New Open Book subnotebook reference design from VIA
If you’ve visited any tech blogs today you’ve no doubt seen all the info there is to been seen on the reference design, so I’ll spare you all that.
However Laptop Magazine does have an initial hands-on review of the New Open Book which contains a quote of interest to most Mini-Note users:
We were hoping to see the much-anticipated Isaiah chip, in the hopes that it would add battery life or performance for a price that would sway potential Intel Atom OEM partnerships, but VIA actually has no plans to include the Isaiah processor in mini notebooks anytime soon. Company spokesperson Richard Brown says VIA is not concentrating Isaiah on mini notebooks, but rather, that the chip is intended for higher-priced 12- to 14-inch systems. Brown also insists that the C7-M can still beat out Intel’s Atom processor in terms of voltage, battery life, and performance, so long as it’s paired with the right graphics chipset
(Emphasis mine)
According to that I doubt the HP’s Mini-Note will be seeing Isaiah any time soon, which is really unfortunate. I wish they explained more why they’re focusing on the bigger systems. It’s probably either it’s price is too high or it consumes too much power for the little batteries in the current wave of sub-notebooks.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I think the problem is that the first Isaiah is a non-ULV part where as the C7-M used in 2133 is a ULV part. The non-ULV Isaiah part, I think, has a TDP of 20~25W, which would be too much for 2133-like devices. Via hasn’t mentioned when a ULV Isaiah would be available, but I am guessing that it will take a while.
I think HP will stay with the current C7-M-based design for a while. They COULD go with an Atom-based design, but why? They should sell the current design till they recoup their investment. I don’t see any major design change from HP on 2133 until the end of the year. At which time, Via could be ready with a ULV Isaiah part or HP has to go with an Atom-based design.
Hong.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
They have stated that the Isaiah chip fits in the same thermal and power guidelines as the C7, so it would have to be price. It’s more complicated out-of-order design and has a larger cache, so it would have to be more expensive.
But Atom isn’t exactly cheap either. Silverthorne Atom 1.6Ghz is $90 and the 1.8Ghz is $160 including the $25 SCH chipset. Diamondville will not be shipping with SCH, but will use Intel’s 945 chipset, so I’m not sure what kind of price difference there will be, but I would be hard pressed to believe that Isaiah would be more expensive then this.
To put Atom’s high price in perspective, for $88 you can get a retail Socket P Mobile Celeron 2.0Ghz from Newegg, so I’m sure you could get a slower ~1.6Ghz-1.8Ghz Celeron in OEM (Qty 1000+) for much cheaper than Atom.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I checked on what Hong said about Isaiah’s TDP, and I think he’s on the right track. According to wikipedia the 1.6Ghz VIA C7-M ULV chip has a 5W TDP, which is 4 or 5 times less than Isaiah’s 20-25W TDP (no official word on that though) So it does seem like Isaiah might not be the best bet for these mini-notebooks.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Don’t forget there is a Min and Max TDP. Processor’s are offered in a range of speeds, the slower CPUs being closer to the Min TDP and the faster one’s being closer to the Max TDP. Isaiah is supposed to have a min TDP of 3.5 watts and a max of 25. We will have to wait and see where a 1.6Ghz Isaiah falls into the TDP scale. According to Via’s website, the C7-M 1.6Ghz (like in the 2133) has a TDP of 15W. Only the Ultra Low Voltage models have a 7-8W TDP.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Forgot to add that according to Via’s own website, there is no ULV 1.6Ghz processor, maxes out at 1.5Ghz. This could be an error, but given how hot the 2133 runs, I have a hard time believing there is a ULV 1.6Ghz C7-M in there.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
This is great info to consider. Thanks all!
Maybe HP made another great design decision by making the outer case aluminum instead of plastic - for heat dissipation.
A Mini-Note with better CPU change might be bigger vent holes. E.g. when I look at the pictures of the side of the MSI Wind (plastic case) it looks like the fan holes are huge! If the Mini-Note got a more powerful CPU we might expect some big vent holes, too.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:36 am
According to the official specsheet from HP regarding the mini-note, the 1.6GHz ULV has a TDP of 8 watts.
http://tinyurl.com/65mlr7
“Processors VIA Technology C7-M Ultra-Low Voltage (ULV) processors
● VIA C7-M ULV 1.6-GHz processor, 800-MHz front-side bus (FSB), 8-W thermal design power (TDP)
● VIA C7-M ULV 1.2-GHz processor, 800-MHz FSB, 5-W TDP
● VIA C7-M ULV 1.0-GHz processor, 400-MHz FSB, 3.5-W TDP”
May 29th, 2008 at 9:59 am
According to VIA’s press release for the new Nano (Isaiah), there are three ULV versions:
VIA Nano U2400 processor 1.3+GHz 800MHz 8W
VIA Nano U2500 processor 1.2GHz 800MHz 6.8W
VIA Nano U2300 processor 1.0GHz 800MHz 5W
June 16th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
What does anyone think the chances are of us (those with first-gen mininotes) being able to upgrade the cpu?
June 17th, 2008 at 6:44 am
Unfortunately, very slim. VIA uses Ball Grid Array soldering which requires special equipment to either solder or un-solder. Check out the Wikipedia article for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_grid_array