Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/2334
Intel Developer Forum 2007 - Day 2: USB 3, ASUS EeePC, Robot Car and More
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 20, 2007 4:56 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
The major announcements of IDF have come and gone. The Nehalem demos and Silverthorne were exactly what IDF is known for, but the show does go on after the keynotes and today's coverage gives you a taste of exactly that.
Robot Car
We ran into Stanford's Robot Car to be used in the DARPA Urban Challenge this November:
The Robot Car is entirely autonomous, it will drive itself and avoid any and all obstacles along the way in an urban setting. All of the gadgetry on the top and sides of the car are laser sensors that map the car's environment, so that it can avoid accidents.
The laser sensors on the sides of the car will identify yellow/white lines on the road to make sure the car stays within its lane on the road.
The car's sensors mapping out its environment in real-time on the LCD screen above
All of the data is fed into the car's two quad-core servers, analyzed, processed and translated to inputs to the car's steering, braking and acceleration systems.
The servers are cooled using the car's own air conditioning system via a large pipe running from the back seat to the trunk where the servers are stored.
The fastest they've had the car up to is around 71mph, but it's expected to get up into the 30s during the Urban Challenge.
ASUS EeePC
ASUS stopped by the show with its new EeePC, a sub-$400 notebook designed for emerging markets, classrooms, and other cost-conscious users.
The system features a 7" screen, Celeron M processor, 256MB of memory and a 2 or 4GB flash hard drive. Wireless and wired Ethernet are both supported and two models will be available, one priced at $250 and one at $350. Availability should be sometime in October, with widespread retail availability sometime by the end of this year or early next year.
Vivian, a new hire from ASUS, poses with the EeePC
The system runs Linux and ASUS has done nothing to prevent users from installing their own OS on the machine, it's as open as can be.
The keyboard is cramped and we weren't happy with the feedback from the keys (the keyboard itself seemed to have a little too much bounce in it), but the form factor of the device and sub-2lbs weight were particularly attractive.
Applications took a few seconds to launch and boot time was a respectable 22 seconds (from power on to desktop use); performance wasn't staggering, but it wasn't bad either.
The screen and keyboard being cramped were our biggest issues, but what more can you ask for at the price points ASUS is targeting?
The software stack is entirely open source, featuring OpenOffice and a number of other free/open applications.
Montevina Notebook: Working
This year's IDF has been all about demoing the same product multiple times, in subsequently better situations. Yesterday's Montevina demonstration was an open system with a Montevina platform running in a plastic case, today's demonstration was a fully functional Montevina notebook:
Mobile Penryn vs. Merom
Intel ran a quick mobile Penryn vs. Merom demonstration, benchmark results weren't reported but you'll see those soon enough. The demonstration ran through a SSE4 enabled video encoding benchmark, converting a HD video stream to an MPEG-2 file.
Super Talent
Super Talent had the usual products at its booth, first off is a new memory heatsink very similar to Corsair's DHX:
An array of small form factor USB thumb drives were also on display:
And finally, very low profile (0.7" tall) DIMMs for blade servers:
Wireless Power Demonstration
Intel's Research Labs had a wireless power demonstration using its Wireless Indentification Sensing Platform (WISP).
These little chips are RFIDs that are wirelessly powered (on the order of several milliwatts) by a laptop a couple of feet away.
These RFIDs have LEDs that are powered wirelessly by the laptop below
The design is a proof of concept of what you can do with wireless power and RFID.
USB 3.0
We got a chance to get up close with a USB 3.0 cable and some shots of the connector at the Technology Showcase last night:
As we mentioned yesterday, USB 3.0 should offer around 10x the bandwidth of USB 2.0 while still maintaining backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 devices. The USB 3.0 spec will support transfers over both optical and copper interfaces, the choice of which will come down to desired cable length and transfer rate (the preference obviously being for optical in both respects).
Although the USB 3.0 A connector is backwards compatible, the device connector is unique to the spec.
Intel Lorado
Remember Intel's ultra-thin notebook announcement from not too long ago? Lorado was on display at IDF, as a soon to be manufactured proof of concept of what can be designed using Centrino.
The notebook weighs less than 1.2kg, features a Core 2 Duo T7600 and is available with both standard and solid state disk drives.
Intel demonstrated the Lorado notebook with a Sideshow case, this case fits around the notebook, syncs to it and displays relevant data using an electronic ink display on the front.
Corsair XMP
Corsair had its Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory on display, which is Intel's own extension to the JEDEC SPD contained on memory modules.
The new profile carries additional data about maximum clocks and memory timings, allowing for auto-overclocking of a system when used in a supported motherboard. If any of this sounds familiar it is because NVIDIA did something similar last year with its EPP memory.
WiMAX
Intel talked about WiMAX a lot during this year's IDF, not to mention the many demos of its Echo Peak WiFi/WiMAX PCIe cards:
Echo Peak will occupy the same form factor as Intel's current WiFi products, available in either a Minicard or Half Minicard for use in notebooks. According to Intel, power envelope should remain unchanged for Intel's Echo Peak vs. currently shipping Intel WiFi cards.
WiMAX, if well deployed, is designed to truly enable mobile broadband for notebooks and mobile internet devices. WiMAX will be a part of Intel's 2008 Montevina platform, and will be supported by Sprint and Clearwire in the US, and KDDI in Japan.
Mobile WiMAX should bring WiFi performance to users on the go, welcome to 4G
Xohm: WiMAX from Sprint in '08
WiMAX was all over IDF this year in preparation for its deployment in Centrino notebooks based on the Montevina platform in 2008. Sprint has announced broad support for WiMAX in the US as you can see from the map below:
Sprint expects WiMAX speeds to be consistent within a coverage area and overall akin to your wired broadband experience. If WiMAX can truly deliver WiFi performance, on the road, within the same power envelope in '08 we're ready to sign up now.
We were also pleased to see Sprint recognize that the mobile internet needs to follow a more ISP-like business model, unlike the traditional wireless market. If WiMAX takes off, we'll just need mobile VoIP providers and we can finally do away with per-minute, per-text and per-KB billing of cell phone providers in the US.