Slashdot Mirror
New VAIOs Made of Carbon Fiber
Shawnzyoo noted that Sony has released their new series of VAIO TX laptops. In order to make them stronger/lighter/thinner, they are now
made of carbon fiber. No plans to release it in the US yet, so start learning Korean if you want this one.
Carbon fiber is used fairly extensively in cycling and we've learned a few things about it. They have lower heat tolerance and abrasion resistance than metal. I'm not sure if those are qualities you want in a laptop which tend to get hot and rub against the table.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity /eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=uat PyV9-gjlPUxwo6HVFwhBwahpn-XnwTyA=?CategoryName=cpu _VAIONotebookComputers_TXSeries&Dept=computers
Carbon Fiber, same specs, goes on sale here next week - no Korean required.
I'd like to point out that using carbon fibers or nanotubes in consumer electronics has electrical advantages. Using a conductive filler you can achieve electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection or electrostatic dissipation (ESD). Other conductive fillers such as carbon black or metallic powders would work but due to the small aspect ratio of the particles they require large amounts, and this degrades the mechanical properties of the polymer. Some more infomration here http://www.patagon.8m.com/equations/cnt.html
it makes it faster by 1ghz, just from the carbon fiber alone
The two biggest mysteries of the world: How morons get modpoints, and how a first post can get marked as redundant.
the sony website is taking pre orders, i'm guessing it'll be released in the US soon.
Isn't that what Babelfish is for?
If you want to order a laptop and end up with six low-grade pairs of headphones and a guide to haircare written by Kim Jong-il, sure!
Most Koreans can't understand anything babelfish says. It's complete unintelligible gibberish to them. Korean->English can be equally nightmarish. Most Koreans don't follow traditional rules for word separation, so the system can't figure out where the words end. In addition, hangul uses a very limited range of pronunciation whereas as its parent language, Chinese, has a variety of different inflections. As such, each Korean character has up to 50 or 60 different meanings. I can get by with most stuff, even technical documents, but talking to a University age student on the Internet is excruciatingly painful. It's like they all use some hyper-evolved form of leet-speak where you can't use spaces.
Isn't carbon fibre both flammable as well as electrically conductive?
If it was flammable, it would certainly be a very poor choice for constructing race cars.
As for electrical conductivity, it wouldn't be any more of an issue than metal notebook casings which are already widely used.
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
This AV mode button makes the instant Mode available in 12secs without any booting process.
Is 12secs the new definition for "instant"?
"How do you expect me to see the forest with all these damn trees in the way?!"
Now straying dangerously offtopic, but if the first post just regurgitates a bit of the summary (or article) then surely it could be redundant? :)
Game dev and music blog
When carbon composites fail, they do so spectacularly, as opposed to Al, steel or Ti which usually just crumple a bit. They are also prone to directional issues. A teammate of mine slammed on the brakes hard in a race to avoid a crash and the lateral forces on his fishtailing rear wheel snapped his Zipp 303 (a carbon rimmed bicycle wheel) in half. The wheel was stronger than an aluminum rim in one direction, but weak under minor lateral forces that an Al rim would easily have weathered. As for laptops on your lap.... Carbon isnt known for spontaneous failure under no load at all... Unless you're sitting on it I wouldnt worry. BTW, what is it with cyclists and good beer? Nothing like a bomber of Dreadnaught to recover after an 80 mi race.
Most Koreans can't understand anything babelfish says
So this is an entirely different Slashdot article now. Ask Slashdot: Can you successfully order a laptop from Korea without actually speaking Korean? I would like to see some of the creative solutions people come up with.
ASUS, one of Sony's main notebook manufacturers (Sony doesn't make their own laptops), already make use of carbon fiber chassis in some of their own ultraportable/thin-and-light models, which have been available in North America for a few years.
One particular model I have is from their M6 series, which has since been replaced by their updated Z70 series, both with CF chassis.
What's even better is that since ASUS notebooks aren't sold retail, they come at nearly half the price for similar functionality, performance, and aesthetic quality as a comparable Sony.
Check out www.asus.com for online reseller links
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
No, the carbon fiber only adds 500Mhz, you need the aftermarket wing crudely bolted through the LCD to get the 1GHz boost.
Actually I believe it _is_ flammable and _I_ build race cars out of it. (http://me.unm.edu/~fsae/teams/2005/). However, my mind blanked and I forgot how high the temperature has to be before it will oxidize.
It'll oxidize at a very high temperature, but I think the oxidation stops as soon as the heat source is removed so you won't get a sustainable burn (but I Am Not a Materials Scientist). This may be another reason why it's useful in race cars along with strength and weight. Carbon brake pads don't readily ignite either, right?
At any rate, if anything in a laptop shell gets hot enough to oxidize carbon fiber, you probably have other things to worry about!
Nice cars by the way, those things must have a scary power to weight ratio. And I'm drooling over that Ford GT.
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
I'm ordering mine with a wing and a Type-R sicker.