4 ms·

A mid-to-high end ARM SoC is $20 these days, there's really no reason to NOT have a CPU in anything that has a monitor in it. Especially since the CPU in a phon

by cwyers 12y ago

A mid-to-high end ARM SoC is $20 these days, there's really no reason to NOT have a CPU in anything that has a monitor in it. Especially since the CPU in a phone has to deal with a power/thermal profile that most laptops have a little more leeway on. It's such a false economy.

swalsh 12y ago
there's so much more then a CPU though. You still need some storage, radios (bluetooth/wifi/4g), connections for the radios etc. Plus, if as technology gets better you have to upgrade each device independently. Wouldn't it be nice if every two years you could upgrade your phone AND your laptop for the price of one device?
- JetSpiegel 12y ago
  A phone uses about 5W, a laptop 50W and a ultra-high-end desktop 500W. That's two orders of magnitude of difference, no way the CPU can be the same for all that.
  - semi-extrinsic 12y ago
    Exactly this. My ultra-highend desktop at work has a 1200W PSU.
maxerickson 12y ago
It's still kind of nice that it should become possible, with pretty much no fussing, to plug a phone into a TV (or any other display with USB input), have it charge and also take over the display. As you say, the hardware savings aren't very interesting, but simpler, better interop looks like it will be.
thinkmassive 12y ago
ARM's big.LITTLE architecture could feasibly bridge the gap between mobile and portable devices. I recently acquired a ODroid XU and a bunch of peripherals to serve as a modular mobile computer. Right now it complements my laptop and phone, but eventually I could see it replacing both by getting a small "tablet" that's basically a display/speaker/mic and a pico projector + tiny wireless keyboard. All of these components already exist, but the LCD and projector are currently out of my price range for what's essentially a fun experiment. There are even battery banks available for around $99 that can charge USB plus many laptop models, and can be used while charging (something most cheaper USB battery packs don't do). The biggest issue will probably be keeping the thing powered all day. In the medium term I can even see the possibility of a shift away from ultrabooks and toward more modular laptops, since the giant battery needs to live somewhere. Then you could have a mobile device tethered wirelessly that doesn't need the same level of components (except maybe GPU) and the battery can be reduced further.

by cwyers 12y ago

swalsh 12y ago

there's so much more then a CPU though. You still need some storage, radios (bluetooth/wifi/4g), connections for the radios etc. Plus, if as technology gets better you have to upgrade each device independently. Wouldn't it be nice if every two years you could upgrade your phone AND your laptop for the price of one device?

JetSpiegel 12y ago
A phone uses about 5W, a laptop 50W and a ultra-high-end desktop 500W. That's two orders of magnitude of difference, no way the CPU can be the same for all that.
- semi-extrinsic 12y ago
  Exactly this. My ultra-highend desktop at work has a 1200W PSU.

maxerickson 12y ago

It's still kind of nice that it should become possible, with pretty much no fussing, to plug a phone into a TV (or any other display with USB input), have it charge and also take over the display. As you say, the hardware savings aren't very interesting, but simpler, better interop looks like it will be.

thinkmassive 12y ago

ARM's big.LITTLE architecture could feasibly bridge the gap between mobile and portable devices. I recently acquired a ODroid XU and a bunch of peripherals to serve as a modular mobile computer. Right now it complements my laptop and phone, but eventually I could see it replacing both by getting a small "tablet" that's basically a display/speaker/mic and a pico projector + tiny wireless keyboard. All of these components already exist, but the LCD and projector are currently out of my price range for what's essentially a fun experiment. There are even battery banks available for around $99 that can charge USB plus many laptop models, and can be used while charging (something most cheaper USB battery packs don't do). The biggest issue will probably be keeping the thing powered all day. In the medium term I can even see the possibility of a shift away from ultrabooks and toward more modular laptops, since the giant battery needs to live somewhere. Then you could have a mobile device tethered wirelessly that doesn't need the same level of components (except maybe GPU) and the battery can be reduced further.