Is HP going to stick with VIA, or switch to Intel?
Laptop Magazine recently interviewed Kyle Thornton, HP’s product manager for the Mini-Note. What has drawn the most attention to the interview is the following question:
Laptop Magazine: What is your take on the upcoming Intel Atom platform? Do you see it beating out VIA?
Kyle Thornton: I think it’s too early to call a winner. HP is talking to both Intel and VIA and we are in the middle of this discussion. We will make a decision for future road maps in due time. In the same platform, we probably won’t offer both options. We will settle on one.
Mr. Thornton tries to throw some uncertainty into the mix of whether or not the upcoming models of the Mini-Note will stay with Via. I don’t know if this was intentional, or just posturing to remind Via they’re not the only chips in town. I do know that it would be completely ridiculous for HP to redesign the Mini-Note for the Atom chip when Via’s new Isaiah chip will just pop right in with no changes to the rest of the hardware. Redesign, re-certify and re-tool the manufacturing process, or just plug something a little different in?
April 30th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
if hp did decide to go with the new isaiah chip how long do you think it would be before we could see it in the mini note?
April 30th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
jkOnTheRun said he ran into someone from Via that said Isaiah would be available in limited quantities in June…I’m not sure if that mean the chips or laptops. http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/04/coffee-break–f.html
May 4th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
So this maybe a stupid question, but if I got the HP now and the Isaiah came out in a few months, would I be able to swap the processors out? (asking because of your last two sentences)
May 4th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
@Jonny, you won’t be able to swap in the Isaiah chip unfortunately because the CPU is soldered in.
May 5th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Thanks Josh.