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Let's have a look at low-power devices (for post-apocalyptic programming?) - is the Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1 MK2.6 from 2012 the perfect post-apocalyptic devic

by Tepix 4y ago

Let's have a look at low-power devices (for post-apocalyptic programming?) - is the Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1 MK2.6 from 2012 the perfect post-apocalyptic device when low power consumption trumps everything else? It has a 2W CPU and dual hot-swappable 7.2V 2900mAh batteries that last 9 hours (i.e. 4.62 Watts). The keyboard is somewhat terrible but the display is "daylight readable". No, it looks as if the Acer Spin 7 5G SP714-61NA-S8Z7 with its Snapdragon 8cx Gen2 5G is even more efficient, its 56Wh battery has a claimed battery life of 29h (i.e. less than 2 Watts!).

daneel_w 4y ago
Modern Arm SBCs definitely offer better low-power computing than the Atom and Celeron things of old. The Pinebook Pro Arm64 laptop gets about 8 hours of mixed use on a full charge when using eMMC instead of NVMe storage. It charges using a plain DC barrel jack on just 5 volts, and can trickle-charge on low current. If "mixed use" doesn't involve surfing the web and using Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, it easily goes beyond 10 hours. The M1/M2 MacBook Airs also offer fantastic battery life, even if charging them is a bit more complicated.
phire 4y ago
A 2 watt CPU seems liker massive overkill, you really don't need that much CPU power. I'm reminded of PDAs from the 90s that could run for almost a month on a single set of AA batteries. If you were designing a devices from scratch, it might be worth considering a large (640x300 or larger) transflective lcd display from the late 90s, a keyboard, large amounts of reliable flash storage. It seems overkill to go beyond an ARM M4 for CPU, though a cluster of Cortex A55s might make more sense, so you have an MMU. Give it flexible power input so it can run off whatever power source you can scavenge. From a few triple AAA batteries at the low end to 48v lead acid batteries at the high end. Or a highly variable power source like a rigged together windmill or scavenged solar panels.

by Tepix 4y ago

daneel_w 4y ago

Modern Arm SBCs definitely offer better low-power computing than the Atom and Celeron things of old. The Pinebook Pro Arm64 laptop gets about 8 hours of mixed use on a full charge when using eMMC instead of NVMe storage. It charges using a plain DC barrel jack on just 5 volts, and can trickle-charge on low current. If "mixed use" doesn't involve surfing the web and using Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, it easily goes beyond 10 hours. The M1/M2 MacBook Airs also offer fantastic battery life, even if charging them is a bit more complicated.

phire 4y ago

A 2 watt CPU seems liker massive overkill, you really don't need that much CPU power. I'm reminded of PDAs from the 90s that could run for almost a month on a single set of AA batteries. If you were designing a devices from scratch, it might be worth considering a large (640x300 or larger) transflective lcd display from the late 90s, a keyboard, large amounts of reliable flash storage. It seems overkill to go beyond an ARM M4 for CPU, though a cluster of Cortex A55s might make more sense, so you have an MMU. Give it flexible power input so it can run off whatever power source you can scavenge. From a few triple AAA batteries at the low end to 48v lead acid batteries at the high end. Or a highly variable power source like a rigged together windmill or scavenged solar panels.