4 ms·

Widows is dead with version 8. Long live windows. I think he should rather have said enterprise PC's and workstations are dead. It's clear to me that for norma

Widows is dead with version 8. Long live windows. I think he should rather have said enterprise PC's and workstations are dead. It's clear to me that for normal users ( disclaimer, I work with HPSCs all day ) mobile will become the compute device and each display/'workstation' will have some sort of GPU and connection to the mobile device either wired or wireless in the next 5 years. I can't wait to buy an android device like this. Certainly Apple would do well to team up with NVIDIA for their MBA line and offer an external discrete GPU for when you want sit down at a proper desk with a large screen.

lubos 14y ago
there is a lot of enterprise software (Windows only) which is not going anywhere for another 20 years. for these businesses, Android is not an option. Windows 8 is designed to run on mobile devices. What is stopping Microsoft to create Windows 8 mobile phone which you can plug into docking station and have full desktop experience?
- rbanffy 14y ago
  > for these businesses, Android is not an option. No, but old licenses of XP or compatibility layers like Wine are.
recuter 14y ago
External GPU's over thunderbolt has been a dream of mine for a long time. It would make the MBA the ultimate computer. There have been proof of concepts, I think by Acer, but I don't know of any product roadmap by anybody. Apple wouldn't need to partner with NVIDIA for this, it would be an enclosure not unlike one for external hard drives where you could install any off the shelf graphics card. :)
- coolnow 14y ago
  Even if thunderbolt provided enough bandwidth, wouldn't the whole idea fall apart because the data has to pass through another protocol (making it slower) vs having the GPU directly interfaced?
  - recuter 14y ago
    Thunderbolt is in actuality PCI Express and has ample (20 Gbit/s) bandwidth. As far as I know it will be almost like directly attaching a GPU with some minimal latency because of the greater distance. If not, the next gen optical version will have more then enough headroom.

lubos 14y ago

there is a lot of enterprise software (Windows only) which is not going anywhere for another 20 years. for these businesses, Android is not an option. Windows 8 is designed to run on mobile devices. What is stopping Microsoft to create Windows 8 mobile phone which you can plug into docking station and have full desktop experience?

rbanffy 14y ago
> for these businesses, Android is not an option. No, but old licenses of XP or compatibility layers like Wine are.

recuter 14y ago

External GPU's over thunderbolt has been a dream of mine for a long time. It would make the MBA the ultimate computer. There have been proof of concepts, I think by Acer, but I don't know of any product roadmap by anybody. Apple wouldn't need to partner with NVIDIA for this, it would be an enclosure not unlike one for external hard drives where you could install any off the shelf graphics card. :)

coolnow 14y ago
Even if thunderbolt provided enough bandwidth, wouldn't the whole idea fall apart because the data has to pass through another protocol (making it slower) vs having the GPU directly interfaced?
- recuter 14y ago
  Thunderbolt is in actuality PCI Express and has ample (20 Gbit/s) bandwidth. As far as I know it will be almost like directly attaching a GPU with some minimal latency because of the greater distance. If not, the next gen optical version will have more then enough headroom.