Portable PCS
Ultrabooks, Hybirds, and Tablets, Oh My
LEST YOU WORRY that 2013 will, be a quiet
year for PCs, consider the knock-down, drag-out dust-up that’s about to go down
between x86 and ARM. Intel’s dream of dominating the mobile space as thoroughly
as it’s dominated traditional PCs rests on the success of a new wave of devices
not to mention Windows 8.
For starters, Ultrabooks will undergo a
serious evolution, with key changes under the hood as well as in design that
Intel says will realize the categories true potential the true potential being
Ultrabooks’ ability to compete in a serious way with tablets. Next year’s Ultra
books will virtually alt sport touchscreens, the natural complement to
Microsoft’s new touch-optimized OS. Consumers will be able to tap, scroll, and
pinch their way around the Metro UI, then transition to keyboard and mouse in
Windows’ old-school desktop environment.
Intel’s
dream of dominating the mobile space as thoroughly as it’s dominated
traditional PCs rests on the success of a new wave of devices not to mention
Windows 8.
Battery life will be greatly improved,
thanks to key power-management features in Intel’s upcoming Haswell chip. It’s
reported to dramatically Lower idle power, while a new power state, called
SOix, assumes a somewhat-active state that consumes minimal power but
transitions to active state more rapidly than Hibernate.
Expect to see Smart Connect Technology
touted for its ability to automatically update applications such as email and
social networks even when your computer is asleep, and Intel Wireless Display for
sharing content from your portable device with your HDTV, as well as anti-theft
and identity-protection features. AIl of the above is meant to help Ultrabooks
achieve the must-have status enjoyed by Apple’s phenomenally successful iPad.
AIl
of the above is meant to help Ultrabooks achieve the must-have status enjoyed
by Apple’s phenomenally successful iPad.
A new subset of Ultrabooks that you’ll see
of lot of next year is the hybrid, or convertible, form factor. So while
conventional Ultrabooks are slated to become even thinner and lighter thanks to
the improved power efficiency of Haswell along with newer, more lightweight
materials it’s the dual-purpose notebook/ tablets that will likely really turn
heads. Unlike the traditional clamshell body, the hybrid devices either contort
into a tablet when the screen is folded all the way back à (a Lenovo’s Idea Pad
Yoga or feature a screen, behind which all the brains of the computer are
housed, that detaches from the keyboard for more tablet-y usage think Asus’s
Transformer Prime. Even within these two body types, consumers will see a lot
of differing implementations and degrees of success as vendors try out new
designs to see what sticks.
While the hybrid solution gets closer to
meeting tablet ideals while offering a hell of a lot more power and flexibility
in the process, we might add the x86 take-over of the mobile space might have
its best chance in straight-up Atom-based tablets. Yes, Atom is back. But it’s
not the underpowered lemon of a CPU that fueled the netbook craze. The new Atom
Z2760, aka Clover Trail, is a full-fledged system-on-chip featuring a 1.8GHz
dual-core CPU with Hyper-Threading and PowerVR SGX 545 graphics. We recently
spent hands-on time with a Clover Trail—based Acer Iconia W510 tablet running
Windows 8 Pro and were surprised and delighted at how much smoother and faster
it was over the Atom netbook experience.
Of course, low power consumption is a key
in Clover Trail, and Intel says devices using the chip will run for 10 hours on
a charge and last up to three weeks on standby. Pricing for Clover Trail
tablets also seems promising. Acer has already announced that its 10inch W510
tablet will start at $500. That’s the same price Microsoft is asking for its
10-inch ARM-based Surface RT. And that tablet is limited to the Metro UI and
apps sold through the Windows 8 store.
Mortherboards
Thin Will Be In
Next Year,
motherboards should continue to offer the same performance and mainstream
partitions that we’ve seen from both Intel and AMD. Intel will continue to
support its LGA2O11 socket for enthusiasts through at least 2014, and AMD will
do the same for AM3+. The mainstream, however, will see some changes. Intel
will move away from the existing LGA1155 socket in favor of a new LGA115O socket
that is wait for it incompatible with existing CPUs. LGA115O will be coupled
with Haswell and is rumored to come with support for up to six USB 3.0 ports
(up from four) and six SATA 6Gb/s ports (freaking-finally!). The Z87 chipset,
among others, may also finally ditch support for PCI.
LGA115O
will be coupled with Haswell and is rumored to come with support for up to six
USB 3.0 ports and six SATA 6Gb/s ports
In AMD-land, the socket situation is fairly
stable. The company has committed to supporting the long-Legged AM3+ socket
through the new FX-8350 Vishera, as well as through its replacement, code-named
Steamroller. In the mainstream arena, AMD threw FMi users a change-up by using
the new FM2 socket for its new Trinity chips. The good news for those with FMi boards
is that new FM2 CPUs, such as the A10-5800K, are backward compatible with the
older FMi boards. However, you can’t install an FMi CPU in a new FM2 board.
While microATX and ATX will remain mostly
the same, we should see far more movement in the Thin Mini-ITX standard that
Intel has been pushing for the Last 12 months. Thin Mini-ITX is a motherboard
form factor built on the existing Mini-ITX spec. Thin Mini-ITX is speed to
support up to a 65-watt processor and significantly shrinks the I/O shield from
the standard 44mm size used in Mini-ITX and ATX to 25mm. The rest of the board
is also limited to a thin 25mm height through the use of SO-DIMMS laid flat
instead of vertical on the motherboard, Low-profile thermal solutions, and a
Long-overdue fixed CPU Location. A fixed CPU location lets chassis builders
themselves implement a customized cooling-solution design specifically for
their chassis. Mini-ITX also specs internal digital-video connections such as
LVDS and eDP.
The
company has committed to supporting the long-Legged AM3+ socket through the new
FX-8350 Vishera
Thin Mini-ITX is intended mostly to
accommodate a DIV all-in-one market that Intel is hoping will sprout next year,
but it will also aid the building of smaller small form factor boxes, too.
