NVIDIA's Franken-Mini is half HP, half Tegra, no Intel

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.

Gallery: NVIDIA's Franken-Mini is half HP, half Tegra, no Intel

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[insane.uk @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:07AM]

All very snazzy, but I bet the batteries don't last long.

[syko21 @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:16AM]

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.

[scabby @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:20AM]

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.)

[Shinigami @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:46AM]

10 hours of HD video, 100 hours of music.
$100.

In one word: FINALLY!!!

[ZSX @ Apr 2nd 2009 10:09AM]

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!

[freehunter @ Apr 2nd 2009 10:18AM]

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.

[pedro @ Apr 2nd 2009 11:10AM]

How big is the battery on your touch pro though? Something like this could have a battery many times the size!

[Frostblade10 @ Apr 3rd 2009 4:20AM]

@ 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.

[brian @ Apr 4th 2009 7:01AM]

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.

[Ahmed Alzayani @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:07AM]

99$ MID -------------> FTW

[Mike @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:33AM]

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.

[GenoMalice @ Apr 2nd 2009 11:30AM]

@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.

[Rahim @ Apr 2nd 2009 12:33PM]

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

[Bwkrazyness @ Apr 2nd 2009 6:44PM]

and apple can't make a $500 netbook that isn't complete crap...

[stephen @ Apr 3rd 2009 3:55AM]

I'm returning my ps2 I just bought

[TareX @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:09AM]

Tegra FTW. Common Androids...

[Danny F. @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:09AM]

A video of it in action would be nice.. :-)

[sorinpopa @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:17AM]

Impressive!!!

[DP @ Apr 2nd 2009 12:37PM]

Impressive indeed.

[cb88 @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:25AM]

hey hey.. thats flash on an arm processor WOOT

[spundot.com @ Apr 9th 2009 9:42AM]

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

[Nick Spacek @ Apr 2nd 2009 9:34AM]

I haven't yet seen any video demos of 3D being run on these, any links/vids for that?

[Matt @ Apr 2nd 2009 2:53PM]

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!

[Alexkass @ Apr 2nd 2009 10:03AM]

perfect.

[Sean @ Apr 2nd 2009 10:11AM]

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.

[Ray @ Apr 2nd 2009 10:43AM]

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

[Cargojack @ Apr 2nd 2009 2:33PM]

Al Franken-Mini?

[superhobo @ Apr 2nd 2009 10:39AM]

An Intel-free netbook. Nice...but can it Windows?

[deanb @ Apr 2nd 2009 12:32PM]

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.

[mabhatter @ Apr 2nd 2009 1:06PM]

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".

[Abuzar Baloach @ Apr 2nd 2009 5:49PM]

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).

[Neg @ Apr 3rd 2009 8:24AM]

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.

[Bokal @ Apr 2nd 2009 11:05AM]

This with the linux the put on the Mini 1000 MIE and I'm sold.

[Darth Abe @ Apr 2nd 2009 11:29AM]

You can put linux on yourself you know.

[Hi, Josh got Bas @ Apr 6th 2009 5:26PM]

How so? I was under the impression that it was hard coded CE. Could you then add Ubuntu Remix on top of that.

[Brandon L @ Apr 2nd 2009 11:19AM]

I like how the nvidia logo lights up green on the bottom bezel.

[fr3z3rburn @ Apr 3rd 2009 2:35AM]

I am so with you there, man.

[Drew @ Apr 2nd 2009 11:19AM]

"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

[matt @ Apr 2nd 2009 1:49PM]

Bullshit.

[Bob @ Apr 2nd 2009 5:46PM]

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!!!!!!!

[Peter @ Apr 5th 2009 4:45AM]

What is a "verticle monopoly"?

[dbrow @ Apr 2nd 2009 11:52AM]

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.

[Justin @ Apr 2nd 2009 11:56AM]

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.

[MarkG @ Apr 2nd 2009 12:07PM]

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?

[Matt @ Apr 2nd 2009 1:15PM]

My god... it's full of stars!

FRAK, this is awesome!

DAYS of battery life with 3D goodness!

Holy crap...

$99 MIDs

Holy... crap...

[ashan @ Apr 2nd 2009 4:22PM]

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.

[Conceyted @ Apr 2nd 2009 1:30PM]

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!

[Hackettman @ Apr 2nd 2009 2:36PM]

NEED NOW! Who knew it would be nvidia to put the screws to intel and their chipset empire......

[luke @ Apr 2nd 2009 3:16PM]

$99?

That's like... £75?

And it'll run better than a standard Netbook, presumably....

Alright. I. want. this.

[Nick Nguyen @ Apr 2nd 2009 4:10PM]

still waiting for the announce date of their apx :(