Will 2009 bring truly useable low power PCs?
Nvidia’s CEO was recently quoted saying that “I think that so far, what a netbook is, is a low-cost PC that doesn’t work that well.” His argument was that the current range of Atom based PCs are only good for running old software. He was of course promoting Nvidia’s solution, the NVidia Ion which should come out before the end of the year. If the initial reviews and specification are to be believed the Nvidia Ion based systems should consume 25% of the power of existing PC’s but still be powerful enough for 90% of the uses that consumers have for their PCs.
Why should we care? We’ve all been doing our bit for the environment, replacing those old light bulbs with low energy alternatives, buying low power fridges, turning the thermostat down a notch. Most people agree that reducing our carbon footprint is one of the most important challenges we face in today’s world. Here’s a fact for you, according to the environmental charity Global Action Plan the carbon footprint of the ICT industry is more than that of the airline industry.
Many Pc’s don’t get turned off, they either are just left doing nothing in idle mode or they’re put in standby. Sometimes there’s a genuine need to keep them running, e.g. servers but often it’s because people don’t want the hassle of waiting for the operating system to boot. There are many things that the consumer can do to reduce the power consumption of the PC but manufacturers have a role to play as well.
Goverment legislation and initiatives will make demands on PC manufacturers to consider the power of new PCs. Even President Obahma is pushing for more action from manufacturers. Market forces, as consumers demand more energy efficient devices, should also encourage manufacturers to produce lower power machines.
Low power PCs have been around for a few years. Via, for example, have had been producing a range of low power boards. The problem is they are great for building embedded systems but far too sluggish for use in an office environment. 2008 brought a new range of low power processors, the Intel Atom 220 and 330 and the Via C7, these processors will run Windows XP and perform Internet browsing and basic word processing tasks adequately. Intel’s solutions support 64bit operating systems and the Atom 330 is a dual core processor that supports 64bit operating systems. They are even certified for use with Vista Home Basic.
However, you’ll probably be disappointed when you get your new Atom machine home running Vista; it’s not going to be a great machine. The problem is partly that the Atom isn’t a powerful processor but mainly Intel’s interesting decision to partner the Atom with an old chipset (Intel® 945GC ) , a chipset that takes the 4W of power of an Atom 220 and adds another 25W, a chipset that has very low spec graphics that aren’t not capable of running DirectX 10.
NVidia have got it, they recognise the importance of low power computing, not just for laptops but for desktop PCs as well. The NVidia Ion has a low power chipset, the GeForce 9400M, with good graphics built in that takes a lot of the strain off the CPU. It really does have the potential to replace 90% of PC’s in use today.
One possible fly in the ointment is the rumour that Intel are reluctant to sell the Atom processor separately from their approved chipset. Hopefully that's all it is, rumour because if it is true there will be little incentive for manufactures to design their own Atom based solutions.
Intel have plans as well. They plan to replace the 945GC chipset with a new design the GN40, this should give the NVidia Ion a run for it's money. By the end of this year, not only should we have practical low power Pcs, but a choice!
Why should we care? We’ve all been doing our bit for the environment, replacing those old light bulbs with low energy alternatives, buying low power fridges, turning the thermostat down a notch. Most people agree that reducing our carbon footprint is one of the most important challenges we face in today’s world. Here’s a fact for you, according to the environmental charity Global Action Plan the carbon footprint of the ICT industry is more than that of the airline industry.
Many Pc’s don’t get turned off, they either are just left doing nothing in idle mode or they’re put in standby. Sometimes there’s a genuine need to keep them running, e.g. servers but often it’s because people don’t want the hassle of waiting for the operating system to boot. There are many things that the consumer can do to reduce the power consumption of the PC but manufacturers have a role to play as well.
Goverment legislation and initiatives will make demands on PC manufacturers to consider the power of new PCs. Even President Obahma is pushing for more action from manufacturers. Market forces, as consumers demand more energy efficient devices, should also encourage manufacturers to produce lower power machines.
Low power PCs have been around for a few years. Via, for example, have had been producing a range of low power boards. The problem is they are great for building embedded systems but far too sluggish for use in an office environment. 2008 brought a new range of low power processors, the Intel Atom 220 and 330 and the Via C7, these processors will run Windows XP and perform Internet browsing and basic word processing tasks adequately. Intel’s solutions support 64bit operating systems and the Atom 330 is a dual core processor that supports 64bit operating systems. They are even certified for use with Vista Home Basic.
However, you’ll probably be disappointed when you get your new Atom machine home running Vista; it’s not going to be a great machine. The problem is partly that the Atom isn’t a powerful processor but mainly Intel’s interesting decision to partner the Atom with an old chipset (Intel® 945GC ) , a chipset that takes the 4W of power of an Atom 220 and adds another 25W, a chipset that has very low spec graphics that aren’t not capable of running DirectX 10.
NVidia have got it, they recognise the importance of low power computing, not just for laptops but for desktop PCs as well. The NVidia Ion has a low power chipset, the GeForce 9400M, with good graphics built in that takes a lot of the strain off the CPU. It really does have the potential to replace 90% of PC’s in use today.
One possible fly in the ointment is the rumour that Intel are reluctant to sell the Atom processor separately from their approved chipset. Hopefully that's all it is, rumour because if it is true there will be little incentive for manufactures to design their own Atom based solutions.
Intel have plans as well. They plan to replace the 945GC chipset with a new design the GN40, this should give the NVidia Ion a run for it's money. By the end of this year, not only should we have practical low power Pcs, but a choice!
posted by Andy Tyrrell at
19:41
2 Comments:
Interesting! I've been looking at low power/ Eco PC's over the past week or so. Primarily the Avent Eco PC, although in a lot of the reviews I've been reading Advent have been criticised for not using the ATOM chip (instead of Intel Core 2 Duo T5250) to further reduce it's already impressive lack of power usage (78% less than a standard PC, 25W).
From reading the above it seems that Advent may have gotten it right! The spec for the Eco PC isn't cutting edge but is ok at 2Gb Ram, with a 160Gb hard drive, wireless built-in etc. But, if they also used an Atom chipset would it actually run Vista Home Premium? It's good to be green but there have to also be practical considerations!
This is an interesting subject, keep going and I wait for more informative stories!
There are other solutions not using the Atom processor that will be very efficient. The trick is to choose a processor with a low TDP, (TDP is basically the max power it should consume at full load) and an efficient chipset on the motherboard. The E7200 core 2 duo processor combined with a motherboard using the G31 or G33 chipset is a good combination. The Avent PC is a good example of what can be achieved.
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