6 ms·

Intel's 4-inch "Next Unit of Computing" to cost $400

59 points by phren0logy 14y ago

astrodust 14y ago
I would've thought that Intel could make something like this for a much lower price-point. That's not even price-competitive with a small Dell unit.
- sp332 14y ago
  Very small form factor computers cost more than that. And good luck hitting the 17W target.
- ajross 14y ago
  A quick check shows the cheapest sub-ATX machine on dell.com right now at $399, and they have a mini-ATX box for $299. Both are configured with Pentium- or Celeron-branded (the "value" lines -- higher power, some features like AVX and VT-x disabled, etc...) Sandy Bridge CPUs, not the low power Ivy Bridge in this box. This really isn't a bad price for what you're getting, though it isn't out of range of what you'd pay for the same components (in a bigger box) from newegg.
- riffic 14y ago
  What you see now is an initial price. This is not what the machines will cost 6-12 months down the road. In all likelihood you'll see these drop in price pretty quickly, perhaps after xmas.
  - astrodust 14y ago
    If it's a product for industrial applications, I doubt there's a Santa factor. For whatever reason, embedded components seem to fight Moore's Law tooth and nail.
fuzzythinker 14y ago
Reduce it further and pair it with Google glass or similar device, minority report style interface that can sense your arm and head movements and it will truly be a "personal" computer you can bring anywhere.
- IsTom 14y ago
  And battery-backpack. Perhaps in some near future we will have a better power source.
excuse-me 14y ago
"Primarily for digital signage" It has a core i3 cpu, 4Gb RAM and will have USB3 and thunderbolt. Perhaps I'm out of touch - but since when does a moving sign display need gigaflops? Wouldn't a Raspberry pi for 1/20 of the cost, and which can drive a full HD video, be sufficient?
- kenrikm 14y ago
  +1 I made almost the same comment. Raspberry Pi can do 1080p and since most digital signage systems are just running on web technology it can more then handle the load.
- swalsh 14y ago
  Imagine you're a clothing company, you get a 60" monitor and hook it up in a mall. Then you take one of these PC's connect a HD camera to it, then proceed to perform some image processing on the picture in real time. As a person walks past the monitor show them walking, but replace their cloths with the companies cloths. That would catch my attention.
  - jmsduran 14y ago
    An interesting idea, but I can imagine that under realistic constraints such a solution would look rather tacky, unless the person was standing completely still.
    - Estragon 14y ago
      With two or three cameras and a much beefier processor you could probably do a pretty good job.
      - planetguy 14y ago
        If anyone wants to actually make that work, I reckon you'd have customers out the wazoo.
  - minikomi 14y ago
kenrikm 14y ago
The Raspberry Pi seems like it would make a much more cost effective system for digital displays (1080p support + linux/Web backend) Having built several digital signage systems myself with off the shelf parts for < $200.. $400 seems really steep.
- joezydeco 14y ago
  Do your systems typically run off Wifi or hardwired ethernet? There's no wifi built-in on the Rpi. Personally I'd get a Pandaboard ES instead.
  - whyenot 14y ago
    A PandaBoard ES is $182 from Digi-Key. A RPi with a usb wifi adapter is $50 ($35 + $15).
    - joezydeco 14y ago
      I can get a PandaboardES shipped to me tonight. How about the Rpi?
      - whyenot 14y ago
        If you can afford to wait for intel's board, which won't begin shipping for months, one would assume waiting for the RPi to become more widely available wouldn't be a major inconvenience.
brightrhino 14y ago
Oh look, intel invented a mac mini without a hard drive.
- hollerith 14y ago
  The TDP of the processor in the current Mac mini is 35 W (which is what makes the mini different from most desktop systems, whose processors usually have TDPs in the 65 W to 95 W range) whereas the TDP of the (Ivy Bridge) processor in this thing is 17 W, which I am guessing is what makes it possible to shrink the size so much relative to the Mac mini.
- rhplus 14y ago
  The Mac mini is 7.7 x 7.7 x 1.4 inches. That's almost four times the volume of this thing (4 x 4 x ? inches). http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
  - brightrhino 14y ago
    The mac mini is also available with a quad core i7 and a hard drive. Cooling is already designed into the mac mini enclosure, which the article mentions has not been finalized in the version shown. I don't see this as much of an accomplishment.
- cheatercheater 14y ago
  Came here to post that. The fact that Intel's version, years later, sports half the TDP and half the size isn't an innovation, it's just an optimization. As much as I hate Apple hardware I must again admit they did a thing there worth considering. No idea why you got the downvotes.
tantalor 14y ago
"Next" might not be the best choice for a computer hardware trademark. I'm going to bet somebody else owns that trademark already.
bitwize 14y ago
Yep. Definitely not a RasPi contender. It looks just like a PC104 board -- and is priced at a point that's dirt cheap for PC104 kit but still nowhere near in RasPi's league.
mey 14y ago
At 101.6mm x 101.6mm it makes this smaller than a Nano-ITX and just slightly larger than the Pico-ITX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano-ITX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano-ITX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico-ITX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico-ITX http://www.mini-itx.com/ http://www.mini-itx.com/
sciurus 14y ago
"Inside the box, you'll find a mobile Core i3 processor paired with the HM65 chipset" This is nice. I wish Intel would sell mobile processors (or motherboards with integrated mobile processors) directly to consumers. The lowest voltage Intel Core desktop processor I can find is the i3-2120T at 35 watts; most are 65 watts. Intel's Core mobile processors go as low as 17 watts.
- cheatercheater 14y ago
  They're not as fast though. And unless you really care about size, a 65 watts doesn't matter. I've got a dead silent system with an 85W gpu and a geforce 9800 gxt+. (one fan in it, but it's a low voltage Noctua that can't be heard even with my ear right against it. psu is fanless) I appreciate your sentiment for colder hardware. I do hope it's going to get there some day, but not at the cost of speed. I think we've reached a situation where it's becoming more and more practical to have silent PCs.
wavephorm 14y ago
Inside the box, you'll find a mobile Core i3 processor What? That's 2 generations ago. I have a 3 year old Atom system about that size. Sure, an i3 is faster, that's nice, but just let me know when Intel's top-of-the-line chip can run on a motherboard this size. If Intel thinks they can still produce new CPU's for the ATX form factor, they're nuts.
- reitzensteinm 14y ago
  It's probably a Sandy Bridge i3, which is basically current gen (the full line of Ivy is not out yet).
- zokier 14y ago
  "Core i3" is just a brand name, it doesn't refer to any specific chip/generation/architecture. I fully except that Ivy Bridge i3's will be released eventually. And Sandy Bridge (what this box probably has inside) is just one generation behind. And I don't see any reason why you couldn't make similar box with Ivy Bridge i7. If you think that Intel could now stop producing new CPUs for ATX form factor, you are the one who are nuts. As far as I know, Intel has no plans to leave the desktop market.
reitzensteinm 14y ago
I was down voted earlier for suggesting it was going to be an order of magnitude more expensive than the R-Pi (until I argued my case): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3909113 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3909113 While the difference in price between the two is negligible for any serious commercial work, this isn't nearly the game changer the R-Pi is. You're not going to put one of these in your garden powered by solar.
cheatercheater 14y ago
Any idea if the new version will use a mini-dp port for the thunderbolt output? I think that might be a bit unreasonable for such a platform where the connector needs to be fairly robust? I can imagine a lot of those hanging by the cable.

59 points by phren0logy 14y ago

I would've thought that Intel could make something like this for a much lower price-point. That's not even price-competitive with a small Dell unit.

sp332 14y ago
Very small form factor computers cost more than that. And good luck hitting the 17W target.
ajross 14y ago
A quick check shows the cheapest sub-ATX machine on dell.com right now at $399, and they have a mini-ATX box for $299. Both are configured with Pentium- or Celeron-branded (the "value" lines -- higher power, some features like AVX and VT-x disabled, etc...) Sandy Bridge CPUs, not the low power Ivy Bridge in this box. This really isn't a bad price for what you're getting, though it isn't out of range of what you'd pay for the same components (in a bigger box) from newegg.
riffic 14y ago
What you see now is an initial price. This is not what the machines will cost 6-12 months down the road. In all likelihood you'll see these drop in price pretty quickly, perhaps after xmas.
- astrodust 14y ago
  If it's a product for industrial applications, I doubt there's a Santa factor. For whatever reason, embedded components seem to fight Moore's Law tooth and nail.

fuzzythinker 14y ago

Reduce it further and pair it with Google glass or similar device, minority report style interface that can sense your arm and head movements and it will truly be a "personal" computer you can bring anywhere.

IsTom 14y ago
And battery-backpack. Perhaps in some near future we will have a better power source.

excuse-me 14y ago

"Primarily for digital signage" It has a core i3 cpu, 4Gb RAM and will have USB3 and thunderbolt. Perhaps I'm out of touch - but since when does a moving sign display need gigaflops? Wouldn't a Raspberry pi for 1/20 of the cost, and which can drive a full HD video, be sufficient?

kenrikm 14y ago
+1 I made almost the same comment. Raspberry Pi can do 1080p and since most digital signage systems are just running on web technology it can more then handle the load.
swalsh 14y ago
Imagine you're a clothing company, you get a 60" monitor and hook it up in a mall. Then you take one of these PC's connect a HD camera to it, then proceed to perform some image processing on the picture in real time. As a person walks past the monitor show them walking, but replace their cloths with the companies cloths. That would catch my attention.
- jmsduran 14y ago
  An interesting idea, but I can imagine that under realistic constraints such a solution would look rather tacky, unless the person was standing completely still.
  - Estragon 14y ago
    With two or three cameras and a much beefier processor you could probably do a pretty good job.
    - planetguy 14y ago
      If anyone wants to actually make that work, I reckon you'd have customers out the wazoo.
- minikomi 14y ago

kenrikm 14y ago

The Raspberry Pi seems like it would make a much more cost effective system for digital displays (1080p support + linux/Web backend) Having built several digital signage systems myself with off the shelf parts for < $200.. $400 seems really steep.

joezydeco 14y ago
Do your systems typically run off Wifi or hardwired ethernet? There's no wifi built-in on the Rpi. Personally I'd get a Pandaboard ES instead.
- whyenot 14y ago
  A PandaBoard ES is $182 from Digi-Key. A RPi with a usb wifi adapter is $50 ($35 + $15).
  - joezydeco 14y ago
    I can get a PandaboardES shipped to me tonight. How about the Rpi?
    - whyenot 14y ago
      If you can afford to wait for intel's board, which won't begin shipping for months, one would assume waiting for the RPi to become more widely available wouldn't be a major inconvenience.

brightrhino 14y ago

Oh look, intel invented a mac mini without a hard drive.

hollerith 14y ago
The TDP of the processor in the current Mac mini is 35 W (which is what makes the mini different from most desktop systems, whose processors usually have TDPs in the 65 W to 95 W range) whereas the TDP of the (Ivy Bridge) processor in this thing is 17 W, which I am guessing is what makes it possible to shrink the size so much relative to the Mac mini.
rhplus 14y ago
The Mac mini is 7.7 x 7.7 x 1.4 inches. That's almost four times the volume of this thing (4 x 4 x ? inches). http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
- brightrhino 14y ago
  The mac mini is also available with a quad core i7 and a hard drive. Cooling is already designed into the mac mini enclosure, which the article mentions has not been finalized in the version shown. I don't see this as much of an accomplishment.
cheatercheater 14y ago
Came here to post that. The fact that Intel's version, years later, sports half the TDP and half the size isn't an innovation, it's just an optimization. As much as I hate Apple hardware I must again admit they did a thing there worth considering. No idea why you got the downvotes.

tantalor 14y ago

"Next" might not be the best choice for a computer hardware trademark. I'm going to bet somebody else owns that trademark already.

bitwize 14y ago

Yep. Definitely not a RasPi contender. It looks just like a PC104 board -- and is priced at a point that's dirt cheap for PC104 kit but still nowhere near in RasPi's league.

mey 14y ago

At 101.6mm x 101.6mm it makes this smaller than a Nano-ITX and just slightly larger than the Pico-ITX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano-ITX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano-ITX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico-ITX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico-ITX http://www.mini-itx.com/ http://www.mini-itx.com/

sciurus 14y ago

"Inside the box, you'll find a mobile Core i3 processor paired with the HM65 chipset" This is nice. I wish Intel would sell mobile processors (or motherboards with integrated mobile processors) directly to consumers. The lowest voltage Intel Core desktop processor I can find is the i3-2120T at 35 watts; most are 65 watts. Intel's Core mobile processors go as low as 17 watts.

cheatercheater 14y ago
They're not as fast though. And unless you really care about size, a 65 watts doesn't matter. I've got a dead silent system with an 85W gpu and a geforce 9800 gxt+. (one fan in it, but it's a low voltage Noctua that can't be heard even with my ear right against it. psu is fanless) I appreciate your sentiment for colder hardware. I do hope it's going to get there some day, but not at the cost of speed. I think we've reached a situation where it's becoming more and more practical to have silent PCs.

wavephorm 14y ago

Inside the box, you'll find a mobile Core i3 processor What? That's 2 generations ago. I have a 3 year old Atom system about that size. Sure, an i3 is faster, that's nice, but just let me know when Intel's top-of-the-line chip can run on a motherboard this size. If Intel thinks they can still produce new CPU's for the ATX form factor, they're nuts.

reitzensteinm 14y ago
It's probably a Sandy Bridge i3, which is basically current gen (the full line of Ivy is not out yet).
zokier 14y ago
"Core i3" is just a brand name, it doesn't refer to any specific chip/generation/architecture. I fully except that Ivy Bridge i3's will be released eventually. And Sandy Bridge (what this box probably has inside) is just one generation behind. And I don't see any reason why you couldn't make similar box with Ivy Bridge i7. If you think that Intel could now stop producing new CPUs for ATX form factor, you are the one who are nuts. As far as I know, Intel has no plans to leave the desktop market.

reitzensteinm 14y ago

I was down voted earlier for suggesting it was going to be an order of magnitude more expensive than the R-Pi (until I argued my case): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3909113 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3909113 While the difference in price between the two is negligible for any serious commercial work, this isn't nearly the game changer the R-Pi is. You're not going to put one of these in your garden powered by solar.

cheatercheater 14y ago

Any idea if the new version will use a mini-dp port for the thunderbolt output? I think that might be a bit unreasonable for such a platform where the connector needs to be fairly robust? I can imagine a lot of those hanging by the cable.