Fujitsu Siemens to Introduce External Graphics Solution

A leaked presentation from Fujitsu Siemens Computers shows that the company is planning to introduce an external graphics card solution in the next couple of weeks.

The AMILO GraphicBooster is based on "ATI XGP" technology and makes it possbile for Fujitsu Siemens AMILO notebook owners to upgrade their graphics card, something that was not possible in the past. Fujitsu claims a 4.7X performance improvement with the GraphicBooster versus the graphics of a "small form factor" AMILO notebook, which are most likely integrated.

The following graph shows that an AMILO notebook with the GraphicBooster can get up to 8,000 points in what is presumably 3DMark06:

While on the go, users can leave the GraphicBooster behind and enjoy long battery life courtesy of their onboard graphics solution. The GraphicBooster allows users to connect up to three external displays to their notebook: it includes DVI-D and HDMI connections. It is unclear how this device connects to the notebook itself and whether it will work with other notebooks besides Fujitsu Siemens AMILOs.

No pricing details are available at this time, and some specifics remain unclear, but this is a promising device. ASUS announced its own external graphics card solution, the XG Station, at CES 2007, but they have failed to release anything; over a year later nothing has appeared on the market and the company has remained silent about it.

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Wow , Although i really doubt it will even perform half as good as they say , even still , Nice if it works.

 

It sounds like it is only for Fujitsu notebooks, which is definitely a shame.

Asus just couldn't deliver on the XG...sad.

 

I don't believe they would make it for Fujitsu notebooks only, as that would be marketing suicide and they should know well that this is a niche market and if they're the only product in there, a lot of sales could head their way.

As for connector, wouldn't a express card solution make sense? Since it if effectively a PCI connector, and if it just serves as a wire they could just use express32 and not the full sized ones. Meaning they would target a wide range of notebooks. It's the only existing connector that I think makes sense, since USB wouldn't have nearly enough bandwidth, and using a VGA/DVI/HDMI seems illogical since you couldn't really use an external graphics card with one.

 

I think the reason the XG never materialized is because it was too difficult to make it work for all the different configurations of notebooks on the planet. It makes sense for notebook makers to create an external dedicated graphics card solution for their own notebooks because they can make sure it works reliably with their notebooks.

I kind of wish all notebook manufacturers caught on to this idea. I like the idea of buying a notebook with integrated graphics for long battery life and then plugging in an external dedicated graphics card to home for multiple external monitors and gaming.

 

Yeah.... they should make this a universal tech!

 

im going to lol if its USB...

ass cool as it is i have a feeling it will have compadability issues with the majority of games... the idea seems 2 far out of the norm.

hope it works out ok 8000 06 marks is dam impressive power...

 

Secret hint that the mobile HD3870 scores 8000 3dmark06 points anyone?

 

I always wondered why no one has released an eSATA PCI Express x16 enclosure yet.

 

While I find this product to be very intriguing, as Greg mentioned, Asus hasn't managed to cough up its XG, which leads me to wonder what sort of performance we'll be looking at with the GraphicBooster.

Incidentally, does anyone else find the graph provided hilarious?

 

nice!!! hope this will be a universal solution

 

Nice point, But I doubt this is possible , An expresscard Slot gives 2.5gbits bandwith , Thats about 250MBPS
PCI-E gives 250MBPS per lane (Im assuming PCI-E is the technology behind Expresscards)

This means the GPU will run in a PCI-E x1 Config at most This a bottleneck for any card on the market because they are meant to run in PCI-E X16 or X8 at the least , Its impossible to score anywhere near 8000 on a X1 config.

 

Don't forget ATi's Lasso and MSI's Luxium. While at the moment external graphics solutions aren't much more then news and plans, I think they'll be really big in the near future, and eventually be the end of desktops (hopefully).

 

Good point, but don't forget that the leaked info did not reference what sort of connection this device would use. It could be proprietary.

 

Maybe I don't understand the product fully or I am assume it's gonna be kind of big an bulky, but what is the point of this? The point of a laptop is to be able to use it on the go, and say I am on a bus or a plane or whatnot wanting to use my laptop. It is not like I would want to take my laptop out and then plug this thing in. Like where would I be able to put it? On someone else's lap? And then one could say well you can use it at home, but why would I use this at home when I could use a desktop that is probably more powerful for a lower cost? I like the idea that Sony uses for their notebooks, where you could switch from dedicated card to onboard graphics to increase battery life. That seems to be the most practical to me.

 

@Chaz, Yeah your right , I couldnt think of any standard connection faster than Expresscard, But like you said these looks like the will be specifically for the Fujitsu notebooks Thats a shame.

@onionring1988, Well there are alot of people that cant afford both a desktop and a laptop , But need a light portable laptop for taking notes , Maybe @ collage ect , They would be the target market to they can play all the games but not have to sacrifice portability for the rest of the time.

 

They are too late with that, unless it's going to be extremley cheap.
Why?

Because laptops with 8600M GT/8800GTX aren't rare and it's cheaper to buy one with a high-end (or like) gpu than external one, which also ruins the idea of "portable".

 

@Lite,
I see what you are saying, but I have to disagree. The 8800m GTX costs like 500-1k according to Dell, Alienware, Sager. Assuming this is a strong graphics card, I will assume it costs plenty, in which case, one could probably build a desktop for that price. Also, I would assume this thing probably kills your battery life, so you really need to use this when the laptop is plugged in. With that said, it really no longer serves the purpose of being portable and on the go. I am in college, and I have a Dell M1530. In my classes, the footprint of the laptop covers the entire desk. I would not be able to use one of these things in my class because I'd have no place to put it.

I just think the idea of an external graphics card in something thats supposed to be compact, portable, and to an extent "all-in-one" should not have external graphic cards. it just seems impractical and defeats the purpose.

I could be wrong. I'm curious to see how it turns out.

 

Seems like a neat idea to have a lightweight laptop with integrated graphics for when you are on the game, then you can plug this baby in and play games at home.

 

Onionring:

Unless you're playing games while taking notes in class... you wouldn't need to take the external card with you.

I only game at home, but enjoy the portability of smaller notebooks. If this technology could turn a 13.3/14.1 inch lappy into an impressive gamer at home, it would be perfect for someone like me.

Also, I think it would make heating issues while gaming much less stressful.
Stick it in a small freezer and drill a little hole for the cord... Overclock!

 

There is an external graphics on the market:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vidock-expresscard-graphics,1933.html

But it seems overpriced and a bit underperfoming, although the data about the wdm, that you can't run 2 graphics drivers, seems to be reason why there is no xg station yet.

 

it does use the express card interface, and to be honest I don't see any other port they could currently use for an external graphics card. And even if they made their own proprietary port, it would most likely be very similar to express cards interface, since the laptop would have to see it as a PCI connection for any current drivers to work.

 

Well but if is proprietary port they could use more lanes, like 4,8 or even all 16, and then you could have a nice performing part.

 

You could but how would you build it without it requiring a port that's 6-8cm in length, since an express32 port contains 1 lane, a 64 could contain 2 I guess if it were widened a bit. It would just seem kind of strange to have a huge gaping hole in the side of your notebook just for this module, which is why I believe they will most likely base it off express port.

 

They need atleast 8 lanes to hit 8,000
A PCI-E slot has about 80 pins , about 30 of those are ground (So not needed I guess???) That means about 51 pins for 16 lanes minimum (Including 1 ground)
The First 10 Pins are needed for Power/Initialisation ect

Thats 41 + the first 10 = 51 pins for X16 lanes

So 1/2 of 41 = 21 + 10 = 31 Pins = X8 lanes.

So if they do it on a propietary connector they can probably squeeze all 31 pins on quite easily.

Remember a DVI connector has a max of 30+5 pins on it aswell , They may have an internal switch that switches between 2nd display mode and PCI-e Lane mode , Highly unlikley , But possible.

 

I think you missed the point about having the ability to have integrated chipset when you are mobile (long battery life, cooler laptop and all) and having access to dedicated graphics when you are docked at home should you want to.

Keep in mind that with this flexibility, your own laptop may run much cooler since the laptop doesn't have to have gigantic cooling capabilities built in (cooling can be done in the external part).

That kind of flexibility alone is worth the premium for a lot of people because it really makes the point of having a desktop & a laptop moot. You could essentially do both with 1 laptop and this external device. I know that this kind of flexibility is worth the premium for me.

of course, this is all talk based on paper and projections, whether they will be able to pull it off in execution is a whole other matter.

 

Wish they wouldve released more information on this, as im curious to how the connection is made, and also the size of this unit.

 

"Wish they wouldve released more information on this, as im curious to how the connection is made, and also the size of this unit."

Well, this is a leak. It's not official yet.

 

Have you ever seen a HP_Compaq? They have a port like this, with no cover, it's underneath though.

Since it's an external GPU I'm guessing it won't run on batteries anyway, so they're probably using desktop GPU's which should lower the prices.

I'd like to see a complete docking station with more features, like USB, HDMI, all the audio ports you don't have on a laptop, and eSATA or room for an internal HDD.

 

this concept is part of the reason the sony sz is so appealing.

 

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this article yet (sorry if you have) but that score of 8k in 3Dmark 06 means that it has to be connected using something other than a expresscard slot. It also shows that a powerful card is very limited by the bandwidth.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vidock-expresscard-graphics,1933-9.html

Edit: Now that I took the time to read all the posts someone has already mentioned it

 

Yea this will be a special connector. I can't wait for this to take off. I really want to ditch my desktop, but I still game. 1330+ this thing would be sweet. I would say bye bye to my desktop.

 

great! i think almost the same..
there will be a PCI-E port underneath the notebook slot,close to the internal vga slot..plug into the special built docking station which have the external pci-express plug..tadaa...you can have good fps on crysis
i believe that there will be certain limitations of which graphics card can be connected or if it isnt maybe they would think about making a very big slot under the docking station to fit an 9800GX2 inside...

but i am curious,why 8000 3Dmark score while you can hit 10k more with 8800GT?
why dont they just put either 10 or 15k on it ?

 

Where are the ASUS and MSI externals graphics we were promised some time ago ? Not to forget the promise of 2nd gen with output to the internal screen .

I'll believe it when I see it .

 

maybe it is connected via Expresscard 2.0

 

When they do it via their own connector, it would be easy to add a line to input (and maybe convert) DVI Signal to the internal Display.
If they do it over PCI-E X16, and put such a Slot in the Box you should be able to use any graphics card available...

 

I was also thinking why not a complete external device. Then allow it to pass through an HDMI port or VGA? Their are chips out their that can provide pull PCI-E lanes that are not apart of a motherboard. Also if they use an MXM desgin, the unit could be upgradeable! The new 55nm ATI mobile cards are coming along with new Nvidia Mobile card. For most this would be perfect. No more large tower dumping in tons of heat into rooms. Man I need to start a company. Their is so much money that can be had from this!

 

Hopefully some kind of standard will emerge on this "notebook external videocard adapter" thing. And it better be cheaper than building a desktop myself. Then, I can just use integrate GPU on the go.

 

well i think its going to be hooked up to the PCI-express slot somehow... because most laptops if not all have a pci-express slot for expansion so it universal and the speed is obviously there

 

It seems to be conected via a 8 lane pci express 2.0, which have the same bandwidth than a 16x pcie 1.1

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14863

 

Hmm, not a bad show at all if they pull it off.

 

Why use a mobile GPU when external? Why not rig up a box with power and fans and save the headache/cost premium of a mobile GPU.

 

It would be great to be able to use a desktop GPU externally, I wouldn't mind the larger case it would be housed in or having to plug it into an outlet rather than powering it completely off the notebook. Perhaps there still isn't enough bandwidth to support a powerful desktop card?

 

The XG Station is based on the 8600M and only works with an external monitor. FAIL.

 

It was announced back in January 2007 and is still vaporware, the Expresscard port it utilizes provides too little bandwidth for a decent graphics card so I'm sure that's why it never materializes.

However this ATI XGP has more bandwidth available to it but uses a proprietary port exclusive to AMD Puma notebooks and is up to manufacturers to implement, Fujitsu is the first.

I do think there is a great market for this and this will catch on in 2009 just as the EEE came out in late 2007 and netbooks really caught on in 2008. I hope to see a solution for Intel notebooks but it appears whatever will come out won't be backwards compatible with current notebooks.

 

anyone test this thing? read a review somewhere and it concluded it worked very well. Has anyone used it?

also, im not too sure if this can be used on other types of laptops too or only fujitsu ones