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PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

Peak Computing: 2004?

What's on your mind?
General interest discussions, not necessarily related to depletion.

In the bigger picture, Peak Computing is:

Irrelevant -- no oil, no electricity, no computers.
5
No votes
Irrelevant -- I'm already off-grid, off-net, and only make a trip into town to use the library computer, an original PC running MS-DOS.
0
0%
Irrelevant -- I already have all the computing power I'll ever need.
11
No votes
One more nail in the coffin of civilization.
3
No votes
Indicative of the greater problem of systems based on limitless growth.
10
No votes
It ain't gonna happen -- don't worry, be happy!
8
No votes
 
Total votes : 37

Unread postby Trab » Mon 28 Feb 2005, 15:25:04

Saw a news article about AMD's new Personal Internet Communicator... a cheap, low-powered all-in-one PC that retails for around $200 or less.

While not groundbreaking in its performance or capabilities, it suits it's purpose, a cheap, reliable PC that allows people to get online when they couldn't otherwise afford to do so. The stat that caught my eye was that the PC pulls an average load of just 8W, and that's mostly for the hard drive. Considering that most new PC's come with a power supply in the 350-550W range, that's quite impressive. 8)

The current version only runs Windows CE, but a linux version is in the works. While it's not the machine of choice for some here that have been discussing higher-end uses and issues, if you're in a place where you'd be off-grid, or perhaps on a grid that isn't working too well, it's an interesting choice for keeping another lifeline going.

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Unread postby BabyPeanut » Mon 28 Feb 2005, 17:34:41

Not one person has said "dual core". This shows the readers are obsolete. You all flunk it.

Meanwhile this is the up-and-coming computer-of-the ("3rd world" *cough*) future
http://news.google.com/news?q=simputer
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Unread postby Trab » Mon 28 Feb 2005, 18:03:57

Very true... since we've apparently hit the wall in terms of CPU speed for the foreseeable future multiple cores will likely be the way things go over the next few years. And after that, we not not be able to afford a new PC anyway. :-)

The AMD box was interesting to me as it has enough horsepower to do typical tasks like websurfing & email while paying a miserly cost in terms of the juice it needs.
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