Subject: Fw: Re: OT: Hardware question (was Re: Mini-PC 'Spacewalker)
To: None <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: Girish Wadhwani <girishw@mail.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 01/16/2002 06:45:58
Hi,
This may be a little off topic but:
About those low power laptop processors- What really makes them low power? They seem to have the same clock speeds. Do they perform at par with a similarly rated desktop processor? Wheres the catch?
-Girish
-----Original Message-----
From: Ignatios Souvatzis <ignatios@theory.cs.uni-bonn.de>
Sent: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 10:18:26 +0100
To: paul beard <paulbeard@mac.com>
Subject: Re: OT: Hardware question (was Re: Mini-PC 'Spacewalker)
On Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 08:41:45PM -0800, paul beard wrote:
> I have a possibly dumb question . . . . .
>
> Having worked with noisy PCs for years, from office environments to
> colocation facilities, I've been wondering: since all the components
> inside the box take power in such little sips -- 5 volts here, 12 there
> -- and since we know laptops can do it all on battery output, why do we
> still have big honking 200+watt power supplies that turn electricity
> into heat and noise, when it seems we could do with a lot of it?
>
> Is all the power to drive expansion busses and cards? if so, how much do
> we really need? I'd love to see one of these Spacewalker boxes designed
> to run fanless like the iMac or the departed Cube. I realize their lack
> of expandability was key to the fanless design, but as in a laptop,
> couldn't one of these have all the goodies built-in?
Uhm - you're aware that a "modern" Intel or AMD CPU burns some 40 or 60 W
unless it is a special "Laptop" chip?
If you want really low power, you need to go back to embedded 486 or Motorola
68060, or use StrongARM.
-is
--
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