[Leaplist] [Blog] Atom is for embedded, basic set-tops, UMPC, but not HTPC ...

[Richard F. Ostrow Jr.]

<quote who="Bryan J. Smith">
> In an effort to collect my thoughts, especially those related
> to what I'm working on (when not client proprietary and/or NDA),
> I've decided to "get serious" about blogging more again.
>
> Here's my most recent, given that I've now had more than just
> a few people complaining about "issues" with the Atom desktop
> boards that are coming out ...
>
> "Atom is for embedded, basic set-tops, UMPC, but not HTPC ..."
>   http://bjs-redhat.livejournal.com/1008.html

While I have not yet looked at the Atom for HTPC needs, I'm a bit
surprised that Intel would miss that market... I've put together a couple
of Via machines (A C3-2 and a C7 CPU), the first of which was a home
theatre PC roughly the size of a standard CD-ROM, the latter going into my
car (Will anyone *ever* make a touchscreen that I can live with?!).

The HTPC worked quite well - it recorded live DivX streams from television
over USB-2 via MythTV (provided you used a sufficiently old kernel - newer
kernels dropped support for this tuner (plextor using go7007 module))...
but it will *never* make a HD HTPC, there's quite simply not enough
horsepower in that thing.

I'll admit, I've certainly been entertaining some interest in the Atom
recently for either use-case I had above... but if they don't have the
ability to play back HD streams, they won't cover the HTPC market... and
they sound a bit too power-hungry for the car PC market (which is contrary
to what I've understood until reading your blog).

-- 
Life without passion is death in disguise


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