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VAIO To Be First Crusoe Laptop
kevlar writes: "Looks like Sony has decided on putting Crusoe chips in their new Vaio laptops. " I finally got mine back from American Airlines (along with my boxers, t-shirts, and other worldly possessions that they've had for like 2 weeks). Course considering the hard drive crashes, I was kinda hoping they'd lose it so I could just get a different one ;)
Intel is hurting badly. AMD looks like it's going to clobber the titan in the desktop and server market. Intel has been missing schedules and shipping bad products far too late to market. It's just had to recall the P4. It's 64-bit architecture will actually run 32-bit applications slower. AMD's sledgehammer is going to kill them on the server and desktop market. AMD's Athlon already is the fastest processor on the market and eating the high margin server end. AMD has already conquered the low margin cheap end with their K6-2 series.
Now Transmeta is going to kill them on the mobile and appliance market - leading edge vendors are actually biting. Intel's chip line is in big trouble.
Andy Grove, it's not paranoia you've got. The sharks are circling!
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CmdrTaco: Excuse me? "Throwers?"
Security TFM: Baggage handlers. But when a suitcase vibrates, then the throwers have to call the police.
CmdrTaco: My suitcase was vibrating?
Security TFM: Nine times out of ten it's an electric razor, but every once in a while.... its a dildo. Of course, its airline policy never to imply ownership in the event of a dildo. We use the indefinite article: "A dildo." Never "Your dildo."
CmdrTack: But i don't own a...
While I agree with you that Sony America and the sony record label is screwing people, it would be kind of hard to blame the entire corporation. I mean, there are many competative factions within a corporation that don't always agree with eachother. The Sony Record Label sells CD's, Sony Japan sells mini-discs, sony somebody sells the "music clip" that plays mp3's.
Doesn't it seem odd? A corporation who vehemently opposes mp3's or digital recording is selling a "music clip" and mini-disc players. Well it's not odd at all - example, Uniden corp. makes radar guns for state and local police depts and it also makes the radar detectors you buy to detect those very radar guns. Then, they make radar guns with vg-2 chips to detect radar detectors and then they turn around and make stealth radar detectors that have antivg-2 chips.
Sony is no different here. Sony pushed the minidisc player which does record digitally into the hands of many. The minidisc format is more popular than CD's in Japan and it is pretty popular in Europe. However, when minidisc were to be marketed in the states the riaa, which the sony label is a part of, complained big time stunting the growth of that market. It is truly a shame because minidisc kicks ass.
If there is money to be made, a corporation will do whatever is necessary. Remember that different parts of the corporation may not necessarily be in accordance with eachother. Sony obviously see's that there is money to be made with the "music clip" mp3 player. If you are mad at sony, stop buying music on their label.
If you just want to look at the PII/400 next to the Crusoe version, here are some pictures: (from the same site)
- Front view
Looks like they traded off the IrDA port (if my eyes serve me right). One of these with an 802.11 card would be great fun!Left side ports (PCMCIA, Memory Stick and 1394/iLink)
Right side ports (Video out (?), Audio, USB, power, something else, wheel-thingy, and modem)
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You did notice that the article mentioned "He said product tests indicated that the new Crusoe chip afforded PictureBook users two times the stamina of previous models. The typical session span with the Crusoe chip could last up to 5.5 hours."
Which is, in my opinion, pretty damned dismal.
What I *really* don't understand is why no manufacturer is releasing a Pentium-200-based laptop. With the kind of technology that could be applied to that level of CPU (.15um, advanced power saving modes, miniscule voltage/amperage requirements), the CPU would become an insignificant drain on the batter.
Yes, yes: backlights are the powersucker. Surely there are technologiesHe said product tests indicated that the new Crusoe chip afforded PictureBook users two times the stamina of previous models. The typical session span with the Crusoe chip could last up to 5.5 hours.
And a 200MHz Pentium is more than enough for the typical wordprocessing functions of a laptop. Few and far between are the folk who are attempting to run Quake 1024x768x32 on their laptop...
If the manufacturers would just get sensible about it all, we could have a P200, 96Mb, 6Gb system with a near-full-size keyboard and good video-out, that would be *ideal* for wordprocessing, accounting and web browsing -- probably the better part of 90% of most laptop functions.
Fix the backlight problem, and those puppies would run for *days* on a single charge, not a bloody useless 5 hours!
Price it at sub-$1K, and the world would beat a path to their door. My god, I'd take two of them!
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" I finally got mine back from American Airlines (along with my boxers, t-shirs, and other worldly possessions that they've had for like 2 weeks).
Man, consider youself lucky to have gotten it back. Never, never, never check a laptop. Of the people I know who have done so, they have something like a 50% recovery rate on those. I don't think there is an easier thing for someone to steal while being handled that is worth so much. Unless you have the thing well, well hidden in your bags. Plus, the insurance you get on checked luggage a) doesn't amount to enough to cover your laptop and b) it specifically doesn't cover laptops. Have you ever seen how they handle luguage? You lucky they don't drop some lead weights on it or something.
Get a nice computer bag, and put the thing in the overhead bin, or under your seat or something.
Oh, and did I mention AA sucks?
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