You can do some pretty cools stuff with an iPhone on Ubuntu 10.04+
Just saw this on the Ubuntu community section, maybe I was wrong. If you're happy to use some simple commands you can do some pretty cool stuff with your iPhone and without needing to buy Mifi.
The Biggest Threat to Ubuntu isn’t Microsoft – it’s Apple
Linux users may look down at Apple fans for paying such gross markups on hardware and settling for a less pure implementation of Unix, but OS X is far more socially acceptable than anything Redmond produces and I know lots of people who run Ubuntu on their home-made desktop and use Mac laptops. Apple puts a lot of effort into battery life and for laptops a fully integrated approach of customized hardware, OS, and battery still makes some sense over a modular approach. In short, the two minority players in the OS market have co-existed.
As the personal computer experience becomes more web-based, the advantages of Windows start collapse. You can run Chrome or Firefox (and Flash) on any desktop OS and that lets you access just about anything you need. You can finally avoid the Microsoft tax and buy or build a much cheaper PC with Ubuntu on it, install Flash 10.1 and you can enjoy BBC iPlayer, Hulu, YouTube HD, etc. just like you did before. There's OpenOffice, Picasa (and a slew of Linux-only photo editing programs), all your standard accessories. If you want to play games, do them online or buy a console.
Most people I meet that have tried Ubuntu prefer it to Windows and would be happy to switch since they know OpenOffice and mainly use their PC for web stuff. They could stop closing stupid Windows pop-ups and avoid AV software.
The only problem is all these people own an iPod, iPhone, or iPad and need a mothership to sync it too. I own all three and have to run Win7 on a dual boot drive for this nonsense. I don't particularly like iTunes but Linux options (GTK pod) don't really work. If you want to keep Ubuntu and use Apple for super portable hardware you have to use things like DropBox.
Pundits have been saying it would be Adobe Photoshop for Linux that would bring the masses in, but the killer apps aren't high-end they are low-end. Ubuntu has great browsers, it has flash support, it has solitaire, and it has a much cleaner interface. All it needs is a way for users to sync up the 275 million iOS devices out there.
Sony is now to Google what Apple once was
Time was Eric Schmidt sat on Apple's board and Mr. Jobs on that of Google's. The acrimony engendered by Android's entrance onto the smartphone stage and Steve's megalomaniacal sense of victimhood ("we didn't enter the search business!") ended all that. And so the marriage of the sexiest hardware maker to the most beautiful software firm, joined from the first day by their greatest enemy, Microsoft, ended.
Enter Sony, whose last global product offering, the PSP Go, only underscored what a growing embarrassment Sony is to the industry. Samsung has eclipsed them in core markets and has the muscle to release an iPad competitor (if not killer).
Engadget broke the PSP Phone (code named Zeus) story this week and has confirmed it: Android 3, marketplace of serious games, nice design:
I'll assume 800 x 480 but it would be great if they came in higher, or could run 720p. Its unique but Sony has rarely been a leader in mobiles, while it is often owned the TV space.
While Apple TV is a "hobby" for Apple and essentially an iTunes shill, Google TV finally brings the browser to the sofa and the bed, plus Hulu for yanks and iPlayer for us. YouTube is the world's second largest search engine. This will be big. A partnership with Sony makes a lot of sense for both but the premium charged over an offline TV is exorbitant - $300-$400 more according to Engadget. You could buy a Logitech Revue for that price difference but the Revue is a joke - 1.2GHz Z-series Atom processor in a plastic box that's extra big to get rid of the heat from the passively cooled CPU.
We have a sliver of a fraction of their resources yet we could a) design a fanless set top box with custom heatpipe that dissipates heat into the room and not the PC case b) build a fanless board into a 26" or 32" TV for much less than a $300 premium.
Maybe we will.
Aleutia Solar Classroom in a Box
Aleutia's mission has always been to distribute computers to as many families and businesses as possible in emerging economies and particularly in Africa. Getting useful computers into rural schools, and especially secondary schools, is the real key here because that's where we see the most impact. The barriers are three fold: upfront cost, electricity access (ongoing cost), and reliability.
The industry worship of Moore's Law means we can't do much on cost because the silicon remains expensive (see above post) but we've built up a lot of expertise on passively cooling PCs which means we can produce a really reliable fanless PC at a reasonable price point. And we can get rid of hard drives by using SSDs (still expensive) or, in a classroom, by going diskless and keeping everything on a fanless DRBL server (we run all the Ubuntu sessions off an SSD).
Our T1 has been used in schools all over the world with some particular challenges from the Amazon jungle in Ecuador (humidity, lots of insects that try to get into the PC) to Afghanistan (heat, and zero access to spare parts).
Frequently we ship our T1s and monitors out and rely on a local company to put together the solar side of things but this tends to push up costs and is contingent on a good local supplier being present. In response we've put together a solution that will initially roll out in Nigeria.
It's completely solid state and the whole classroom consumes just 15 Amps or 180 Watts. It's compact enough so that we can ship it anywhere in the world with DHL and comes with everything you need to run 7 PCs and server indefinitely - all you have to do is add batteries. (Deep cycle lead acid batteries are a hazardous material and can't be shipped by air - we can always advise which ones to buy).
The explanation is below and we'll be providing updates (and videos) soon. Should be available to order on the site starting in December.
Why Moore’s Law (our industry mantra) does not matter
Moore's law dictates that every 18 months, we get twice the transistors for the same price. That used to be great in the 90s when computers were slow and in the 80s when computers were really slow. It meant when you typed a letter on the keyboard you didn't have to wait for it to appear on the screen.
But today it means that you get a quad core for the price of a dual core. Some games and video encoding programs can utilize 4 cores but the vast majority of software can only take advantage of 2 or even 1 core. Software has always lagged behind hardware.
So you get all this performance but it long ago passed the point of being "good enough" and overshot the demands of many people, especially those in areas with little bandwidth where YouTube cannot be streamed in HD. (Personal Caveat: I have ridiculous levels of bandwidth and like watching things in 1080p so I am writing this on a Core i3-based Aleutia H3).
And the problem is AMD and Chipzilla (even VIA) do not bring the base cost of processors down.
We've built a product line on the Intel Atom 230 (1.6GHz) and Atom 330 (2 x 1.6GHz), which was replaced by the D410 (1.66GHz) and D510 (2 x 1.66GHz). At least these new entrants reduced heat and power consumption by building the NM10 Chipset into the CPU silicon. Now we have the D425 and D525 - pushed up to 1.8GHz and probably overclock'able to 2.0GHz. This does help with tasks and we are going to start selling them next week but the price of the boards and CPU is the same as the last generation.
We can make a computer for $150 but I'd like to make one for $50. RAM and SSDs are coming down in price but what the industry needs is cheaper silicon (or boards with less crap on them).
How to Set up a Solar PC Computer: Guide for East Timor
Timor-Leste became the 62nd country we've sent our fanless computers to yesterday, when we shipped out a computing station kit of a 12V dual core Aleutia T2 computer and 12V monitor and all the solar kit to run it. This will be operating in a remote area for a Microfinance institute in Australia so it was essential that a) there's enough solar capacity to run indefinitely and b) that it be compact to keep FedEx shipping costs low. And it had to be easy to set up. Solar isn't absurdly complicated (even I've figured it out) but in remote areas it needs to be done right, otherwise you can blow a fuse in the solar panel (or in the DC plugs for the T2 and monitor).
We had a pair of weatherproof 20 Watt Monocrystalline panels joined by piano hinges with a a 5 meter weatherproof cable that terminates in a unique plastic male clip.
We use a Morningstar charge controller - this lets you charge the battery at the same time as you are using the PC - with 3 areas to connect cables: Solar (connect the panels here), Battery (connect the + and - battery leads here) and Lightbulb (connect whatever you want here - in this case a T2 and monitor).
We have a female plastic clip pre-wired to come out on the left (the solar icon) - these clips are set up so you can only connect the solar panel to the charge controller in the correct way.
And the brown (+) and blue (-) cables coming off the middle (battery icon) are again pre-wired to connect to the battery (for demonstration purposes at the office, just a 7 Amp hour deep cycle leisure battery):
As you can see we also have a pair of DC sockets wired in so you don't have to figure out which part of the cable is + and - and can just plug your Aleutia PC and monitor:
Every solar solution we sell is fully tested in London (we are currently setting up an office unit as a dedicated solar lab) and we're going to start YouTube'ing most of them. That way you know exactly how the solution you bought works.
The solar kit is available from our site: http://www.aleutia.com/products/solar
New Aleutia H1 Ion HTPC Now on Sale for £299 in Black and White
We've finally re-released the new H1 on our website. This tiny PC is about the size of a DVD case and weighs just 486 grams! It's less than an inch thick and comes with 2GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive with options for Intel or Corsair SSD or 500GB hard drive. We'll soon offer the new Corsair F40 SSD, the world's fastest. The H1 is available in black or white and we can install either Windows 7 Home Premium or Ubuntu 10.04.
I use one at home and love it. It's small and quiet enough that my girlfriend doesn't complain (it blends in with the DVDs beneath the TV). My 37" TV is only 720p but even at 1366 x 768 resolution Ubuntu is nice and sharp (as is Windows, I use Dual Boot). I can use Picasa or XBMC to run slideshows, and it's the ultimate bit torrent box. It uses so little power so you can have it downloading films all day and then play them back in the evening...on the same box! no need to copy stuff to a USB stick.
Aleutia H3 Relaunched with USB 3.0 Ports, Gigabyte Motherboard, and Tougher Chassis.
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| From ALEUTIA - New Product Shots |
We've relaunched our popular H3 today with a new Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 mini-itx motherboard. This board has received a great review from Anandtech.com and after personally soak testing it for the last week in our new galvanized steel case I can confirm it is a superior to the Intel DH57JG. Power consumption is just as low but the BIOS has far more features and the system includes a pair of USB 3.0 ports to further future proof the H3.
Aleutia H1 Ultra Small Ion HTPC: New Product Shots, Launching August 10
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| From ALEUTIA - New Product Shots |
Pictured with Stand and Front I/O. Also ships with VESA mounting kit.
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| From ALEUTIA - New Product Shots |
Rear I/O consists of: 4 x USB 2.0 Ports, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI (with Audio support), and DVI port (with DVI to VGA adapter included), 19V DC Input, Audio Input. There is an SMA socket for the 3db WLAN antenna (included). Of course the internal Mini PCIe WLAN card plays beautifully with Linux.
New Aleutia D100 PC, Designed for Web Middleware like Flash. A digital signage PC.
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| From ALEUTIA - New Product Shots |
W'e've been an Intel house for sometime but AMD has had some great offerings in 2010. We like the dual core D510 processor because it is fanless but the Intel boards only come with a VGA port. Zotac charges £30 more wholesale to give you a worse version of the board, albeit with an HDMI port. At the top end the Core i3 530 and Core i5 661 offer great performance and don't use much power but they are just 2 cores and they are expensive.
We've tested the i7 860 and it's a beast but it doesn't support iGP at the CPU so then you add more power and cost by putting in a video card.
There aren't many AMD mini-itx boards so we have opted for an Asrock mATX board (GeForce 8200 chipset) and combined it with an incredibly slim mATX case.
We really don't care about gaming but we do love web browsing. And the modern web contains so much middleware like Java Script and Adobe Flash that you need a better processor.
Just writing this blog on my single core AMD Neo 1.6GHz netbook CPU is frustratingly slow.
So we take a very cheap AMD single core processor (the Sempron 140) that's clocked at 2.7GHz. Most applications are still only designed to run off one core so what matters is a single fast core. It's 45W TDP so we only need one fan to cool it and of course it boasts a reasonable chipset and I/O like HDMI, DVI, VGA that makes it fine for playing 1080p content.
New Aleutia H1: World’s Smallest Ion PC
Later this month, Aleutia.com will release the new H1. It's a powder white HTPC that you can wrap your hands around. With Dual Core Atom 330 processor, and powerful Nvidia 9400 onboard graphics, it's a very capable PC for general use.
Plays Full HD 1080p content as well as Flash in HD, neither of which my notebook can handle.
19V DC Input. 2GB RAM, 40GB Intel X25-M SSD.
Aleutia N2 Laptop Coming in June
We've always been a desktop company. For schools and institutions, we still think desktops are better because you can match them with a full size keyboard and mouse and a big monitor. If one of those pieces fails it can be swapped out and it's easier for 2 students to share a 20" monitor than a notebook display.
But for individual consumers the story is different.
A notebook is the least expensive and most energy efficient way to combine a computer, display, and keyboard. And of course, it's more portable.
Right now, the budget notebook market is split between netbooks and desktop replacements. Netbooks offer great battery life but have 10" displays and cramped keyboards that make them unusable as a primary computer. They are great for "couch surfing" and as a secondary PC but too awkward for long term use.
Desktop Replacements usually have 15" displays but terrible battery life and are awkward to carry.
The N2 offers something between these options with a 12" display and a DVD-RW in a portable package with a 6-cell battery.
Complete specs are:
- 12.1" 1280 x 800 Matte Display (Glossy Displays are too reflective for use in sunny countries)
- T4400 Pentium Dual Core Processor (2 x 2.2GHz)...a powerful enough processor to play 720p videos or watch YouTube in High Definition.
- 2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM
- 250GB 5400RPM Hard Drive or 40GB Intel X25-V Solid State Drive
- 802.11 b/g/n WLAN
- 1.3 MP Webcam
- 3 x USB 2.0 Ports
- 1 x Gigabit LAN
- 8X DVD-RW Dual Layer Drive
- 1.792 KG
Dance-Off: Kingston 30GB SSDNow SSD vs. Western Digital WD2500BEKT (7200RPM) HDD
Update: The Kingston SSD is the most low-end consumer SSD we've come across so seemed a good idea to pit it against a 250GB 7200RPM 2.5" Western Digital HDD (WD2500BEKT) that goes for half the price.
Many of our customers need solid state drives because they are operating in difficult places. But they don't usually need much storage capacity. A school in Africa can't take the risk of a moving hard drive but because the bandwidth is so limited there isn't much that needs to be on the PC save for applications. A sailboat owner does not want a hard drive because it can't be expected to last but at the same time their navigation software (usually Sea Pro) only takes up a few GB.
That's why we are always on the lookout for smaller, less expensive SSDs that still offer fast performance. We used to sell the Pretec 8GB SSDs but because they were basically CF cards (and very slow ones) that became a bottleneck for the T1s in terms of performance.
Lately, we've shipped the Intel 40GB X25-V but it costs too much, so we were psyched to see Kingston release this 30GB SSD and immediately bought 20.
Block Output SSD: 45.306 MB/s
Block Output WD2500BEKT: 85.164 MB/s
Rewrite: 28.676 MB/s
Rewrite WD2500BEKT: 38.859 MB/s
Block Input: 126.98 MB/s
Block Input WD2500BEKT: 96.247 MB/s
Random Seeks Per Second: 1569
Random Seeks Per Second WD2500BEKT: 180.3
The Intel X25-V performed better than claimed (with read speeds of 211MB/s instead of 175MB/s). Kingston scores far lower than it claims to but it's actually quite snappy.
Shoot Out: Intel X25-V 40GB SSD vs. WD3200BEVT HDD vs. Pretec 8GB SSD , Bonnie++ Benchmarks
We've already sold a handful of these Intel X25-V SSDs to customers and listed them on the website. V is for value and it is slower than the X25-M but still boasts a decent theoretical read speed (175MB/s), compared to the Kingston SSDNow value line that is 100MB/s. Albeit, this is alongside a very low write speed (40MB/s). The write speed would seem to be comparable to a 5400RPM hard drive and we're pitting against one our favourites the Western Digital Scorpio Blue 3200BEVT, a very quiet 320GB 2.5" drive that doesn't have the whine that Seagate laptop drives do. But its' about 20% less expensive than faster SSDs (like the ATP reviewed below) and offers 40GB of space instead of 32GB.
Update: added the 8GB Pretec SSD (actually a CF card inside a SATA enclosure) that we sell with the T1.
I installed Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2) and bonnie++. Results are below (all in MB/s)
- Block Output on SSD: 43.735 MB/s
- Block Output on HDD: 82.322 MB/s
- Block Output on CF: 8.160 MB/s
- Rewrite on SSD: 31.022 MB/s
- Rewrite on HDD: 34.232 MB/s
- Rewrite on CF: 10.793 MB/s
- Block Input on SSD: 211.938 MB/s
- Block Input on HDD: 84.112 MB/s
- Block Input on CF: 53.330 MB/s
- Random Seeks Per Second on SSD: 3674
- Random Seeks Per Second on HDD: 162.7
- Random Seeks Per Second on CF: 2167
No surprise but Random Seeks is where SSDs just kill it - no stupid moving platters to spin up. On the other hand they are reasonably matched elsewhere and the hdd is a little more than a third of the cost. Will update shortly with our Fujitsu 40GB drive since these are the 3 we use across our product range.
ATP Solid State Drive SSD Review
We've been given two of these by our distributor (Jactron) to test out.
I've installed Ubuntu on one and just run a Bonnie++ test with the following results:
Sequential Character Output: 10.847
Block Output: 54.399
Rewrite: 33.776
Sequential Character Input: 12.489
Block Input: 167.83
Random Seeks Per Second: 3677
Fanless Atom D510 Processor in Aleutia D1 and P1 Tomorrow
We've already blogged about the D510MO Pine Trail motherboard with lower power consumption and a well thought out heatsink to keep the processor passively cooled. Unfortunately it does not work with Ubuntu out of the box - you have to flash the BIOS at least for 9.10 - but of course Aleutia does that for you before shipping it as part of our free OEM install of 9.10.
We've finished the stress testing of the board and will be offering it in our D1 and P1 starting tomorrow (soft launch tonight). Both feature much lower power consumption. With the D1 we're switching from the Compucase 8K01 case we (and lots of other UK system builders) relied on before to a new, fanless model from Taiwan that is is 2/3 the size. The 8K01 has an internal brick adapter but relies on a cheap 5cm fan to keep it cool, resulting in noise, and meaning there's just an IEC input not a DC input. Moreover, with two of the units, that noise increased over time which just isn't acceptable. Now it will be fanless and have a 19V DC input.
The P1 is still aimed at sailboats and marine customers and so has a 6-26V DC Input with a 40GB hdd or 40GB Intel X25-V SSD (nothing larger is needed for sea navigation). It will be in a wall mount case with the option of a extra Gb lan port, making it ideal as a server. We've also dropped the price £80 and will now offer Win7 with it as well.
Lenovo X100e Power Consumption, X100e UK Review
Over the years I've had both an IBM X30 and X40 Thinkpad, justly famed for their build quality and usability but small and light size. Before netbooks, the X-Series was the only 12" notebook around but that portability (and the enteprise spec within) came at a high price. The X301 (Macbook Air slimness but with an optical drive - watch their cheeky ad here) retails at £1847.
The X100e instead features a similar chassis and display, with an excellent keyboard and pointing stick, but with "netbook" internals. So instead of a Core 2 Duo there's AMD's Neo MV-40 (inexpensive like the Intel Atom but a bit better performing) and the Ati 3200 onboard graphics we have come across and used in Jetway mini-itx motherboards. Supposedly it will drive older games like Half Life 2 at a playable frame-rate but I've been unable to get Big Buck Bunny running at 1080p at least as an h.264 nor will YouTube play at 720p (even with Adobe Flash 10.1 installed for both IE and Chrome). For now I will chalk this up to user error, at least until I install Ubuntu on it using these steps, an OS I am more comfortable with.
Most netbooks have a glossy finish (fingerprint magnet) and glossy display (useless except for seeing your reflection). The X100e has a glorious matte finish throughout and a bright 1366 x 768 11.6" display, it's best feature.
There are better and more thorough reviews online, specifically this one:
http://netbooked.net/netbook-reviews/review/lenovo-thinkpad-x100e-review/
So I'm going to stop giving a general review and focus on power consumption as no one else has and it's important to really establish how netbooks stack up with nettops like Aleutia T1s.
Running off the battery, without cranking down processor and with screen at full brightness (15 on scale of 1-15) it uses 25W. But that's not with the CPU maxed out encoding a movie, but just with Chrome in background and using the Snipping tool:
Keep the brightness high but max out all the power-saving features (i.e. crank CPU down) and you're at 20W.
Aleutia H4: Fanless HTPC in Lian Li PC-Q07 Case
I'll post a review separately but of the 30 or so mini-itx cases we've worked with, the Lian Li PC-Q07 is the best. And because the board is vertically mounted it can fit a massive heatsink, allowing us to passively cool a 45W CPU (Quad Core AMD 600e or Dual Core 240e), or even a 65W (hell's bells, we could go with Core i5 even at 73W). There's also a 2.5" SATA drive slot (for SSDs), a 3.5" drive slot with anti-vibration rubber mountings, and either a 5.25" optical drive (for Blu-ray Writer) or an extra 3.5" drive (ideal as a cold swap, fanless, quad core server).
Dimensions, 193mm x 280mm x 208mm (W,H,D).
More pics, videos, and pricing details shortly.
Silent Quad Core AMD Fanless PC: the Continuing Journey of the Aleutia H4
Aleutia is in the process of carving out a real niche as a Fanless PC company, with a range of silent PCs that are not only passively cooled but do not suffer from noisy case fans or unreliable Power Supply fans. This is feasible with low voltage processors like the Intel Atom but we'd really like to offer a serious Dual Core and Quad Core PC for our customers who need that extra horsepower.
AMD have helped by at last releasing a line of updated CPUs with a TDP of just 45W. By comparison, Intel desktop CPUs are 65W and more and both AMD and Intel Quad Cores typically give off 95W of heat. Our H2 features the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200S (65W) rather than the Q8200 (95W) but it's expensive and 65W is just to much heat to passively cool in a small case (and pretty tough even in a large tower).
The AMD 600e has 4 cores at 2.2GHz and we've found a specialized heatsink that can passively cool it.
We've also found the world's smallest Micro ATX case and we'd love to offer it in this case (as mATX boards are much cheaper and allow for 8GB of RAM and more) but then we have the challenge of finding an mATX PSU without a fan or using a PicoPSU and connecting a 12V 9 Amp brick AC adapter which usually has a fan (and fanless versions are very expensive).
The solution is to mount the 600e and heatsink on a mini-itx board (in this case the Zotac 8200 with Nvidia 8200 IGP) but we need a case with a small footprint and a lot of height. I have looked at about 100 mini-itx cases but so far none fit the bill so we may have to custom make one. Need about 11 cm clearance.
Do any of our readers have a suggestion?
Intel Pine Trail: New Energy Efficient D1 PC with D510MO Now Available
We've already blogged about how great this board is and how much lower the power consumption is but now that we've had a chance to test it. we can confirm that power consumption averages 10 Watts less despite the slightly faster clock speed of the CPU (2 x 1.66GHz versus 2 x 1.6GHz). Best of all it's passively cooled. There's still a fan in the D1 case though we are working on making it completely fanless. Still comes with 4GB of RAM, a DVD-RW drive, and a Samsung F3 hard drive for £299 ex VAT.
Broadcom BCM70012 Crystal HD 1080p Decoder in Aleutia PC
We live in exciting times. Broadcom has released the Crystal HD BCM70012 (official link), a Mini PCIe 1080p decoder. Since the Aleutia Fanless T1 PC has a mini PCI express card slot (which we often use for an 802.11n Intel adapter) you can upgrade that low power PC so that it can play back 1080p content without having to resort to the more expensive Nvidia Ion boards we use in the Aleutia H1 Fanless HTPC.
Even better, the BCM70012 is supported by Adobe Flash 10.1 (still in beta), just like the Ion chipset. Flash 10.1 is less processor intensive than 10.0 because it uses the GPU as well. That means that for £25 extra, an Aleutia Fanless T1 can play back YouTube in HD (now 1080p) something that my MacBook cannot do, as well as BBC's iPlayer (720p).
Anandtech has a great article, highlighting the full linux support enjoyed by the Broadcom BCM70012 and XBMC's (Xbox Media Centre) ability to utilize it, as well as Boxee.
Fanless Small Network Server with Dual NIC and Low Power Intel Atom Processor
CD and hand shown for scale
Many customers buy the Aleutia T1 to use an always-on server. It supports PXE Network boot and can be configured to automatically Power On after Power Loss. It is also very low power, using only 17 Watts under load. With 500GB and 750GB 2.5" laptop drives now affordable, this makes it ideal as a small, low power network server.
However, the T1 has only 1 network port (10/100/1000) and naturally a lot of projects require two network ports.
We recently solved this for one of our customers by using a PCI Gigabit Network card with full Linux support and mounting it with a riser card in a larger, ventilated case. This has the advantage of offering more air flow. It's not VESA-mountable like the T1 but it can be wall mounted.
Unlike many fanless network servers, the T1 Dual NIC comes with 2GB RAM (OEM customers can have 512MB or 1GB for less) and a decent x86 processor in the Intel Atom N270 at 1.6GHz.
Fanless Intel Pine Trail PC Coming This Week
Just before CES kicked off, Intel announced a new Atom mini-itx motherboard, the D510MO. This uses the new Pine Trail platform which combines the memory controller into the DX9 graphics controller, reducing power consumption. Intel has also finally ditched the cheapo fan it used to put over the graphics controller in favour of a large heatsink, allowing the board to be passively cooled. There are also 2 x DIMM slots (like the Asrock 330 Atom board) allowing for 4GB of RAM. The D510 CPU is also a bit faster (2 x 1.66GHz) than the 330 (2 x 1.66GHz).
The power savings are substantial. Anandtech has a great write up with load power consumption on a test system dropping from 44.2 Watts to 25.8 Watts. Idle power consumption also plummets, from 41 to 21.2 Watts.
All this is great news for Aleutia customers as we'll be using it for our D1 starting this week helping us create a PC that is:
- Fanless
- Dual Core
- 4GB of RAM
- Affordable
- Optional SSD
Currently the internal PSU on the D1 uses a fan but we are looking at passively cooled PSUs.
This morning we've just received our first batch of the boards from Intel's biggest UK distributor. To ensure quality (and avoid any grey market issues) we only source components from Tier 1 distributors. This translates to better support for end-users as it is simple (and quick) for us to replace any failed parts.
Will have internal pictures of D1 up soon.
Blue and White Porcelain PC – As Extreme as Everest
Been researching PC case manufacturers. This website is so far the nuttiest (though I am only on letter G in my list), with power supplies pictured on top of a mountain and proclaimed, "As Extreme as Everest".
Apple Now Bigger than IBM, Feels Like 1983
IBM's market capitalization today is $166b and AAPL's worth $170b. The order of the day is proprietary and with iPhone supremacy (100,000 apps!) it looks to become Microsoft. Here's a clip from 26 years ago with Steve Jobs as David and Big Blue as IBM. (Smaller res because image quality sucks.)
Meanwhile Aleutia produces PCs with no moving parts that run on solar and can last 5 years in rural Africa.
KingSpec 32GB SSD Review, Benchmarks
We've been using these SSDs from KingSpec in China for some time and that I'd put a benchmark.
Bonnie++ Benchmarks (all in MB/s):
Sequential Character Output: 8.266
Block Output: 36.078
Rewrite: 17.452
Sequential Character Input: 11.174
Block Input: 121.445
Random Seeks Per Second: 2266
RAMbo Server: AMD 240e-based Low Power Server with 8-16GB DDR3 RAM
Unlike Intel, AMD still produces 45W Processors. These are much easier to cool (with a huge heatsink you can go passive) and of course use less power than a 65W, 95W, or 125W processor. We've taken their newest Athlon II X2 240e which is 2 x 2.8GHz (2MB L2 cache) and put in a really small mATX case with an energy efficient Gigabyte motherboard and a whopping 8 (or 16 or 4) Gigabytes of super high-speed DDR3 RAM. This memory is clocked at 1300MHz!
Whole idea is a lot of server applications just need a basic processor (ideally dual core) but need lots and lots for RAM. This way we keep the power footprint down (about 50W) and the price is low: £499 ex VAT for the 8GB version.
As it is a server, we've added an extra Gb lan port via a PCI card slot and there's an optional DVD-RW drive (though this adds to the power consumption). Only 3.7" tall so practically fits in a 2U space.
Aleutia H3: a Real Dual Core CPU, 4GB RAM, and One Fan…possibly passive.
A lot of applications can only use two cores and so it's better to have 2 fast cores (2 x 3.0GHz) than the four slower cores of our energy efficient H2 (4 x 2.33GHz). For the H3, we're using a new AMD processor (AM3 socket) as it offers better performance than the Pentium and Core 2 Duo processors. AMD is like Avis - they're number two, so they try harder.
Specifically, it's a Athlon II X2 250 (2 x 3.0GHz CPU). Unlike an Intel Atom 330 this is a real processor and more than capable for gaming or HD Flash playback.
We'd love to passively cool this but it's not possible in such a small case so we are shipping it with a large heatsink and single, slow fan (speed can be set in BIOS) that will be extra quiet. Drive options will be 40GB hard drive (7200RPM, quiet, and cheap) or 32GB SSD. 4GB of 1066MHz RAM (our fastest yet!) as standard.
We have been working on a Single Core AMD Sempron 140 solution as this is a 45W CPU and not a 65W CPU. And it's a beast (not your mother's Sempron!) but again it's too hard too passively cool as the video above shows. As soon as you remove the fan, temp jumps to 70 and then 80 C.
Our only hope is to use something like the Scythe Ninja, which is huge: 5 inches (or 120mm) cubed. So for now the spec is:
- Onboard Nvidia Geforce 8200 (1080p is no problem)
- H1/H2 Case
- AMD Athlon II X2 250 CPU
- 2 x 2GB 1066 MHz Kingston RAM
- 12V DC Input (PicoPSU)
- 102W External AC Adapter
- 40GB or 250GB 7200RPM SATA-II Drive or 32GB KingSpec or 64GB Kingston SSD
Amazon UK will be listing the 64GB Kingston Spec which will retail for £449 ex VAT or £516.35 with VAT and shipping in the UK.
World’s Lowest Power Windows Home Server: Fanless, Atom CPU, 2GB RAM, 750GB Hard Drive, and Gb Lan for £279
The Aleutia T1 has quickly become our top-selling PC since its general release in August. We sold nearly 100 in September and as it shares the exact same chipset as our F5 we have decided to phase out the F5 and offer the T1 with a new 750GB Drive laptop drive that uses only 2W, for total power consumption of just 18 Watts.
That means you get a fanless server with only one moving part (the hard drive), practically silent, and with 2GB of RAM and a Gigabit network port for a mere £279 ex VAT (£320.85 including VAT). Designed to be a perfect file or print server or host some light web traffic. Fully compatible with Windows Home Server as well - though it only has one drive and so isn't an ideal WHS box. We're releasing a new 4-bay Hotswap NAS for that purpose soon, the N1.
Samsung P2070 EcoFit 20″ 12V LCD – Slim, sleek, and Perfect for Rural Africa?
When you produce solar power, it's DC (Direct Current). Most electronics and computer components run on DC, usually either 5V or 12V. But since The Grid is AC (Alternating Current), they come equipped with power supplies that go from 100-240V down to DC. That's why your laptop has a "brick" power supply, switching the power from say 230V AC to 19.2V DC.
Our computers are all 12V or, even better, 6-26V DC. This means they can receive power when the batteries are low (and output is about 11V) or use truck batteries which are 24V.
The problem is monitors always have an AC "brick" built inside so if you are on solar power you have to use an inverter and go:
- From Solar > 12V DC Battery > AC Inverter (up to 23oV) > AC Monitor > Back down to DC components inside monitor.
Wasting 10-15% of power you go from AC to DC or DC to AC. Ideally you could just bin the AC power supply of the monitor and go:
- From Solar > 12V DC Battery > DC Monitor
Samsung appears to have done with this with their new P2070 monitor though the reason for making the PSU external is to make the monitor extra thin.
Schools in rural Nigeria are probably the last thing on the minds of Samsung engineers but it's so much less expensive than the crappy 12V 10" 800 x 600 Chinese monitors that sell for £150 to £200 on eBay and Car PC websites. And it doesn't require difficult linux drivers like the USB monitors do.
It actually has a great spec: 20", 1600 x 900 Resolution, 2ms response rate, 50,000:1 Contrast Ratio. I'll have one in on Monday and post the video review next week. It only has a DVI port which means it will work with our best-selling Aleutia T1 and our H-Series but not crappy thin client type PCs like the Inveneo or Linutop.