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Mac Mini Gen5 idea

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I got the idea from the ipod dock, its bacicly the ipod dock but where the line out is the power and the firewire out is everything else. One cable comes out of it and it splits into firewire, USB, DVI/VGA, head phones, line in, Eithernet, modem, and externaly SuperDrive. The hard drive will of corse be Flash memory, and it will be a fewyears until all the stuff ie logic board ect will be small enough. and its flat on the top no ipod plug.
 
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Yes that would work perfectly -- in my past life at Intel R+D - my design team ran thermal simulations and mechanical models to create bassically a split (or modular) system. In doing this you allow a dedicated space for high power (ie thermal) circuits like processor - graphics - memory ------ then all IO into the core is over a high speed serialiazed connection from the primary IO controller (plus you would need to pass power too)

Our simulations showed that we could handle up to 180w in the compute module with very low noise levels -- all components lined up for clean linear air flow. And the mock-ups were about mac-mini size --- this work was completed almost 3 yrs ago at Intel .......

Bottom line is the system/product folks saw a cost incease of $5-8 for the new cabling per unit - plus the man hours to create and spec and validate a new cable + connector

The marketing folks saw this as a problem as folks might keep their compute cores longer (ie fewer cpu sales) and just upgrage with newer IO boxes.

The bottom line of all of our work was ... you can have very high performance (wattage) in very small spaces if you allow for smooth linear air flow. In fact we designed prototypes as quiet as the mini ---- but 3" tall capable of cooling a G5 or P4 WITH the fans in the font !!!! Front to back air flow works as would side to side.

The 1" taller is critical - because the other key we found is the bigger the fan(s) you can use --- the slower you can spin them FOR THE SAME EQUIVILENT AIR FLOW compared to using smaller fans. Slower spin rate is of course quieter - but also a lower frequency sound wave that is less irratating. Also learned that smaller fans seem to produce a more irratating frequency range than larger fans in general.

Lets all wait and see what happens as computer companies come to realize there are really two kinds of users
-Those who want / need decent performance but want a minimal system footprint / presence
-Those who really need / want max performance and every pixel or audio note or simulation (finacial - medical - technical) capability

But frankly - I'm done fighting the "computer wars" ... did my time ... thought briefly along with some co-workers about forming our own PC start-up (small PC running BEOS) ... but its time to move on - but I'll always keep an eye on where things are going
 
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Benjamindaines
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Wow very info-packed post, but i didnt really understand it. So bacicly you are saying it would work?
 
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Yep pardon all the techno-marketing crap ---- once a total geek engineer always a total geek engineer :) :) :) :)

Yes it would work very well -- Hewlett Packard (the last remaining PC maker that does anything innovative) worked with us on this and may do it.

As we get better at making high speed serial buses --- systems like what you described will evolve.

CPU - Graphics - memory will always be fairly high wattage ----- IO is typically very low wattage. Makes sense to separate the 2 and optimize your cooling solution ---- IF you want a smaller system
 
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Benjamindaines
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PC_Puke said:
Yes it would work very well -- Hewlett Packard (the last remaining PC maker that does anything innovative) worked with us on this and may do it.

i hope apple does it first
 
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Your right though, HP is really the last innovator. And even then, they don't come near to what Apple does.
 
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Benjamindaines
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rs2sensen said:
Your right though, HP is really the last innovator. And even then, they don't come near to what Apple does.

very tru thers nothing that annoyes me more then a ignorant windows user that says apple copied microsoft :mad: come on people Bill Gates didnt even make DOS.
 
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very true. Microsoft copied Apple in my opinion. Although at the time, all of the companies out there were copying each other in one way or another. And it still happens today, look at Longhorn vs. Tiger.

I am proud to be an Apple owner and an HP owner. I really love both of my computers, though I like my PB better. HP is still an innovator, but not to a huge extent. I wish more companies out there would "take some chances." Right now there is just about nothing separating the major PC makers. Please, do something different. Shock me. Release a PC in a tiger stripped case or something, lol. I want something new! Although, Apple has done a great job. When I said the above, I really am thinking of the PC market.
 
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Benjamindaines
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apple does a good job of not making everythign the same. Like the G4 and G5 imac are completly different.
 
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Yeah, and Macs actually have some style to them. Few PCs do. I know I put my PB next to a Toshiba Laptop, and man, what a difference. Of course, mine was the 17" and the toshiba was a 15", but it was twice as thick, very plasticy looking, no cool features like the mac, little speakers...
 

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