Patent Filing Reveals Nvidia May Build Tiny Computers

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keyanf

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If old Radio Shack ads are any indication, old bulky desktops were known as "little computers" back in the day.

If this is now a "little computer", I have to wonder what the term will refer to in a decade or two.
 
I could imagine having this thing plugged into an available hdmi slot on a typical monitor or television. With Wi-Fi capabilities and a usb port(s) for keyboard/mouse, or bluetooth capable for wireless keyboard/mouse, I could leave the typical desktop machine powered off and use this lil guy to surf the web and post on Tom's, for under a $100? That should be a worthwhile long-term power saving device. There's certainly plenty of other alternatives to achieve the same goals, but choice is always welcome. I wouldn't buy it but it could be useful to some people.
 

loomis86

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[citation][nom]keyanf[/nom]If old Radio Shack ads are any indication, old bulky desktops were known as "little computers" back in the day.If this is now a "little computer", I have to wonder what the term will refer to in a decade or two.[/citation]

in one decade there will be such incredible changes I don't think people realize what is coming and how soon it will be here. The very word "computer" may no longer have meaning ten years from now. The IBM "watson" computer will be ordinary tech in a desktop size by then and owned by private individuals. In two decades I'm thinking personal android assistants will be available. The technological singularity is expected to arrive in 2045 if current rate of technology acceleration continues.
 

amk-aka-Phantom

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[citation][nom]xX_PEMDAS_Xx[/nom]will work good as a terminal for a root server hope they can run linux.[/citation]

Forget it, your stupid Linux never had good hardware support and never will, since open source fools are stubborn and refuse to accept proprietary drivers easily. So unless nVidia will develop it for Linux from day 1 and support it (which is sooooo not likely!), expect a ton of issues. Linux users like them, it's why they don't need gaming - they play with their OS all the time instead.
 
This could be very neat if you go to client sites to provide support or give demos. You can travel light, no more laptop to carry... But, will this Tegra processor run PowerPoint or whatever software you want to run?


 

amk-aka-Phantom

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[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]I could imagine having this thing plugged into an available hdmi slot on a typical monitor or television. With Wi-Fi capabilities and a usb port(s) for keyboard/mouse, or bluetooth capable for wireless keyboard/mouse, I could leave the typical desktop machine powered off and use this lil guy to surf the web and post on Tom's, for under a $100? That should be a worthwhile long-term power saving device. There's certainly plenty of other alternatives to achieve the same goals, but choice is always welcome. I wouldn't buy it but it could be useful to some people.[/citation]

Got a netbook for all that already :D I'd buy this thing just for the hell of it if it'd be cheap - I think this is what nVidia is hoping for. Don't see any real use for it right now.
 

Zagen30

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[citation][nom]loomis86[/nom]in one decade there will be such incredible changes I don't think people realize what is coming and how soon it will be here. The very word "computer" may no longer have meaning ten years from now. The IBM "watson" computer will be ordinary tech in a desktop size by then and owned by private individuals. In two decades I'm thinking personal android assistants will be available. The technological singularity is expected to arrive in 2045 if current rate of technology acceleration continues.[/citation]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've been prognosticating for several decades that a lot of technology, such as robots, flying cars, cheap space travel, etc. were only X years away, and many of those things are still a long ways away. The big technological leaps tend to be ones few were predicting.
 

amk-aka-Phantom

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[citation][nom]Zagen30[/nom]Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've been prognosticating for several decades that a lot of technology, such as robots, flying cars, cheap space travel, etc. were only X years away, and many of those things are still a long ways away. The big technological leaps tend to be ones few were predicting.[/citation]

Thank you. So sick of this "ZOMG, in 10 years everything is gonna be SO different.."
 
[citation][nom]keyanf[/nom]If old Radio Shack ads are any indication, old bulky desktops were known as "little computers" back in the day. If this is now a "little computer", I have to wonder what the term will refer to in a decade or two.[/citation]

The Eniac, in 1946, could do something like 400 multiplications per second. It weighed 27 tons.

In the 90's supercomputers were getting close to 1 GFLOP. That's 2.5 million times better.

China had a computer performing at 2.5 Petaflops in 2010. That's another 2.5 million times better.

At this rate, I'd say the supercomputers of 2030 will be pretty good.


As for the computers you will buy for home... These days a GTX 560 claims 1075 GFLOPs. That's like the supercomputer of 20 years ago, but 1000 times faster and 1000 times smaller and many thousands of times cheaper. And that's the graphics card I did NOT buy after all, because I wanted something a little faster, LOL.

What will happen in another 20 years? At this rate, a mainstream card will be the size of a nickel, it will cost a nickel, and two or three of them in SLI will beat China's supercomputer of 2010.

 
[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]Got a netbook for all that already I'd buy this thing just for the hell of it if it'd be cheap - I think this is what nVidia is hoping for. Don't see any real use for it right now.[/citation]

Bah you missed the point of being able to browse the web on a 19-30" monitor at resolutions from 720p to 1080p, and type on a standard size keyboard. If I had a netbook, I wouldn't look to use it at home. :p
 

ikyung

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[citation][nom]Zagen30[/nom]Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've been prognosticating for several decades that a lot of technology, such as robots, flying cars, cheap space travel, etc. were only X years away, and many of those things are still a long ways away. The big technological leaps tend to be ones few were predicting.[/citation]
Well, one of the main reasons technology isn't evolving as fast as we thought it would is because there has been a bottleneck for the past 100 years. Which is energy. It isn't the fact we don't know how to build flying cars, laser guns, cheaper space travel. It is the fact electricity and fossil fuel is just too weak to handle such devices. Nuclear energy on the other hand is just too dangerous to be used by consumers. Guaranteed, the second there is a new, powerful, reliable, and safe power source, that technology will leap and move so fast, we won't be able to keep up.
 

Cazalan

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Marvell has been selling these for a while now. They're called Plug Computers. They start around $99.

http://www.marvell.com/solutions/plug-computers/

They essentially are cell phones without the LCD.
Granted a Tegra-3 or Tegra-4 would make for a MUCH faster one.
 
[citation][nom]ikyung[/nom]Well, one of the main reasons technology isn't evolving as fast as we thought it would is because there has been a bottleneck for the past 100 years. Which is energy. It isn't the fact we don't know how to build flying cars, laser guns, cheaper space travel. It is the fact electricity and fossil fuel is just too weak to handle such devices. Nuclear energy on the other hand is just too dangerous to be used by consumers. Guaranteed, the second there is a new, powerful, reliable, and safe power source, that technology will leap and move so fast, we won't be able to keep up.[/citation]

Yeah. We have the technology to develop and build devices that could be sent up into the ozone layer and repair it. It's financially unavailable, similar to many things being restricted by the power sources.

Anyway... it'd be nice to browse the web for under 50 watts total - power for: display, computer, interface devices like keyboard/mouse, modem, and router... Maybe someday... to the experts, how close are we realistically? :D

Maybe if I pump a bunch of hamsters full of growth hormones and get them to spin up an alternator... hmmm... Ok, I'm just going to stop here... lol
 

alidan

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[citation][nom]loomis86[/nom]in one decade there will be such incredible changes I don't think people realize what is coming and how soon it will be here. The very word "computer" may no longer have meaning ten years from now. The IBM "watson" computer will be ordinary tech in a desktop size by then and owned by private individuals. In two decades I'm thinking personal android assistants will be available. The technological singularity is expected to arrive in 2045 if current rate of technology acceleration continues.[/citation]

not exactly, i mean we came a long way by making things smaller and smaller but we are coming to a point where we cant make them smaller, and we have to use more efficient materials.

the day we switch over to grahpene, we will get 25-200 ghz off air cooling, but they wont be smaller than what we currently have.

we could have bio chips by than... but... ethical reasons that tech will be on the wayside from many MANY years.

basically what im saying is making them smaller is close to impossible, hell the way i see it, ssd tech, as it is right now, will only get to about 640gb for 100$, assuming that 7nm is close to the peak of how small it can go,
 
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