Via Lines Up Its Nano (Isaiah) Processors

Via made the headlines as it announced its line up of Nano processors. These were codenamed 'Isaiah' during its development. The web is awash with news from different sources, all chiming in their perspective of the future of the Nano processor. Infoworld, PC Pro, PC Perspective, PC Magazine, IT Pro and Trusted Reviews and CRN.com all did stories on it.

The Nano line will include two sets, the L-series on the high-power end and the U-series for low-power segment. The L-series will still have a lower power consumption than mainstream Intel and AMD chips, churning at 25 watts. The following variants are planned for the Nano:

• L2100 (Clock Speed: 1.8 GHz, TDP: 25 watts)
• L2200 (Clock Speed: 1.6 GHz, TDP: 17 watts)
• U2400 (Clock Speed: 1.3-plus" GHz, TDP: 8 watts)
• U2500 (Clock Speed: 1.2 GHz, TDP: 6.8 watts)
• U2300 (Clock Speed: 1.0 GHz, TDP: 5 watts)

As previously mentioned, Via is eyeing to market the chips to the UMPC and notebook crowd. Recent pronouncements that NVidia is working with Via for a chipset solution that will work natively with Via's Nano strengthens Via's claims that it will produce a platform that will be the cheapest Vista-capable solution in the market. A desktop version is not far off it seems. Via and NVidia are expected to announce the details of their venture by next week.

Jungle Disk Beta 4 Launches

Jungle Disk announced Beta 4 of version 2.0. This round of updates changes the way Jungle Disk supports WebDAV to remedy errors that Mac users get when trying to upload files. Other minor fixes are also included in this update. Dave Wright further wrote, "The software itself is getting very near to release quality, so any users who have been interested in checking it out but concerned about the beta status may want to give this version a try."

You can download the latest beta here: http://www.jungledisk.com/betadownload.shtml

Linux Journal Swag at 40% Off

Linux Journal announced a 40% sale on store items. The sale last until June 1, Sunday. The announcement was posted here: http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/40-sale-linux-journal-store. You can go directly to the store: http://www.linuxjournalshop.com/

Via Introduces OpenBook Mini-Note

Via introduced the latest iteration of it's OpenBook series of ultra-mobile PCs, the OpenBook Mini-note. The reference design has an uncanny resemblance to the form factor of the HP 2133 Mini-Note, with the exception of the faster processor. Both designs share the 8.9" LCD screen configuration, with the Mini-note upping the ante by having provisions for built-in broadband connectivity to WiMAX, EV-DO, W-CDMA, or HSDPA services in addition to the now standard WiFi through a factory-configurable device module.

The Mini-note will be powered by a 1.6 GHz VIA C7-M ULV processor and will accommodate up to 2GBs of RAM. This is an offshoot perhaps of the decision to make it capable of supporting Windows Vista. Though the VIA VX800 Digital Media IGP chipset it has for video isn't the most powerful in the mobile computing space, it will certainly be enough to support DirectX 9.0 3D graphics up to a resolution of 1024x600. That being said, I would opine that it would comfortably work with MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9, VCI and DiVX for the multi-media entertainment needs of prospective owners.

It would be exciting to see what final product OEM's and ODM's could produce from the reference design.

Intel Atom on the Desktop

Word spread of the desktop implementation of the Atom platform when Engadget broke the news about the D945GCLF. It was followed by a post on Ars Technica and a blog post about the board being available in the UK. This will be the first desktop motherboard to support the Intel Atom. As I had posted a few months back, I knew that an Atom-based solution for desktops was very possible. Intel positioned itself well in the ultra-low power PC segment with it's introduction of the Intel D201GLY late last year and the Intel 201GLY2A earlier this year. It was only natural that it would tout its initial success with another low-power solution based off its newer technology.

The D945GCLF is already available for sale from TranquilPC for US$82. Complete systems based on the board can also be purchased from Tranquil PC and range from the US$358 T7 to the US$558 T2e.

Below are 3 videos that'll get you acquainted with the D945GCLF :









Update: The boards are starting to show up for sale online. Saw a listing on eBay for one. This one is being sold for $79.95

MSI Wind Pricing Pits it Against HP Mini-Note

It may seem a little late to link to this post on Laptop Mag about the MSI Wind. But hey, I happen to think that this is an exciting product that deserves a place on this blog. Laptop Mag shares details of its interview with Andy Tung, MSI’s Director of US Sales. Tung shares some of his insight on how the Wind will compete in a market currently dominated by the Asus Eee PC.

I think they actually recognize the lead that Asus has, impacting MSI's decision to launch only the 10-inch version of the Wind in the US. I'm also of the opinion that it doesn't compete with the ASUS Eee PC 20G (8.9" Screen, 900 MHz Intel Mobile CPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB Solid State Drive) directly, but rather with pricier HP Mini-Note. The specs tell the story, and Laptop Mag supplies the MSI Winds specs on this page.

The Wind has a zippier 1.6 GHz Atom processor than the ASUS Eee PC's 900 MHz Celeron. It also supplies an 80GB hard drive that's plenty when compared to the ASUS' 20GB. So it really does aim to shoot at the HP Mini-Note. Versus the HP Mini-Note, the Wind trades you a faster Intel processor for less storage (the HP Mini-Note has a 120GB drive). MSI also knocked a few dollars off by bundling Suse Linux' enterprise version with the unit.

In the Philippines, the MSI Wind lists for price of Php 21,999.00 on one local shop's online pricelist. I'm actully waiting for an unboxing event from @adelgabot any day now.

Via PX5000EG and The Naked Pico

While we're talking about Via, watch this video feature about their latest Pico-ITX board. The PX5000EG uses an ultra-low voltage VIA Eden processor running off 1 watt of power. There's an announcement towards the end of the video about how to enter a contest to win your own Via Artigo Builder Kit.

Isaiah, Where Art Thou?

A lot of news recently about Via's other products(most recently, its latest Pico-ITX board), but nary one about Isaiah-based products. Most of articles about the Isaiah have to do with conjecture at this point. No product announcements of any sort. That's opposed to Intel's Atom, with a few final products already announced and waiting to be launched. One of them, MSI's Wind was already launched in some countries, AFAIK. No announcements have been made of any Isaiah-powered product that will launch in the next few weeks.

When will they launch an updated Zonbu Mini Desktop with Isaiah in it? Any products that will compete with say the likes of the MSI Wind? Or at least a Via Artigo powered by the Isaiah chip? I'm waiting, still.

Jungle Disk Beta 3 Announced

Jungle Disk announced (rather quickly) it's 3rd beta release for Jungle Disk 2.0. (version 1.99c). This newest iteration already includes command-line capability that was for pushed back during the release of 1.99b. since it is still in beta, users are advised to still configure settings through Jungle Disk's GUI (Graphic User Interface).

Jungle Disk 2.0 will feature the following improvements over its predecessor:

• Native support for Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Extensive caching system for files and directories
• Background upload, delete, copy, and move support
• Desktop application for upload and download progress
• Complete encryption for all data
• Automatic restart of background operations in case of shutdown or crash
• Support for automatic backup on a timed or manual basis
• Automatic archival of old versions and deleted files
• Support for multiple types of Amazon S3 buckets

You can download Jungle Disk Beta 3 here. The announcement can be read here.

MSI Titan 700 SFF Solution

Not to be outdone in the small form factor (SFF) side of things, MSI has released its own entry into the low-power "green machine" market. Compared directly to the Zonbu Desktop Mini, the Titan 700 ups the ante by including a DVI output, a DVD Dual-RW drive, a 120GB 2.5" hard drive and 1GB of RAM. This is (in my opinion) as close to having a full desktop in a small form factor that still saves on power consumption. It's a bit pricey though, as to be expected. That may change as similar machines come to market. As it stands, this machine is definitely worth the money.

Incidentally, I found out about this product after reading a post on Net Traveller (you can read the article here). There also posts on the GameRoom Blog, Slash Gear and Engadget about it, mostly based on MSI's announcements.

Back to the Titan 700. If your into the nitty-gritty, the specs are listed in detail below:

MB Specification
PCB Size	. Mini-ITX form factor, 170mmx170mm
CPU	. VIA C7D (V4 Bus) NanoBGA2 , 2.0GHz
Chipset	. North Bridge: VIA CN700 . South Bridge: VIA VT 8237R+
Memory	. DDR-2 400/533 SDRAM (1GB Max) . 1 DIMMs DDRII memory slot
LAN	. Realtek RTL-8110SC LAN 1Gb
Audio	. AC97 CODEC by VIA VT1618, 5.1 channel audio output
IDE	. Support Ultra DMA 66/100/133 mode
SATA	. Support two SATAII 150MB/sec device
DVI	. VIA , VT 1632AG
TV-Out	. S-Video output by VIA VT1622AG
Barebone Specification
Front I/O	. AC97 Mic-in x 1, Headphone-out x 1 , USB2.0 x 2
Rear I/O	. PS2 x 2 (1 for Keyboard,1 for Mouse), Serial Port x 2, D-Sub15 VGA x 1, Mic-in x 1/ Line-in x 1 /Line-out x 1(5.1 channel), RJ45 LAN x1, USB2.0 x 2, TV Out x1, DVI x 1
Power Supply	60Watt Adapter, Active PFC
Driver Bay	Support NB Slim ODD x1 and 2.5" HDD (Hidden )
Dimension	70mm(H) x 185mm(W) x 240mm(D) (with Bezel) ; Volume ,3.1 Liter
System Configuration
ODD	. slim type, SATA Supermulti DVD Dual RW
HDD	. 2.5", SATA HDD 120GB
DDR2	. 1GB DDR2, 533 MHz

Jungle Disk Release 2.0 Beta to Public

Jungle Disk just announced the beta release of its version 2.0 . Right now it's version number is unofficially 1.99b, so it's almost there :-)

Jungle Disk is backup software that lets you create backups of your files using Amazon.com's S3 Storage Service to store your data securely. All your data is encrypted before it travels up to the clouds and it's multi-platform so you can use it on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The backups can be scheduled or automatic. You can install the software in as many machines as you want, but you have to pay a one-time $20 fee. The basic idea is you pay for the software one time and you get a lifetime of updates to it. The storage fees are billed from Amazon.com S3 and depend on the actual storage you consume. The storage fees are calculated at $0.15 per gigabyte-month of storage used. That's cheap storage and comes from a reliable service. What more can you ask for, eh?

Read about the full announcement from: Jungle Disk 2.0 Beta 2 (1.99b) Released

Install Ubuntu Within Windows Using Wubi

Shawn Powers just posted another video on how to install Linux within Windows without ever mucking around the hard drive partitions. Here's the video, enjoy:

OpenOffice.Org 3.0 Beta Released

Great news! OpenOffice.Org 3.0 Beta was released today. The most notable (at least for me) are support for OpenDocument Format (ODF) version 1.2 and opening files created with MS-Office 2007 (or MS-Office 2008 if you're using the Mac OS X). There are tons of other improvements under the hood and you can you can check out the exhaustive list of new features from this page: http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/featurelistbeta.html.

They're inviting everyone to help test the beta. You can download it from this site: http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta.

Now Open to Experimenting

Now that I am selling my computer and preparing to use older donated hardware that would otherwise not find useful life in the hands of another geek (that was a mouthful, bear with me), I'm now open to experimenting with something more optimized for older hardware. The prime candidate would be any of the Slackware-based distros.

Slackware is recognized as the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution. It's also reputed to be the leanest of them all, owing to the fact that they have maintained a heritage of not customizing packages to a point that weighs down a distro a certain way. It's a preferred development distro in that respect because Slackware developers build and install packages using tar.gz (instead of custom packages like RPM's or Deb's). Tar packages can be installed and used by most *nix systems without modifications, sans custom interfaces.

I have a few choices. There's Slackware itself which just released version 12.1. PuppyLinux is another one, the choice of people wanting to run a fairly recent version of Linux on older hardware. PuppyLinux just released 4.0, by the way. VectorLinux is something I've used recently and I think I might go that way. They released 5.9 a few months back. A mini-review of mine was even featured in their reviews page. I haven't tried Zenwalk in a while and it'd be interesting to see what they've done in the intervening years from the last time I tried it. Zenwalk 5.0 is fairly new, having been released last January. An updated version of their live CD, Zenwalk Live 5.0.1, was recently posted as well.

With these choices, who would say with confidence that running older hardware is passe?