see exponentially greater abuse then a personal netbook... Nobody cares enough for them to use them with care, instead some people actually TRY to break them to see how much abuse they can take.
i agree, id buy that in a heartbeat! 100...im sure the battery life would be significantly better... im still holding off for cheaper netbooks lol
and apple can't make a $500 netbook that isn't complete crap...
I'm returning my ps2 I just bought
Tegra FTW. Common Androids...
A video of it in action would be nice.. :-)
Impressive!!!
Impressive indeed.
hey hey.. thats flash on an arm processor WOOT
Looks like Adobe has a version of Flash Player 9 or 10 for Win CE that they're only giving to OEMs. I suppose they don't want to support people hacking Flash Player onto their industrial barcode scanner. See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=EO0RbepUUs0
I haven't yet seen any video demos of 3D being run on these, any links/vids for that?
Didn't you hear the guy in the video? It's the same hardware that they've been showing off with that snazzy 3D UI and quake 3 arena running at 35 fps with everything on super high!
Focus!
perfect.
If one of the big selling features of this new chip is the 3D graphics capability, that's what they should be showing. Almost any handheld device (with some notable exceptions) can do flash videos in the browser.
Hey, if these guys can pull off cod4 at its lowest settings, id buy it today!!!
Shame thats is ce based though... so theres no chance of that. CE platform sux
Al Franken-Mini?
An Intel-free netbook. Nice...but can it Windows?
No co's it's Intel-free. Windows run's on X86 n X86-64.
So you'll need Linux or similar. Though if Tegra kick's off I'm sure Window's will attempt to make a version of Windows work for the platform just so they don't lose any ground to Linux.
why would anybody want an OS locked to only one architecture of computer processor? Even OSX runs on Power PC, X86, and ARM... Windows runs on ... X86?
Hopefully the OEMS will take somebody like Ubuntu seriously next time and build a real "netbook" brand, rather than going with roll-your-own "toy" distros simply to save a buck. Sure, there are other distros out there but for Linux and not-x86 netbooks to be taken seriously they need a consistent brand... right now that's Ubuntu Remix or Google Android. Ubuntu just needs to update Linspire's version of click-n-run (remember that from a long time ago! who'd of thought it'd catch on?) to be an "app store".
Since when does OSX run on ARM? The iPhone OS is not OSX. That's like saying Windows CE is Windows(only difference is that the Windows CE actually has a lot more features than the iPhone OS).
I'm afraid it is. Cocoa Touch has the same complete underlying freeBSD core as the desktop version of OS X - whereas windows CE and windows desktop have about as much in common as an apple and an orange - they're both fruit (OSes) but completely seperate.
This with the linux the put on the Mini 1000 MIE and I'm sold.
You can put linux on yourself you know.
How so? I was under the impression that it was hard coded CE. Could you then add Ubuntu Remix on top of that.
I like how the nvidia logo lights up green on the bottom bezel.
I am so with you there, man.
"Not indicitive of a relationship between Nvidia and HP" HP owns Nvidia. sounds like a Verticle monopoly to me. HP designs the hardware hires factorys in china to make the manufacture the equipment. Hp would have total controll of its production allowing them to match/beat the prices of the low cost competition (dell).
I think they would still outsource hard drives and memory
Bullshit.
You obviously don't know a thing about Nvidia since they are not owned by Hp you dumbshit. People like you always have to complain about something and don't know jack shit about anything!!!!!!!
What is a "verticle monopoly"?
I'll say it, I'm impressed. To me this is a big step in the right direction. Eventually they will get these things down to 1 lb or so with all day battery and most of the functions of a normal laptop. Keep it up. I'd also like to see them try this on a different platform, like eee 1000H or maybe a mini 10/12.
Just yesterday there was a post http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/01/wsj-android-being-considered-for-hp-netbook-dell-mid-and-smart/ about HP considering using Google's Android for netbooks. Are these two posts related? Tegra with Android will give us another option to all the wintel netbooks.
I'd love to be able to get a nviDroid laptop. I can't stand wIntel ones. XD
Presumably there are other flavours of Linux that will work with Tegra?
My god... it's full of stars!
FRAK, this is awesome!
DAYS of battery life with 3D goodness!
Holy crap...
$99 MIDs
Holy... crap...
How do you figure days of battery life? Put a laptop to sleep (similar to a smart phone's state 95% of the time) and it will last for days as well. Even if the Tegra took no power at all, the monitor would chew through a battery before the day is up.
Glad to see Nvidia working with HP hardware. However, I would much rather see this Mini 1000 with an ion platform in it. Make it happen, Nvidia! I want one!
NEED NOW! Who knew it would be nvidia to put the screws to intel and their chipset empire......
$99?
That's like... £75?
And it'll run better than a standard Netbook, presumably....
Alright. I. want. this.
still waiting for the announce date of their apx :(
Nvidia said that they would deliver a $99 MID, not a $99 dollar netbook. Please take that into account before jumping to conclusions about price. I would expect a device like like this to cost a minimum of $200.
$99? So it's going to be a dollar cheaper than the Eee?
Even so. Keep pushing it Nvidia, Intel needs competition...
Nasty. I want one for streaming movies and emailing in bed. Even my Core Solo ULV gets warm in the summer.
Would be cool if they made a nicer, cheaper alternative to an ipod touch with this. Someone that's not Apple.
I'm asking this seriously....can someone tell me what's stopping HP and NVIDIA from selling this already? How long is NVIDIA going to pimp the Tegra-ware before I can get my hands on it?
I'm thinking the same thing. Just like everybody else is saying, throw an instant-on *nix distro or Android on the thing and ill order mine right now.
In my head i'm seeing the archos/andriod phone engadget keep mentioning with the tegra chip and a 3g subsidised contract finally nailing the iphone/apple to a wall.
How about $99 MID that plugs flush into a $50 netbook style 'docking station'. The netbook/docking station can give additional battery life, additional ports, dvd-burner, vga out, etc.
They already have that concept of a docking-top (or Docking Station laptop), it's 13inch though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXYshhuJzh4
the mini keyboard is actually really good, no wobble, decent size compared to its competitors.
just need to volunteer my one for the nvidia treatment.
All Nvidia has been doing is hacking/developing devices with its Tegra chip for a year now an only 2 unknown companies will release an actual device with Tegra & Android/Linux this year. Yulong & IAC from China
Hell for $99, wireless, HD graphics....throw linux gui on it and tell your kid to eat that for their laptop! Here's open office, a music and video player, with firefox, now shut up. They should make it a cell phone too, where you hold the whole thing up to your ear....HELLO?!? Yea, I got GREAT reception, my cell is bogger than my head....HEY turn this thing into a crazy texting machine. For real though, $99 ain't bad. They need to make a $200 one that flips the screen around and make's it a touchscreen tablet, then we're golden.
i apologize for my english, but did you guys think that they may be delaying this tegra chip trying to adquire any x86 license?, maybe that why intel its suing or trying to stop nvidia in their chip bussness so they cant enter in the cpu game! i dont know, just thinking