Intel's Super Portable Compute Card Could Be Your Real Pocket PC (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader writes (edited and condensed for length): Smartphones are already computers in our pockets, but Intel's new Compute Card turns an actual PC into something you can take with you wherever you go. Equipped with a range of processor options -- including an ultra-efficient Celeron, and notebook-class Core i5s, this slap that looks like a USB backup battery is attracting a range of interest from Intel OEM partners hoping to use it for everything from smart signage to modular notebooks. The Intel Compute Card, which was originally revealed at CES earlier this year, will come in a range of configurations that include up to 4GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage, as well as built-in AC 8265 wireless networking and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, the company said today at Computex. Intel also announced availability of the Compute Card Device Design Kit today, which will let OEM partners create devices that work with the modular computing core. LG Display, Sharp, Dell, HP and Lenovo are already working on accessory solutions for Compute Card, Intel said.

Comments

Not Unique and Not Pocket Sized

[Anonymous Coward]

I fail to see how this is truly pocket-sized. I have a "Vensmile Win10 Mini PC that isn't much bigger and is already on the market. This one still needs the dock to handle the I/O. I also have USB stick PC's that are powered by my TV USB port. Yes, Intel's is slightly faster, but the Vensmile one is fully capable of streaming HD video and of course, internet stuffs.

Re:Not Unique and Not Pocket Sized

[chispito]

I fail to see how this is truly pocket-sized. I have a "Vensmile Win10 Mini PC that isn't much bigger and is already on the market. This one still needs the dock to handle the I/O. I also have USB stick PC's that are powered by my TV USB port. Yes, Intel's is slightly faster, but the Vensmile one is fully capable of streaming HD video and of course, internet stuffs.

Yes, it's definitely pocketable: 95 x 55 x 5 mm. So: 5 mm thick and slightly longer than a credit card. I don't see how it matters because both seem like solutions in search of problems, but Intel's is much smaller than the one you linked (slightly less than one third the volume).

Re:Not Unique and Not Pocket Sized

[Gadget_Guy]

Intel's is much smaller than the one you linked (slightly less than one third the volume).

Intel's one is only smaller if you ignore the dock that it must plug into. That was the point of the original post; it never even claimed that the Vensmile PC was smaller than Intel's Computer Card. If you ignore the dock then you might as well say that your desktop PC is smaller as well, because you can pull out the CPU and carry it around in your pocket too.

That said, the two products don't really compete with each other, despite what the /. headline says. Intel's solution is made to slot in to become the brain of third party devices. It has a different target audience than people looking for a pocket PC.

Re:Not Unique and Not Pocket Sized

[arglebargle_xiv]

I don't see how it matters because both seem like solutions in search of problems

That's the key point. No-one's really interested if Company A's gimmick is 5mm slimmer than Company B's gimmick if there's no obvious use for them. The original article is notably missing any real applications, just two suggestions, smart signage which can be done with some generic Android box from China (God knows Intel can't make anything cheap, who knows what their solution will end up costing), and modular notebooks, which no-one needs since we've already got an infinite variety of non-modular ones that work just fine. So it's just Intel's engineers showing off.

Another proprietary interface

[Compuser]

I am personally not excited. The RAM and storage capacities are about 8X lower than required for modern computing. But the biggest issue arises when looking at the pictures: the card seems to have a slot interface of some sort. Why not just give this card a thunderbolt 3 port or two. There are already docking stations fort those. Why does Intel want to reinvent its own wheel?

Re:Another proprietary interface

[Compuser]

I do scientific computing. Yes, RAM and storage are good things for me. It would be nice to take my entire work volume home and work in the evenings without ever exposing my computer or data to the network. And that is doable. But having it pocketable still seems like a dream.

Re:Another proprietary interface

[TWX]

That's because for the moment it is a dream. This device was not designed with you in mind. It was designed to replace devices that have historically been serial controlled such that a full-featured computer can be used in their stead. HVAC controllers, lighting controllers, digital signboards, point of sale registers, kiosks, etc. Raw computing power is not the goal, having a computer at all is; expanding the Internet of Things.

My concern is that after-the-sale support will be scant to nonexistent, and we will have even more unpatched IoT things live in the wild, but now we're adding more and more computing power to the mix. I could see these being co-opted for illcit cryptocurrency mining, or as part of botnets set up as parallel-distributed computing to try to break crypto passwords from stolen hashes in a brute-force technique, or any number of other nefarious uses where computing power would help.

Re:Another proprietary interface

[Archangel Michael]

OnePlus 3T, 6GB Ram

CPU Qualcomm® Snapdragon 821 Quad Core, Kryo: 2x 2.35 GHz, 2x 1.6 GHz
GPU Adreno 530
RAM 6GB LPDDR4
Storage 64GB / 128GB UFS 2.0

Closing Apps is a thing of the past. Increases battery life by not having to power through memory swaps.

Not interested

[Wowsers]

I'm not interested in another "black box" you can't disassemble or look into / improve for your own needs.

Re:Not interested

[Neuronwelder]

Yes, and they will also be good for clackers on your on your bicycle spokes!

It's not Dell, HP which need to do something here

[klingens]

It's Microsoft. This ComputeCard itself is just a typical Intel Techdemo: mostly useless and overpriced.
The real job is for Microsoft alone: it's possible to build a Windows Phone which is a Windows Phone when mobile and an actual real, 100% Wintel
  Desktop PC with Office, Active Directory, legacy programs from the 90s, etc. when in a dock. Of course they have to kick useless bullshit like "windows store only" concepts to the curb. This is tech which would allow Microsoft to build a real Surfacephone with Hyper-V: one VM has the Phone with Windows Mobile, the other VM has a real Windows 10 when you are docked and have a real 27" Display and a mouse.

As always, the Microsoft executives and CEO are too stupid when an opportunity is handed on a silver platter.

The PC Appliance

[WheezyJoe]

I am personally not excited.

Me neither. The Stick is much more like your own personal pocket-carried PC, as at least it comes with an HDMI plug and a power supply. This thing doesn't appear to be able even to power up without help from a dock or some new wave of appliance, which appers to be what Intel's after.

Seems like insane overkill to slap in whole PC's just for kiosks, window signage, grocery-store displays, door-openers and soap-dispensers, but if Intel keeps making PC's smaller then I guess that's where we're headed. It's just sick to think this might mean a complete copy of copy of Windows 10 on damn near everything because... it can. Perhaps Red Hat can package and market a Linux for tiny business PC's, packaged with signage or kiosk application software, and break this potential Microsoft stranglehold, please?

Re:The PC Appliance

[Hadlock]

It's a lot easier for developers to throw together a web app that runs in full screen touch mode than finding someone who does systems level C stuff. A compute stick is $99 and has access to the full modern build chain of everything. A raspberry Pi is $40 but needs $60 worth of accessories and is still under-powered at the end of the day. Better to just go with what's easiest. $5 here or $20 there savings for a platform you're paying a developer between $50 and $200 an hour to work on just isn't worth it.
 
Back in the mid 2000s I worked for a high end art house movie theater, they had a desktop PC hooked up to a pair of 60" plasma HDTVs (this was a big deal back then) running a Macromedia Flash app in full screen mode, that was configured using a text file in notepad and some JPEGs we made ourselves. I can't imagine what some fancy custom thing would have cost back then. Way more than the $400 PC sitting in a dusty cupboard.

Upgradeable TVs

[Damian Hole]

I'd be excited if this took off in TVs. Imagine a world where you could upgrade your TV's CPU every year or two, and install an upgraded OS. Or even have custom OSes in your TV, just like the Pi has now.

You Can Already Do That

[n329619]

For Windows - Search for "Windows to go" and get Windows Enterprise 8/8.1/10 along with a high speed usb device / hard drive. Just plug in and boot up, all your portable programs will be on it.

For Mac - Search "Installing OS X on an external volume" and get a high speed usb device / hard drive. This only works on mac device but select usb device and it will boot up with all your programs.

For Linux - Search for "linux usb persistent" and create a usb for that.

Just a copy of EOMA68

[Anonymous Coward]

Intel only announced these after EOMA68 went public.