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CUPP's PunkThis graduates to tablets, earns a degree in security (hands-on video)
Remember CUPP Computing's PunkThis board we played with at Computex 2011? It's now left the confines of its 2.5-inch hard drive form-factor and jumped ship from a standard Asus netbook to a Core i5-equipped Eee Slate EP121, taking residence alongside the tablet's battery. As a refresher, PunkThis puts a complete ARM-based system into an x86 computer by replacing the SATA HDD with a single core 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 3730 processor, 512MB RAM and WiFi, along with a mini-PCIe socket for SSD storage, plus connectors for the host's video, audio and USB interfaces. While CUPP computing is still working hard to make PunkThis commercially available for tech-savvy individuals, it acquired Israeli security company Yoggie last July and built this demo machine to attract another kind of customer. The tablet we tested was running Windows 7 Home Premium and Android 2.3.4 simultaneously, and was equipped with an additional button for switching between x86 and ARM modes. Since the Asus EP121 already uses a mini-PCIe SSD instead of 2.5-inch SATA storage, a prototype PunkThis board was designed to fit alongside a modified battery. Gingerbread didn't break a sweat supporting both the 1280x800-pixel capacitive touchscreen and pen-based Wacom digitizer thanks to some additional hardware and software tweaks. Beyond the ability to switch between Windows for heavy lifting and Android for improved battery life, it's possible to use both x86 and ARM side-by-side. Imagine antivirus and firewall software running on the PunkThis board in mission-critical security applications for enterprise, and it's easy to see where CUPP Computing is going with this. Check out the gallery below and our hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-142454%
CUPP PunkThis hands-on (video)
It's not the first time we're run into CUPP Computing's unique ability to blend the x86 and ARM platforms into one device -- at least in prototype form -- and just before the start of Computex 2011 here in Taipei we got a chance to experience the company's latest iteration called PunkThis. The product is meant to replace your computer's 2.5-inch SATA hard drive with a board featuring a complete ARM-based system along with a mini-PCIe socket -- the latter capable of accommodating a physically smaller SATA SSD to handle the missing storage for the x86 host. PunkThis is built around a Texas Instruments DM3730 1GHz ARM CPU with 512 MB of RAM and includes a WiFi radio, as well as connectors and cables to interface the board with existing video, audio, and USB facilities on the host computer (no soldering required). The Asus Eee PC netbook we got to play with was running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but was lacking WiFi support. It ran perfectly alongside Windows 7 which was powered by the existing Atom processor. Switching OS-es is just a hotkey away, and battery life is supposedly doubled when the main x86 CPU is shut down and the only the daughter board is operational. PunkThis also provides two microSD card slots -- one for system storage used by the ARM-based OS (Android in this case), the other for mass storage visible to both environments (shared space). Pricing is supposed to remain below $200 and availability is expected in 8 weeks. That's pretty hardcore, but with a name like PunkThis would you expect anything less? Feast your eyes on our gallery and peek after the break for our hands-on video along with the obligatory PR. %Gallery-124713%
