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Intel's Compute Card Is a PC That Can Fit In Your Wallet (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Intel mostly missed the boat on smartphones, but the company is trying to establish a firm foothold in the ever-broadening marketplace for connected appliances and other smart things. Intel's latest effort in this arena is its new "Compute Card," a small 94.5mm by 55mm by 5mm slab that includes a CPU and GPU, RAM, storage, and wireless connectivity. Intel hasn't given us specific information about the specs and speeds of its first Compute Cards, but you can expect the fastest ones to approach the performance of high-end fanless laptops like Apple's MacBooks. Intel told us that processors with a TDP of up to 6W could fit inside the Compute Cards, which covers both low-power Atom chips like those that powered early versions of Intel's Compute Stick to full Core M and Y-series Core i5 and i7 CPUs like the ones you find in laptops. Intel says that the card uses a variant of the USB-C port called "USB-C plus extension" to connect with the systems it's plugged into. That connector gives devices direct access to the USB and PCIe buses as well as HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs. The company considers the Compute Card to be a replacement of sorts for the Compute Stick, which Intel says will probably disappear from its roadmap in 2018 or so. The issue with the Compute Stick from Intel's perspective is that its input and output ports were unnecessarily limiting -- it could only connect to HDMI ports and could only accept a limited number of USB inputs. The Compute Card can be slid into a wider variety of enclosures that can use all kinds of ports and display interfaces, and Intel says the Card will also offer a large array of performance and storage options, unlike current Compute Sticks.
with a NUC that can take 64GB of RAM...
Looks like they just took their compute stick and changed the dimensions a bit.
If you buy this device, Intel still owns it due to the binary blobs that are required to run things. The future will be open hardware; support RISC-V projects, like this one.
For any mass-produced product, this will likely be significantly more expensive than including an ARM processor on a single logic board that controls the other functions of the product, e.g. a TV. People want cheap electronics that look cool, not upgradable ones. Apple understands this, although I personally hate it. I just don't see much potential for this, although it's cool.
I don't know, but it works for me.
Lets hope it is using the EOMA68 standard.
I have a 1st and 2nd generation stick. Both have issues with Bluetooth and wifi. With such limited capacity for connecting peripherals, that kinda sucks.
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
Intel's Compute Card Is a PC That Can Fit In Your Wallet
So Capital One will now have to upgrade their commercial.
How is the USB-C implementation different from Thunderbolt 3? Is it because it natively supports HDMI as well as USB 3, PCIe, and DisplayPort, if that is what "direct access" means?
If it is the same, why don't they just call it a Thunderbolt 3 port? If Intel has developed a port that has the capabilities of Thunderbolt 3 + native HDMI, since they own Thunderbolt, why don't they just make that port the Thunderbolt spec rather than engineering two different but very similar ports?
Cool technology, in search of an application. Why would I want to carry an underpowered PC around with me?
I could see a $50 version being a cool "WTF it's only $50 so why not" PC to add to a television, I guess?
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http://www.intel.com/content/w...
A vending machine with HDD's that if it is an drop one likely will damage them and a coin slot so put in $1 $5 $10 $20 $50 $100's in and get back coins in change I hope it has dollar coins in there.
Based on my experience with the latest generation of Compute Sticks, the basic problem with these devices is that they are power-limited. Some of the Compute Stick devices have m3- and m5- processors, which would suggest that the devices can do a fair amount of computation. However, the processors can't perform up to their potential because they are power-limited as implemented on the boards. So, until Intel can substantially reduce the amount of power required per compute cycle, they are not all that useful, and as someone else has commented, ARM processors may be a better match for this class of device.
People already have a computer in their pocket, as suggested in the first sentence. Besides a universal I/O bus, what does this offer? Why not just create a universal expansion port for cell phones? The market will be far larger there, instead of creating another entry into the home-brew computing line-up.
Batteries (and screens) take up a lot of space that one could otherwise use for more useful things. Still, I can't see what problem the Compute Card (or phone docking, for that matter) will solve; if you're going somewhere with a free KV&M there's probably already a computer there.
Why would you want to carry around a computer that you can't use on the way?
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
As impressive a feat as this might appear, at first, one must remember that Apple devices running last year's A9X are already faster than the Apple MacBook running Intel's equivalent processor, according to the latest GeekBench numbers - http://wccftech.com/apple-a9xi.... So, I fully expect that newer devices running Apple's A10 or Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 (that are slightly larger than a credit card due to some additional features that Intel's compute cards lack, such as a touch screen, gyro, motion, barometric, gps, cdma, gsm, lte, wifi, dsp, hsm, etc.) to already be a lot faster than Intel's fastest Compute Cards (assuming that the MacBook remains the benchmark performance).
I think that what Intel's Compute Cards will have going for them will be accessibility, programability, price and the ease of interfacing them to custom devices for developers... That is what Intel should be emphasizing. Vending machines, signage displays, self service kiosks, home automation hubs, assembly line robots, etc. do not need lots of computing power... but they need reliability, availability and dependability with minimal human intervention in some of the harshest environments, every single day of the year.
I can think of a few good reasons to carry around a passive computer.
Having something like this in my wallet to handle processing the data output from various wearable and IoT sensors sounds pretty nice.
Doubles as passive offline budget tracker thanks to its proximity to my various NFC equipped widgets, and the it does it all offline without reporting my habits or locations to anybody.
It sounds like device itself is designed with a modular nature, so the proc, ram and storage all live in an easily replaceable card that grandma can slide into her "head-unit" when its time to replace, and slide out and mail to me when "google is broken"
These things CAN be done with a raspi, but not before I spend at least a solid evening fooling with it (probly more) pi wont fit in my wallet, and is still stuck in ARM land.
Before you say you can do that all already with your mobile phone, consider the price of a phone in both local currency, as well as personal freedoms, personal intelligence, and privacy. I wont give the big anti-mobile speech, but I will say there are a few of us out there yet that flat refuse to carry a smartphone for various reasons. A device like this would allow me to stop fooling around with the raspberry pi in my back-back every morning. At 50 bucks a pop, I think its worth a look. There are plenty of applications that this device seems perfect for (on the surface) and plenty more if your not addicted to your smartphone-centric lifestyle.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
The problems with wifi and Bluetooth simultaneously are widely known. The overheating issue too, so much that they're unusable for anything that you want to be stable. That and the price, I can get similar performance out of an Android stick for half the price. X86 is dying and is only being held up by Windows and some legacy stuff. Once the average ARM reseller can get its head out of its ass and release the Linux sources to their modifications (looking at you MINIX/Amlogic) as required by GPL and Android becomes either usable or a good desktop OS is developed the Intel stack drop like a brick.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
No it's not. A smartphone has a high-resolution touch screen display and a battery.
If you can fit a smartphone in your wallet, you need to get a smaller wallet. Phones do not have the dimensions of credit cards, particularly when it comes to thickness.
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Marketing.
"The company considers the Compute Card to be a replacement of sorts for the Compute Stick, which Intel says will probably disappear from its roadmap in 2018 or so."
If they could complete this in a year, they should already be back to the mobile business.
It would be nice see one, but it's no doubt it's just marketing hype.
This is just Intel's attempt to stave off the move to a less monopolized CPU architecture. Too late, though, the ARM future is coming for you.
I hate printers.
If you buy this device, Intel still owns it due to the binary blobs that are required to run things. The future will be open hardware; support RISC-V projects, like this one.
What is the OS of choice that Intel uses for this card?
It's x86-64 which, for RPi type cost and power consumption, would be a big deal.
I hate printers.
I am using this setup with current m3 compute stick and lubuntu and it makes a great desktop for productivity apps and 4K video for ridiculously low cost. Hit and miss with Steam though, and VMWare/Wine freeze trying to emulate DirectX for Windows only games. For some reason, Unity introduces more slowdown than pretty much anything else, hence LXDE.
If they improve GPU performance in next generation, this will be a great replacement for pretty much anything.
Imagine an office environment where each desk/meeting room includes a monitor/keyboard/mouse for each user where the monitor passes through all connectivity via USB-C. Each user just carries a tiny lightweight computer that is "theirs" with all associated configuration/application/data, plugs it into the USB-C socket and off they go.
Not so different from having a laptop, except the devices are smaller, lighter, and cheaper - and with a higher quality screen, keyboard, and mouse. Sure you are constrained to work at points where there is a monitor, but in many cases this is a great solution.
-- Pete.
Monochrome - Probably the UK's largest internet BBS
The article you link is misleading... The Intel chips being compared with the A9X in that article are Broadwell... 2 generations behind compared to the A9X which is the current chip. The A10X will have to be compete with Cannonlake, not the Skylake chips you see in the current Mac lineup. Assuming the A10X scales from the A10 about the same as the A9X scales from the A9, and Intel IPC generational improvements are about the same as past ones... single core ~6W TDP 2.2 GHz A10X is going to be close to raw single core performance of the ~4.5W TDP ~1.2 GHz Cannonlake, but the even the low power Cannonlake CPU will retain a commanding lead on multi core performance.
The one place where Apple ARM does actually dominate Intel is integrated graphics performance. It's incredible to me how Intel graphics are still so far behind everyone else. At least the recent Intel GPUs render mostly correct now and the graphics drivers are pretty stable at this point. The one advantage that Apple (and other ARM vendors) have on the GPU front that they don't need to implement DirectX + OpenGL in their silicon, a luxury that nVidia/AMD/Intel don't get.
The most intersting small-form-factor board I've seen recently is the new SensorTile from ST. It provides a 32bit ARM processor with FPU, bluetooth and microphone in a cm2 headset-scale pcb, with various docking boards for USB, microSD etc development.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
i'm the creator and guardian of the EOMA68 standard, and someone just brought the intel compute card to my attention on the mailing list. the intel compute card is *exactly* the same size as EOMA68, which in turn is based on legacy PCMCIA casework and connector re-use: credit-card-sized at: 54 x 86 x 5mm. fortunately, from the BBC video, if you check 30 seconds in the connector is completely different (otherwise intel would have a Certification Mark infringment case on their hands): it looks like it's Mini-PCIe which, if that's true, would be a very sensible choice as it contains USB2, one PCIe lane, some GPIO and power.
i do wonder if my discussions with intel over the past couple of years, as well as the crowd-funding campaign which i'm here in taiwan presently to fulfil, have spurred them to go "i know! let's make our own computer card standard just like that guy did because he said "NO" when it came to having hardware-level spying capability in the BIOS through the Intel Management Engine, with the resultant *complete* meltdown from a security perspective as outlined here https://libreboot.org/faq/#int... "
i'll be watching this with interest, because standards, i've learned, live and die by whether the designers have enough foresight to design it with upgradeability in mind, as well as have the balls to say NO when it comes to "adding options" that are not backwards-compatible.
At half a centimetre thick, I don't think so! Maybe ON TOP OF my wallet...
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
I'm not so concerned about it fitting in my wallet, but I'd really love to see a cross-manufacturer standard replaceable unit for "smart" TVs, because screens last a lot longer than the (secure, updated) usable life of the "smart" components. In not too many years there are going to be a lot of TVs around running the TV equivalent of Froyo or Gingerbread, on hardware that's just as aged as the OS will be.
fencepost
just a little off