The Future of Laptops

[stash182]

My pc got fried in a storm a few weeks back and instead of buying a new mobo, I'm thinking of just buying a notebook now that they're basically equivalent performance-wise. I did some googling on notebook trends to see if I should hold off, but there's not much out there.

Does anyone have any articles/knowledge on whether notebooks are going to drastically evolve in the next year or so? I read some articles on Origami and UMPCs, but that seems way far off. I'm looking for performance, weight, and battery improvements.

 

[corkyg]

As far as features and capability go, there are several "desktop replacement" notebooks out there. But - I haven't found one yet with a keyboard that can match a regular one. So, if that were my one and only, I would want an external, plug in keyboard for general "at home" use.

For business travel etc., a 17-in screen notebook is a bit of a load. But the big Qosmio ain't too shabby as an "at home" desktop replacement.

QUO

 

[cw42]

Wait until next month for more info on Merom chips to come out for notebooks, unless you really need a new pc now. If you need to game, and arn't too worried about portability you can look into 15-17" desktop replacement notebooks from Dell - they seem to be fairly popular, and arn't too expensive.

Ignore Origami, and UMPCs.

Other things coming to notebooks in the future include a sort of "hybrid" storage system that involves a flash drive + hard drive. I don't know the details, and it's not something you should worry about. Still, that won't be used until Vista comes out, and it'll be a while til it is implemented in notebooks.

 

[Ruptga]

Yeah they're calling Vista's support for hybrid drives "Robson Technology." It is pretty cool, you have the OS installed to the flash memory in the HDD, something like two to eight GB of flash, so when the computer is turned on it comes up almost instantly since there is no need for the HDD to spool up. The other cool part of it makes almost no difference to a DTR, that the HDD only needs to run about 5% of the time so it pulls less power and makes less heat. It'll be a sweet little perk to Vista, I don't know if I'd wait until then just for that one feature though.

However, socket P might just be, especially for a DTR. Socket P, unless I've got my codenames mixed up, is Intel's next mobile socket, and it will support the Meroms, aka Core 2s, that will use the 800mhz fsb. I believe it is currently scheduled to launch in Q2 of '07, though lately Intel has been moving things up so that may have changed. Anyway, socket P will eventually support higher Ghz parts than the current socket 479, I mean the core clock, not 'just' the fsb. Although I don't know how much difference there will be, in sheer Mhz, between the socket Ps and the "old" 479s.

But back to the present, hybrid drives are just beginning to enter the market in large numbers, and they are going to first enter the thin and light notebooks and then come into the DTRs and desktops, as far as widespread usage I mean.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
Yeah they're calling Vista's support for hybrid drives "Robson Technology." It is pretty cool, you have the OS installed to the flash memory in the HDD, something like two to eight GB of flash, so when the computer is turned on it comes up almost instantly since there is no need for the HDD to spool up. The other cool part of it makes almost no difference to a DTR, that the HDD only needs to run about 5% of the time so it pulls less power and makes less heat. It'll be a sweet little perk to Vista, I don't know if I'd wait until then just for that one feature though.

I think Robson Technology is the flash memory that will be soldered to the motherboard for the Santa Rosa chipset. You would install the OS or frequently accessed programs on that piece of flash memory on your motherboard. Hybrid hard drives are different, but a similar concept.

 

[ViperV990]

Have they figured out how to deal with the limited number of write-cycles on those flash memory chips?

I suppose it'll be awhile until we see the page file stored on flash =P

 

[WackyDan]

For your money, I'd still buy a desktop. More bang for your buck, and with what you save vs buying a new laptop, you can buy a used one in decent shape from various sources (including the manufacturers sites - Off lease systems), and simply use that for the things you really need on the go, like web, mail, and surfing in the living room.

That would be my strategy. A laptop that would perform decently as a desktop replacement, is more $$ than a desktop, and nowhere near as mobile as a decent used 14" laptop(think IBM T or Dell Latitude).

 

[cheesehead]

My prediction would be that VIA's new CPUs and chipsets will snag a good chunk of the low-end laptop market. Because of the low price and easy implementation of the chipsets (their latest "chipset" consists of only two ICs), they'll find their way into many laptops; the fact that the exact same Via chipsets are compatible with both Intel and Via processors (same socket, I believe) means that they'll be availible in mainstream notebooks. They're about as fast as a Celeron-M at the same clock speed in many benchmarks.
This will have two major effects. The first is that the prices of laptops may drop slightly, as Via's really cheap chipsets and processors flood the market. The second is that small, thin, and light laptops will once again regain a measure of popularity as the major power-using component in a laptop is the LCD. (VIA's extra-low-voltage C7 is advertised as using all of three and a half watts under ideal conditions.)

Also, as MXM becomes more popular, the performance gap between laptops and desktops will lessen.

 

[Ruptga]

Originally posted by: ViperV990
Have they figured out how to deal with the limited number of write-cycles on those flash memory chips?

They haven't with flash, but there is something functionally similar to flash, MRAM. It's really sweet, though it's still in development, it is pretty close to being in use, Freescale Semiconductor is already selling commercial 4Mbit chips. Anyway, it's faster than flash, uses about as much power, and because it's a completely different technology, it doesn't need to zap itself for every single write operation.

From Wikipedia's MRAM page "It is also worth comparing MRAM with another common memory system, Flash RAM. Like MRAM, Flash does not lose its memory when power is removed, which makes it very common as a "hard disk replacement" in small devices such as the iPod or digital cameras. When used for reading, Flash and MRAM are very similar in power requirements. However, Flash is re-written using a large pulse of voltage (about 10 V) that is stored up over time in a charge pump, which is both power-hungry and time consuming. Additionally the current pulse physically degrades the Flash cells, which means Flash can only be written to some fixed number of times before it must be replaced.

In contrast, MRAM requires only slightly more power to write than read, and no change in the voltage, eliminating the need for a charge pump. This leads to much faster operation, lower power consumption, and no effective "lifetime". These advantages are so overwhelming that it is expected Flash will be the first memory type to eventually be replaced by MRAM."

 

[stash182]

Wow, I hadn't heard of this flash storage integration. That would be awesome to have Windows load in <30 seconds! What kind of a timeline are we looking at for mainstream production? I noticed SD is up to 4gigs and it's pretty cheap. Funny to think just 5 years ago we were still using "giant" floppies @ 1.4mb!

As far as having a desktop and laptop; it isn't a reasonable argument to me anymore with a gap this slim these days. I'm looking for mobility and am not a gamer which is a big factor. I use my corporate Compaq notebook that runs a Pentium M and it's just as fast as my XP2800+ pc was. I think i'll test drive some Duo cores this weekend. Is there a big performance dif between M and Duo and Duo2?