Monday 20 July 2009

Netbooks - Do you really need it?

2007 was the year where people started looking at Asus's Eee PC 701. It is cheap and affordable but it only comes with a screen size of 7". It runs on a strip down version of a full Linux distribution and it has only 1GB of memory. Back then, the keyboard on the Eee PC 701 was small and with a tiny track pad. However, it comes with bluetooth, 3x USB ports, a digital camera and also a 8GB SSD hard drive.


The problem with the Eee PC 701 is that one can't store much information in it. There has to be something to be done on the improvement of the so called 'netbooks'. Then comes the 900, 901 and the 1000 series of the Asus Eee PC. Companies like HP, Sony and Dell quickly picked up the potential of the netbook saga to make more money and came up with their ingenius products. From Dell, they have launched the Mini 9, followed by the Mini 10, then Mini 10v and the mighty Mini 12. Samsung also launched their own version of the netbooks with the Samsung NC10, NC110, NC120, NC310 and the NC20. HP also released their mininote netbook range but it was not really that popular. Sony just released their P series VAIO netbook with features a 8.9" screen.


For a typical netbook, you will find an Intel Atom N270 or the N280 CPU coupled with 1GB of memory and 160GB hard drive and comes completely with 3x USB, bluetooth and a digital camera. It will be lightweight so that it will be easier for buyers to carry it around. Screen size will be around 10" except for the Mini 12 (12.1") and the NC20 (12.1"). Recently, Acer came out with their own larger than 10" netbook called Acer 751h (11.6"). It uses an MID CPU ( Intel Atom Z520) with similar specifications of a typical netbook. Unfortunately, the said netbook was not well response from the public so Acer has to reduce its price. From what I have researched, the Acer 751h is rather slow as compared to a typical netbook which runs on the N270 or the N280 CPU. Intel Atom N series CPUs are single core with hyperthreading, similar to the Z series CPUS. It is different from VIA's U2250 Nano CPU which is only a single core CPU without hyperthreading.


However, there are many advantages of the VIA's Nano CPU. It features support of a 64bit OS and it has NX extension which you will not find it on a typical Intel Atom CPU. Having said that, the VIA Nano is slightly slower than a typical Atom during multitasking as it does not support hyperthreading. The winner of the netbook CPU war will be within Intel's grasp with their release of a second generation of Atom CPU which features a dual core CPU. At that time, not even the mighty AMD Neo can take the crown from Intel.


AMD has released their AMD Neo to compete with Intel's Atom. The specifications of the AMD Neo is similar to VIA's Nano but it is more power hungry. One good thing is that users will be able to benefit from using AMD chipset as it comes with their ATI HD graphics card. Not to worry though as Nvidia's Ion platform will also be featuring an Intel Atom CPU with their own Gforce 9400M graphics card. Certainly, the graphics boost from using an Integrated Intel GMA 500 will be significant. I just could not wait until the Nvidia Ion platform is released. A more recent addition to the netbook family will be the HP's DV2. It comes with a single core AMD Neo CPU with 512KB of L2 cache. It runs much faster as compared to the VIA's Nano U2250 but lose out to the Intel Atom N280 when it comes with the Nvidia 9400M graphics card. The HP DV2 is also very expensive so stick with the Samsung NC10 if you want a 10" netbook and the Samsung NC20 if you are looking for a 12.1" netbook.


Let's talk about the advantages of using a netbook. We know that a netbook is convenient as it is lightweight. However, users should not expect a netbook to perform on par with a typical laptop because a typical laptop will have double the L1 cache and L2 cache and running on dual core instead of hyperthreading (in the case of the Intel Atom). A typical Intel Atom N270 will see that they have 32KB of L1 cache and 512KB of L2 cache. It is being manufactured on a 45nm wafer and running on a maximum speed of 1.6Ghz. Power consumption for the Intel N270 is at 4W. Compare this to an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (3MB L2 cache, 1066mhz FSB, 25W (power consumption) and runs at 2.6Ghz).


One can't compare performance of a netbook to a typical laptop because the netbook is only used for simple execution of programmes while a typical laptop can handle multitasking way much better than a netbook with their enlarged L2 cache and also their speed. Don't ever expect peformance of a netbook to be on par with a laptop. It does not work that way. If you multitask a lot, forget about the netbook. Get yourself a laptop with dual core and more L2 cache. With Intel delaying the launch of their latest dualcore Atom for netbook to 2010, I think we should just adopt the wait and see for now. Forget about netbook.

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