News Bits: USB 3.0 and 512GB SSD Coming in 2009, OLPC Laptop Production Delays

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OLPC laptop faces production delays

The non-profit One Laptop Per Child group stated that a production delay would cause a shortage of the XO computers available in the US and Canada for the holiday giving program. Production was supposed to start in October but has been pushed back to November 12. According to the chief technology officer for OLPC, Mary Lou Jepsen, &quot;We had some last-minute bugs. We resolved them.&quot; She says that a total of 100,000 laptops are expected to be produced this year.

Read More (Yahoo.com)

USB 3.0 coming in 2009 will offer 10x performance of USB 2.0

In a blog post on Intel's website an interview is conducted with Jeff Ravencraft, Chairman and President of the USB Implementers Forum. The interview revolves around talk of the new USB 3.0 standard that is being developed and also the USB 1.1 wireless standard. In the interview Ravencraft states that:

&quot;The primary objective with USB 3.0 is a proposed performance increase to over 10x of Hi-Speed USB which today is 480 Mbps. This is a significant enhancement for consumers who are working more and more with ever expanding file sizes such as movies. For example, a 25 GB HD Movie would take only 70 seconds to transfer between devices. Studies show that a consumer’s patience on waiting time is about 1.5 minutes and after 5 minutes they abort what they were doing. That same file transferred over High-speed USB would take 13.9 minutes – an unacceptable wait time for most people.&quot;

He goes on to state that power efficiency is also an important factor due to the huge increase of USB in mobile devices such as laptops. If the USB 3.0 specs are completed in 2008 as expected, the first USB 3.0 equipped goods should be on the market by 2009 and then USB 3.0 compatible accessories would show up in late 2009 or early 2010.

Read More (Intel)


New 30nm SSDs could store 512GB of data

Samsung announced that it has developed the first 30nm flash chip with 64 Gigabits of capacity. Samsung claims its latest 30nm chips are the first multi-level cell 64 Gbit NAND flash chips; one chip can store 8GB, and an SD card or similar with 16 of them can store 128GB of data. A 1.8-inch Solid State Disk (SSD) could store up to 512GB.

Samsung plans to put the 64 Gbit chips into mass production in 2009.

Read More (TGDaily.com)


Epson introduces Endeavor NJ3000 notebook

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Image courtesy AkihabaraNews

Epson introduced their new Endeavor NJ3000 notebook on Oct. 23, which is aimed at the corporate market and is built to order. 15.4-inch displays are offered in WXGA or WXGA+ resolutions, and processor choices include the Core 2 Duo from the 2.0GHz T7250 to the 2.6GHz T7800. Four different size hard drives are offered as well.

Read More (AkihabaraNews.com)


All-in-one Dell XPS A2010 leaked

Image courtesy Engadget (view large image)

Dell's upcoming all-in-one XPS A2010 has been leaked via an FCC site. It will have a 22-inch widescreen display with a WSXGA+ resolution and will be available with a desktop Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of RAM, a Blu-ray drive, webcam, integrated or ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 graphics, Windows Vista, Bluetooth, and wireless Internet. A wireless keyboard and mouse are also included. Current pricing estimates place it around $2,000.

Read More (Engadget.com)

 

Guess 2009 is the year to wait for...wireless usb, usb 3.0, huge SSDs, intel finally getting rid of the FSB and implementing an on die memory controller.

 

USB 3.0...that's awesome. I can't wait for it!

If they can manage to supply the 10x speed that they're predicting, it'd be truly great. Just like their example...25 GB in 70 seconds...

 

2009 is definitely the year I'm waiting for now. Intel's new chipset, USB 3.0, SSDs... guess my M90 will have to hold on for a year longer.

 

Ohh poor baby, all you have is a 2.1GHz core duo and a 7900ish gpu

Some people are stuck with much worse than you

 

With all their studies they should of noticed the annoyance of trying to plug in the usb plugs the wrong way, and how much time is wasted when doing so. At least you can leave a external device alone when transferring something to it. But when you're trying to plug in something under a cramped desk its a pain when you can't see which way it goes in with a glance.

Those new dells look pretty sexy btw. It gives Apple a run for their money.

 

The graphics card is only HD 2400 though.

 

Wow, lots of good stuff coming in 2009! Looks like everyone's getting in on the all in one market. I'd like to see HP come out with something lower cost then the One and this, and yet still be stylish with the imprint and stuff. Much more stylish then the all in one thing they have now...

 

Ummm , maybe USB 3.0 will be 10x USB 2.0 in 2009 but will the external HD be 10x faster as well ?

2012 it is then

 

Yah , Your not gonna get a 500MBPS hard drive for a long time yet

Currently my 5400 120gb hard drive in my laptop gives out 35 mbps average , ive got another segate (5400 120gb) which im about to clone onto once i get the enclosure and that goes at 47 mbps... Thats no-where near the claimed usb 2.0 of 500MBPS

 

Hopefully by 2009, SSD hard drives will significantly lower in price. I'm doubting it'll be at today's 500 GB HDD prices of around $125, though.

Still, looking forward to 2009, seems like an exciting year for the world of laptops! Here's to NBR being in the forefront of laptop news and technology until then!

 

I cant remember who was saying manufacturers were struggling to increase the size of SSD's

 

yup new Dell here looks nice but the graphics card is a bad option

 

USB 3.0: Hurrah!
512GB SSD: An even bigger Hurrah!
OLPC Delay: Boo!
Dell XPS A2010: Nice looking, but not enough power.
New Epson Notebook: Epson makes notebooks?

 

so... how much is this 512 SSD gonna cost? The 32 gig one is almost 2000 dollars.

 

I'm waiting till 2009 till I buy a laptop too. By then my current Inspiron 9100 will be 6 years old, and I will be buying a new Nehalem notebook right before college.

 

I wonder what will happen to ESATA with USB 3.0 coming out. According to this chart, ESATA has a top raw bandwidth of 3000 Mbits/sec.

Now, USB 3.0 may have an "increase to over 10x of Hi-Speed USB which today is 480 Mbps", which would be 4800 Mbits/sec.

Also note that Intel was a huge advocate of USB 2.0, so I would expect them to put USB 3.0 in their chipsets in 2009. Intel was not a big supporter of Firewire (IEEE 1394), so that is why Firewire is not popular with Wintel PCs but is popular with Macs. I am not sure what Intel's stance with ESATA is, but I've noticed ESATA did not appear on a Dell desktop until the XPS 420, which was released only this week.

Given these facts, I would personally bet on USB 3.0 supplanting ESATA as the external drive bus of choice for Wintel. I have a Firewire 800 PCMCIA card for my Thinkpad notebook and was considering buying an ESATA expresscard to get better performance, but I will probably hold off that until I buy my next Thinkpad in 2009, which hopefully will have USB 3.0.

 

Perfect, now when I purchase a notebook for college in 2009 I'll have the latest and greatest.

 

^ Intel's Sandy Bridge processors will be out in 2010. No such thing as having the latest and greatest in the computer world.

 

eSATA is a direct extension of the SATA hard drive interface standard, so I highly doubt it will be replaced soon. Even with a 4.8gbps USB3.0 connection, if a drive tops out a 3.0gbps then there is really no point yet.

I'm really surprised though with the new USB standard. I think that is an unclocked serial connection (SATA is clocked I think), so getting data rates that high is quite incredible.

 

Drives don't support those speeds yet... but who knows two years from now...

 

By the time I actually upgrade, it's going to be quite a leap forward. I've still got 2 years left on this single core Pentium M 760 and 6800 ultra system. I have no idea where you people get the money to always have the latest and greatest out there. =P

I'm personally looking forward to USB 3.0 and any upcoming major advances in mobile technology.

I also personally think the OLPC project is starting to become a major sinking ship. They don't see it yet, but from the direction they've been going, it's starting to sound like they're jacking up margins abusively high, cutting costs rabidly, and looking for someone to purchase the project.

 

SSD 512GB??? YES!!!!!!! no more hdd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
USB 3.0
as soon as I have the money, my 160gb hdd is getting ripped out. and a 128GB SSD is going in.

 

Are all SSD drives 1.8 inch? Couldn't they make higher-capacity 2.5 inch ones? Though I suppose costs are already prohibitive. Perhaps I shouldn't extropolate this to 3.5 inch desktop drives.

Going to having to investigate Epson notebooks. I've always associated Epson with laser printers.

It'll be 2011 at least before I get a new notebook, so all this will be history by then. I can't afford to always have the latest and greatest .

 

Maybe, if it's SSD...