While projects like the Efika Laptop and the Portable Pegasos before it are innovative, they are not exactly your Dell equivalents.

Luggable, I think is the word IBM came up with for their original "not-so-portable" designs :D

At the end of the day both systems produced a "luggable" design which was bigger than a MicroATX case is in the first place (the portable Efika is actually larger than the ODW :)

In the end not a lot of people would buy these from a store. It's easy enough to take something ITX-sized (17cmx17cm) and make a laptop out of it - as long as the peripherals and components have been designed not to exceed maybe ~1cm in height (i.e. nothing above the line of a single ethernet connector). This is not true of ANY ITX board currently on the market, though, and would doubtlessly not be true of any board designed for an ITX desktop for the same reason (peripherals would be in odd places like at the sides..)

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Matt Sealey

Indeed, I've just been postponing for too long buying new hardware, waiting for Genesi to come out with a computer built around an MPC86xx chip to replace the 8 years old G4/466 that sits on my desk.

I did not want to do it, but next week I'll order a PowerStation from Fixstars/Terrasoft/IBM, despite the fact that I'm not a fan of the 970 (MP). It's a power hog buried in fans, but I really need a decently fast, and preferably native, PPC development system.

See above. RedTail is not a consumer device, it's a reference platform for development. We can't just throw it in a box and say, here you go here's a system you can run Linux on and get all the stuff you want. It's not been designed - or licensed - that way. Think of it as an educational exercise.

The reason the MPC8610 just got thrown onto the back burner is because the Netbook market moved way too fast. Now, bringing out a non-x86 'book would basically be a device meeting the status quo but nothing exciting. When it was just Asus and MSI, fine, but now it's Dell, Lenovo, Sony.. add 10 other companies here.

The i.MX515 is a game changer.

Once the ARM 'book is successful we can go back and look at the MPC8610 and see if it will fit into the market, but given the Atom moving to smaller processes, new technology appearing all the time, it seems like we're going to get left behind really fast (and the i.MX515 is really the THIRD ARM Netbook to be announced, so you realise we have to really run with this NOW).

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Matt Sealey

Though I understand this line of thought completely, you never would compete with these companies anyway. By definition, a ppc-based netbook belongs to a niche market on its own. It would never sell millions of units like the atom based Asus or Dell, etc. The users that would buy this would not be your joe average looking for a new netbook (well, some might, but you probably wouldn't find such a netbook in Walmart for example). Priced properly it would sell adequately to geeks, or power users, or people that want to try something different, or people who got bored of Windows, etc. Though not the millions Asus and the like are after, this kind of users exists and they are many, who knows, perhaps it would sell in the region of a few hundred thousands. In my eyes that would make it a successful product. And this is exactly the market segment that I feel is actually "starving" for some innovation in the market -which is not happening. MorphOS or Linux it doesn't really matter. People really want to try different things, but they can't get them easily.

An ARM-based netbook might or it might not be the right answer for these potential users, that will have to be seen. Otoh, the 8610 was just right even without 3D support. It *would* make a great netbook.

PS. I know you think so too and would really love one as well :-), and I know we don't essentially disagree, but having used the 8610 quite a bit, I felt I had to say this.

I know, I want one too, I'd buy one even considering that I usually get this stuff for "free" :)

But let's do the ARM thing first so we can get some real cash and excitement flowing. Some interesting things are going on with the ARM stuff that would make an MPC8610 Netbook even better (software side). Having a successful product (even if it's just a slightly tweaked Freescale design) plus all the infrastructure in place will make it an easier product to find investors and suppliers etc.

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Matt Sealey

same here, but i just got an amd x2. i will still patiently wait for the arm board and 6810 board. i am interested in both, a non x86 variety :)

Yes, it's the wa to go :-)

What's about a "CELLbook" :lol:

http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/itx-laptop/?p

Ewww... :)

As I wrote on mz.org already. Push the ARM thing forward quickly. It includes high risk, but also the possibility to really earn some serious cash.

I think 2009 will be Genesi's year of decision: going hop or top.

Of course, I hope (and think!!) the latter.

Now, I would never have done it this way. There are lots of possiblities for mounting disks and drives and suchlike, but the end result of this guy's design was a frightening mess. He machined the housing for it.. couldn't make himself some nice brackets and route cables? It's kind of odd to read.

You can definitely get something small and sleek (no higher than the Efika) out of a system like that. It needn't be more than 17cm deep (front of keyboard to back) and you can make up for that with width (place disks, drives etc. on the left or right side).

I also look at his PCI connectivity and .. deity strike him down. That flexible riser must be a foot long.. he could have mounted it like the Efika with an Adex riser (facing away) and still had plenty of room under the graphics card to place a disk! With a low-profile card you can use the little VGA dongle to connect your monitor internally, and that gives you the most awesome thing ever; DVI out on the side of a laptop! :]

Anyway. Nice try. There are better ways for sure. Still, though, it'd have to be 3cm tall.. I dunno if I'd so much go for an ITX laptop, but hooking it to the back of an LCD panel for an iMac/EeeTop solution? That is a SMART idea..

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Matt Sealey