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Comment Re:The problem is Microsoft's license terms. (Score 1) 59

by bingbangboom (#38532196) Attached to: Intel Ships New Atom Processors To PC Makers

I recently bought a sub-$200 Acer with an N570 dual core Atom processor. It's better than I thought, especially after bumping the RAM. It looks like the Cedar Trail chips will offer a nice performance boost and lower manufacturing costs because of the SOIC integration.

But...

The stupid hardware restrictions Microsoft places on manufacturers to qualify for cheap OEM copies of Windows Starter have absolutely crippled the Netbook segment -- 1024x600 screen resolution and a maximum 1GB RAM is absolutely ridiculous in 2011. With a slightly higher resolution display and 2 to 4GB of memory, these machines would be extremely competitive in the low end portable market.

Use an AMD C-series or E-series next to your $200 Atom netbook and you will realize just how much you were overcharged. Did I mention that they can play games, 1080p video, and have HDMI? Intel Atom sucks.

Comment Re:Many smartphone alternatives (Score 1) 851

by bingbangboom (#38465234) Attached to: Do You Really Need a Smart Phone?

^-- Raises hand. I pay close to $100 per month for my iPhone, and rarely talk on it. I use it for web surfing, but sometimes am not near reliable wifi. I would be very interested in Republic Wireless if they offered the iPhone.

Tmobile has $30 plan with 100min/unlimited text/5GB 4G data.

You would only get 2G data on your iphone but save $70 a month + taxes.

Comment Re:Translation (Score 1) 163

by bingbangboom (#38220744) Attached to: AMD Confirms Commitment To x86

ARM only will compete against Intel in cases where power consumption is more important than performance

And in places where ARM's performance is 'good enough'. I have a little machine with an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8. For light web browsing and word processing, it's just about good enough, but for anything heavier it isn't. I have another machine with a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon (heavily tweaked A8), and it's fine for Flash-heavy web browsing and most other things including playing back streaming video. A quad-core 2GHz Cortex A9 is far more power than a large proportion of computer users currently need.

AMD is shooting for this market for Win8 launch with their E-series and C-series. Consumers will have a choice of "good enough" cpu + great GPU + x86 support vs ARM. ARM will win on power consumption but most consumers will want x86 support. Intel seems to have nothing to launch; Cedartrail is complete crap (PowerVR, no 64bit drivers, no directx10+).

Comment Re:Translation (Score 1) 163

by bingbangboom (#38220664) Attached to: AMD Confirms Commitment To x86

Let Intel turn its full attention to ARM for a few cycles, and see if AMD doesn't punish them.

Intel don't need to, because they're big enough to have different teams doing both. The problem is that no-one can really push the x86 architecture down to ARM-level power consumption because it's such a complex beast in comparison.

AMD has Intel beat in the 18 watt area for a while now and well into the future. Intel had to shove PowerVR graphics (no 64bit or DirectX10 ever) into CedarTrail Atom's, still isn't close to AMD performance, and it's delayed. People are reading into the fact that AMD is transitioning to the APU across the board as, "we are leaving x86." The one area that AMD can win is with the APU vs Intel.

Comment Meaningless given the Atom problems for Intel.... (Score 1) 149

by bingbangboom (#38141706) Attached to: AMD Cancels 28nm APUs, Starts From Scratch At TSMC
Intel has the Atom line (current generation is garbage) and the i3-23X7M ($100-$200 premium) that competes on the low end with AMD.

Intel Atom's next generation has no 64bit drivers or DirectX 10 for there PowerVR chipset:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Intel-Cedar-Trail-Atom-Won-t-Receive-64-bit-Graphics-or-DirectX-10-1-Driver-232915.shtml

__________________


Fusion "2.0" was already in the works:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20111121213529_AMD_Readies_Brazos_2_0_as_Krishna_Wichita_Get_Delayed.html

IIRC, these were scrapped because OEM's weren't going to design products around a 6-month lifecyle--hence they are skipping a generation.

Comment Re:Watch out for the cheap knock-offs (Score 1) 119

by bingbangboom (#37990322) Attached to: Fake Raspberry Pi Shops Pop Up

I want everyone to watch out for the cheap fakes coming from China.

AFAIK one of the creators had said that competing against the Chinese would be a good thing, as it would drive the price of components even further down, and making computing available for everyone is more important than personal profit.

That's what I was thinking. Chinese knockoffs would be a great thing as demand for official units will outstrip supply for up to a year or longer. I would love to see these in retailers for this year's holiday shopping.

Comment Re:Delays (Score 1) 123

by bingbangboom (#37930620) Attached to: 10k Raspberry Pi Units Available In December
You would be buying two; one for yourself and one goes to their charitable works. They want these to go to students/developers/etc eventually. 10K first come, first serve sale is not going to do that. They admittedly have very little experience with retail logistics; turn that over to someone who does know something and concentrate on what your charity is trying to accomplish. This is why projects become fail as resources are spread too thin putting out thousands of small fires.

Comment Re:Delays (Score 1) 123

by bingbangboom (#37925664) Attached to: 10k Raspberry Pi Units Available In December

Thanks for the kind words. I think we're about to learn some fun lessons about what selling tens of thousands of something involves, and we'll be doing it all in public :)

Eben

You have got to be shitting me. There will be nothing fun about mistakes to developers, students, and endusers. Please hand this off to a retailer: * $60-100 retail packaging sold at newegg or amazon and drop shipped from your location. * You get one and your charity gets one ala One Laptop per Child (OLPC)

Comment Re:Really needed... in five years? (Score 1) 156

by bingbangboom (#37873948) Attached to: ARM Goes 64-Bit With Its New ARMv8 Chip Architecture
ARM is scaling up, while x86 is scaling down to get to this future "computing nirvana" where mobile meets desktop. I think x86, through AMD, is going to reach the computer/smartphone conversion line before ARM will. But the problem is the timeframe. Five years for ARM? AMD is at 2.1W for their tablet brazos chip with directX 11 and 64bit today. Meanwhile, Intel is just pissing around with Atom; their nextgen Cedartrail was thrown together with PowerVR graphics, can't even pass Win7 certification, and can only to 32bit DirectX 9.

Submission + - Is ARM ever coming to the desktop?

Submitted by bingbangboom
bingbangboom writes: Where are the ARM powered desktops? I finally see some desktop models however they are relegated to "developer" models with $200+ USD price tags (trimslice,etc). Raspberry Pi seems to be the only thing that will be priced correctly, have the right amount of features, and may actually be released. Is the software side holding ARM desktops back? Everyone seems to be foaming at the mouth about anything with a touch interface, even on the linux side. Or are manufacturers not wanting to bring the "netbook effect" to their desktop sales? Are ARM powered desktops destined to join the mythical smartbook?

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