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Lenovo ThinkPad Stack, a New Take On Modular Mobile Peripherals (hothardware.com)
MojoKid with word of The Stack, a new peripheral product from Lenovo that has a ThinkPad logo emblazoned on each component, writing
In a nutshell, this is Lenovo's take on a line of peripherals that all work with one another and stack together via a custom connector. It applies the modular computing concept to the world of peripherals, which could be an ideal place for a set of modular products to actually make an impact in the market. The Stack's initial four products include a wireless router, a 1TB USB 3.0 hard drive, a Bluetooth mic + speaker combo unit, and a 10,000mAh battery pack / charger. The foursome is sold for just under $390, though each component can be purchased separately as well. The sheer size and weight of the package is impressive. While it's appropriately dense, it can fit into even the smallest saddle bag, taking up minimal room in a frequent flyer's carry-on. In testing, the Stack's individual components offered respectable performance results as well.
A device released in 2015 with a pricetag of nearly $400 with modern goodies such as 802.11ac still only has 100mbps ethernet?
I like the form factor of these accessories. However, it would be nice to have some sort of standard:
1: If the bus has to be something new for multiplexing, the connectors should have a high insertion/removal cycle rate like USB, and can handle dust and other office environmental items.
2: Preferably, use a standard bus. USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt can use the same connectors, so using that and having either an enclosure or a base unit handle power would be useful. I have seen many custom multiplexed buses. What results is that finding parts for them becomes next to impossible. At the extreme, use Infiniband.
3: Maybe move to a rack/enclosure system. This would limit the height of accessories... but having the connector in the back, only connected after being properly aligned, would provide a reliable way to remove/insert items. An added bonus is that for computers like MacBooks that only have a USB 3.1 port, it means only one power plug for all the devices and the laptop.
4: Perhaps some engineering for larger devices in the stack. Having the ability to have a disk array with 2-5 3.5" hard disks so one has a RAID protected place to stash files, would be useful.
In general, I like the idea of being able to stack devices... but I've seen this before, and usually the ports used are proprietary, and sooner or later, wind up discontinued. I'm reminded of the TI-999/4A's sidecar expansion bus as one example.
Have you ever tried to erase data from a hard drive with a magnet? There's a reason physical destruction is often used when high security is required. There are commercial degaussers available, but playing music on a loudspeaker isn't going to do a thing.
Lenovo has an idea... but I would say that this is a lot more useful for computer accessories, rather than the computer itself.
For example, having a mini LED projector, SSD, GPU unit, 10gigE router (not just a switch... a router with firewalling capabilities so one can set up a demo easily), all with a decent backend bus (ISTR that USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt can use the same connector/wirings), having something looking like a small 80s hi-fi rack can be done right.
However, this tech is a novelty until multiple vendors buy into it. There have been many great technologies that are orphans, be it the Sony MP3 players which required special software like OpenMG/SonicStage to work, products like the Motorola Atrix which would have had an impact, but were killed early on, to items like Infiniband which would solve a lot of I/O problems between devices... if the protocol wasn't limited to just a few vendors. Even IEEE 1394 was a great technology, allowing one to combine networking and low level I/O on one bus... but that even died.
It applies the modular computing concept to the world of peripherals, which could be an ideal place for a set of modular products to actually make an impact in the market.
This is nothing new. Companies love to create modular products with their own proprietary connectors. Locking-in customers into their platform is the holy grail for them.
Never mind that this idea would probably gain lot more of traction if they actually made it an open standard, but of course, Lenovo is not going to do that. That's now how they think. Lenovo would prefer that this modular project falls flat on its face instead of opening it up to other manufacturers to use.
I was just saying: what my computer really needs is more proprietary connectors! Thanks, Lenovo!
The Texas Instruments TI99/4 had this back in 1979...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
You have never tried this have you? If you add a third party wireless card to a Lenovo laptop, it fails the boot before it ever gets to the OS level. I had to take the card out and flash with a custom bios image and then put the card back.
In fact, the only part of what I said that was even close to OS level software dependant, was the battery expiry. My friend's laptop won't even charge a third party battery if it's off.
Or indeed speakers near an electrically noisy thing like a router.
The speakers are bluetooth, so we know it is a digital input. If they used a metal enclosure and placed the DAC and amp near each other, then no problem. And if for some reason you want them farther apart, or you want to design a device like this with analog inputs, you just use balanced audio. It uses 2 wires, either in opposite phase (real balanced) or with a common line of known resistance (pseudo balanced). Then you put the amplifier outputs really close to the speaker inputs, and shield the wires. No problems.
If you think a router is electrically noisy... try a pro audio room! There is noise and interference everywhere! If you don't know how to make it go away by using balanced IO, shielding, and filtering, you're screwed. Most of the older analog effects pedals and stuff that big name musicians show up with, because they've been using it their whole life and it is part of their sound, that shit all spews massive noise back into the AC.
For example, old Morley Volume-Wah pedals. http://www.morleypedals.com/wv... That's the circuit diagram, that's why I chose that example because they publish their old docs. Notice that it has a power transformer with a center-tapped secondary. Now, because of their rectification tricks, they get three voltages off that, +55V, +25V and also +40V which isn't labeled on the circuit but I've measured it when modifying these guys to use some newer parts. Depending on which parts of the circuit draw more or less power, it is preferentially pulling current from one side of the secondary. The result is a bunch of noise on the AC that is multi-phase, and worse, the phase rotates according to the amount of wah effect.
But nobody cares, because all the inputs on the mixer board have bandpass filters. And it is the same for radio interference, except that the reason nobody cares is they're using balanced lines for everything if they're also using any kind of radio equipment.
The problems you describe are legitimate concerns if you're grabbing random consumer-grade devices and stacking them, but they're not likely to be a concern in products professionally engineered to be operating near each other. Especially as in this case where they're made to stack, and the interference can be managed entirely with well-placed metal chassis parts. It isn't like they would otherwise be allowed to sell radio equipment without measuring interference. ;)
As for how they deal with a screen, HDMI has largely solved that problem. You can use any screen, regardless of if it is a "computer monitor" or "television." If they don't have one anywhere in the office, they probably don't even want a video presentation. You still might need the speakers for audio. Corporate environments have provision for guest network access; indeed, giving access to visiting business people is very important. Generally, guest access is going to give you an outside gateway in a DMZ and you'll have no access to the VPN. This device is only trying to solve the parts of the problem they talk about; the other parts are already solved.
And like you quoted, "... on a whim should the prospective client ask." Well, that clears that up; if they don't have any screens they probably didn't even ask to see the video. ;) If they don't allow visiting business people or consultants to access outside network resources, then they didn't ask you to do an online demo while visiting.