Shuttle to Standardize Notebook Mobos, Manufacture OEM Laptops

[dconnors]

Others have tried and failed, but Shuttle is giving laptop motherboard standardization another shot. Oh, and they're going to manufacture laptops, too.

Shuttle to Standardize Notebook Mobos, Manufacture OEM Laptops : Read more

 

[FrozenGpu]

This is very good news!

 

[terr281]

It would be a very good thing for the consumer if the concept catches on, thus allowing people to actually build their own laptops. (To the point that, many years down the road, we could finally get rid of consumer desktops (ATX specification) and downsize to laptops as the most common machine.

With the above said, I seriously doubt it will occur. Why? If the consumer has the option of simply replacing the daughter card/cards, then the OEM (HP, Dell, etc.) loses out on the other overpriced hardware. (Screen, HD, etc.)

Much like Lucid's Hydra Tech for graphic's cards (yesterday), we can hope it takes off...

 

[anonymouse]

Hopefully this will catch on and help bridge the notebook vs desktop price per performance gap.

 

[theholylancer]

this would be good if they kept some back-ward compati things like say MXM for gfx or something that would allow a faster adaption.

 

[anamaniac]

Me like!
Drop a few hundred on a professionally manufactured magnesium alloy shell.
have a standard 15" screen with standard size battery, single 2.5" HDD slot, standard DVD slot etc.
Need a new screen? Upgrade your 1366x768 15" LCD to a 4D 5464x3072 multitouch OLED.
Need some new storage? Upgrade your 2.5" 250GB HDD to a 2.5" 12TB SDD.
Need a new DVD drive? Upgrade your DVD drive to a BluRay x52 burner.
Need a new battery? Go from your 4 cell lithium to your 12 cell plutonium battery.
Need a new GPU? Replace your 1GB 4670m with a 8GB 7870m.
Upgrade your 300Mb/s wireless N to 10Gb/s Wireless Z
Finally, want to replace the shell? Keep all other components, but replace that old, heavy, and weak magnesium shell with a 5Cr-Mo-V shell.

One can wish, can't they?
=D

 

[maniac5999]

maybe this means I can finally get decent graphics in a 12" chassis (and NO, not Ion, unless someone will actually pair it with a CULV processor.

 

[azgard]

This would actually be a lot easier then these OEM's make it out to be, creating a standardized format is important, but an additional aspect that would need to be added to this is that buying a shell would need to have thermal rating's and power ratings for upgrade locations and components, something you don't see in desktops because generally...it just doesn't matter.

 

[zachary k]

a big step in the right direction, can't wait for cases and monitors, graphics cards!!!!

 

[1st duke of marlborough]

If consumers want it bad enough, it will catch on. After all, in capitalist societies, the consumer is king! I doubt there will be enough of a push right now to get this going though..

 

[Guest]

Nice idea and good luck to them but I think they'll struggle to make this catch on, unless it forms a new 'category' or market segment for notebooks/laptops. Look at the existing efforts of each manufacturer to differentiate their products by offering different sizes, getting ever thinner etc. They already have a lot of engineering constraints on how to pack in all those features, but having to follow a standard layout in a tight space will probably reduce the avenues available for innovation and added value. The embedded industry also has a love/hate relationship with daughter cards: the interconnect is another source of possible unreliability and requires a new standard interface to be defined; the total NRE cost of designing the mainboard and the daughterboards separately whilst having to adhere to a strict standard for the internal interface to ensure interoperability will be higher than a single board solution where you are free to optimise the signal routing without having to consider the location of the interconnect. But maybe at the lower end of the market with slightly bigger, fatter laptop shells they could open a new market segment for high volume standard component modules for self-build systems. I don't think Dell or Apple will get into this.

 

[Platypus]

Wonderful concept. I hope it catches on and changes the laptop world as we know it. To support this idea, I will look at Shuttle first when I go to buy my next laptop. If they have the goods, I'll jump in with both feet.

 

[arrghushakaboorga]

I like this very much. I've always built my own desktops and have been waiting for the day I could have a lot of options for working on lappys.

 

[Regulas]

This would be great news for the Linux community. Get a laptop with paying the MS Tax. Now flame me MS trolls who live on this site.

 

[Regulas]

I retract my statement, these are for OEM Manufactures who will still stuff MS and bloatware onto the finished product.

 

[cjy111]

Thermal, Mechanism, Acoustic, Power consumption.....

If they can assure these factors' compatibility, the plan might work in DIY market.

On the other hand, the OEM market will be a different story. Can anyone built an Apple Air with standardize upgradeable modules?

 

[cjy111]

Thermal, Mechanism, Acoustic, Power consumption.....

If they can assure these factors' compatibility, the plan might work in DIY market.

On the other hand, the OEM market will be a different story. Can anyone built an Apple Air with standardize

 

[Gin Fushicho]

OH MY GOD! I can't wait , I'm already as gitty as a school girl! =D

 

[nawat]

I'd love to see this out in the mainstream. It's a very good idea. However, I don't know how they will handle big laptop companies. Because if they see this as a threat, they would crush this new technology into pieces.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

DIY laptops are nothing new. Components have been available for quite some time. We had a couple of threads about it in the THG forums.

 

[acecombat]

But can it play ....
[citation][nom]Toms[/nom]Need a new video card so you can play Crysis 2? No soldering, no new laptop, no problem.[/citation]
Looks like it will

 

[Guest]

Ultimately this standardization will make it cheaper for the laptop manufaturers as well. They will be able to have second and third sources for all parts and easly swap to the one that is least expensive at the time (or less problematic). So, for that reason alone I think it will catch on.

 

[lowguppy]

Finally, this is something laptops needed years ago. Customization has been a big reason I've never purchased a laptop.

 

[Guest]

it didn't catch on 15 years ago, even less chance for this nowadays with all the mac imbecilles dictating market demand. ur average user barely understands the software side, hardwarewise he's clueless.