Brian's Brain

This blog post references my article 'Double take: Reassessing x86 CPUs in embedded-system applications' in EDN's April 27, 2006 edition.

Fujitsu’s Lifebook-P1510D tablet PC measures 9.3x6.6x1.5 in. with the display lid closed and weighs 2.2 lbs with the standard three-cell battery installed. Its 8.9-in., wide-screen LCD delivers a native 1024x600-pixel resolution. Unlike the other two laptops in this survey, it lacks an integrated optical drive, in order to minimize size and weight.

Dell’s Inspiron 700m (now available as the Inspiron 710m, with slightly altered color scheme but, as far as I can tell, identical hardware specifications as the 700m) measures 11.7x8.5x1.5 in. and weighs 4.1 lbs with the standard four-cell battery installed. Its 12.1-in., wide-screen LCD delivers a native 1280x800-pixel resolution. It, like the Lifebook-P1510D, incorporates Intel’s second-generation Dothan Pentium M CPU, built on a 90-nm process, versus the first-generation Banias CPU’s 130-nm process, and therefore integrating 2 Mbytes of L2 cache versus Banias’ 1 Mbyte of L2. However, unlike the Lifebook-P1510D, it uses Intel’s first-generation Pentium M core-logic chip set.

Dell’s Latitude D820 measures 14.2x10.34x1.4 in. and weighs 6.1 lbs with the standard six-cell battery installed. Its 15.4-in., wide-screen LCD delivers a native 1920x1200-pixel resolution. I tested this preproduction system before its public unveiling, and, therefore, its beta BIOS may not reflect the characteristics of the final shipped product. Commenting on a power-management glitch that I experienced once with the unit, Dell Senior Systems Engineer Tony Salinas said on March 6th, “The hibernation hang is likely due to the BIOS. In our development process, ensuring proper hibernation is in the tail end of the process.” He also said the company should have the problem fixed in time for the unit’s introduction (which occurred on March 29^th). Dell intends its Latitude laptops for mainstream-business use; the Nvidia Quadro NVS 110M graphics-processing unit in the Latitude D820 is functionally comparable to the GeForce 7200 consumer graphics processor. The D820’s mobile professional workstation “spin” is the Precision M65, which employs a higher end Nvidia Quadro FX350 graphics subsystem.

As review, Table 1 of the main article also includes the specifications of Spirit and Opportunity, the two mini-ITX systems I built for my 2004 article series (named for Mars exploration rovers that, I'm amazed to report, are still operational on the Red Planet as I write these words!). I based Spirit on Via’s M10000 system board and Opportunity on Lippert’s Thunderbird board. I also included the anticipated specifications for MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter), which I will base on Via’s VT-310DP mini-ITX board.