[jack_st_]

I've got a mini 10 w/ GPS and it certainly seems like a nice machine. Not too impressed with the battery life at all, but this was the only machine that I could find w/o a fan.
I was wondering if anyone had any insights as to what the next revision of Mini 10 might include?
It is my understanding that the new Intel Pinetrail chips will be released shortly. Is Dell traditionally an early adopter, or would they be more likely to hold off for a bit?

I've found tons of sites that deal w/ upcoming Apple hardware and rumors, but haven't found anything similar that deals with Dell. Maybe I just overlooked them. Thanks for any clues.

[Jimmy James]

I think Intel is pretty regular about releasing chips early in 1Q, as you have mentioned. I think Dell will pretty much be with the pack in adopting, which if I remember correctly usually means blowing out a lot of product in late January-early February before late February introductions of new models.

Of course, they could just stick the new chips in the current models. I'm hoping that won't be the case because I'm looking to buy a current-gen netbook on the cheap early next year.

[holmes4]

The media are reporting that Intel will launch the "Pine Trail" Atom N4xx series in January. Indeed, expect new netbook models to follow closely.

[Xiphias]

Originally Posted by Jimmy James

I think Intel is pretty regular about releasing chips early in 1Q, as you have mentioned. I think Dell will pretty much be with the pack in adopting, which if I remember correctly usually means blowing out a lot of product in late January-early February before late February introductions of new models.

Of course, they could just stick the new chips in the current models. I'm hoping that won't be the case because I'm looking to buy a current-gen netbook on the cheap early next year.

It's gonna blow when they stick the new chips into the Dell Mini 10. They're gonna lose the GMA 500...so HD video and Direct 10.1x support...and replace it with the GMA 3150, which is a slightly faster GMA 950 (which is garbage).

So things that the GMA 950/3150 can't do which the GMA 500 can/potentially can:

- accelerated flash video
- accelerated Direct2D rendering of webpages (see IE 9/Firefox 3.7)
- 1080p support

This basically guarantees that the current Mini 10 has the potential to be faster than any revision with Intel's new Atoms at internet browsing and HD playback.

The power savings that the new Intel Atoms gain by moving the CPU, graphics and memory controller onto a single chip are also meaningless to the Mini 10, because the Z-Atom, GMA 500 and US15W chipset already operate at a reduced thermal envelope.

[rrfranczak3]

Originally Posted by Xiphias

It's gonna blow when they stick the new chips into the Dell Mini 10. They're gonna lose the GMA 500...so HD video and Direct 10.1x support...and replace it with the GMA 3150, which is a slightly faster GMA 950 (which is garbage).

So things that the GMA 950/3150 can't do which the GMA 500 can/potentially can:

- accelerated flash video
- accelerated Direct2D rendering of webpages (see IE 9/Firefox 3.7)
- 1080p support

This basically guarantees that the current Mini 10 has the potential to be faster than any revision with Intel's new Atoms at internet browsing and HD playback.

The power savings that the new Intel Atoms gain by moving the CPU, graphics and memory controller onto a single chip are also meaningless to the Mini 10, because the Z-Atom, GMA 500 and US15W chipset already operate at a reduced thermal envelope.

well like they (who are THEY?) always say....

NEW DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN BETTER

I will just stick to my Mini 10...I love it the way it is

[holmes4]

I would be quite astonished if the Pine Trail graphics were inferior to that of GMA950, which is a four year old design.

[Xiphias]

Originally Posted by holmes4

I would be quite astonished if the Pine Trail graphics were inferior to that of GMA950, which is a four year old design.

Um, it's not. It is, however, inferior to the GMA500.

[holmes4]

And you know this - how? All I can find is one Fudzilla article and a bunch of others referencing it. It may be true, but until the review sites get samples, we won't know.

The GMA500 is not particularly good either...

[Xiphias]

Originally Posted by holmes4

And you know this - how? All I can find is one Fudzilla article and a bunch of others referencing it. It may be true, but until the review sites get samples, we won't know.

The GMA500 is not particularly good either...

You're looking at it too simply. In terms of raw performance, sure, the GMA 3150 is a step up from the GMA950 and the 500. This is most obvious in benchmarks. However, like the GMA950 and unlike the GMA500, it doesn't seem like GMA3150 supports H.264 decode and DirectX 10. This means that it physically cannot support acceleration of HD video, and being DirectX 9 it probably would not be able to support Direct2D accelerated rendering of webpages.

Hence why currently, the Mini 10 (GMA500) can support HD video acceleration, but the Mini 10v (GMA950) cannot. The GMA 3150 is based off of the GMA 3100, an ancient DirectX 9 graphics solution that lacked hardware accelerated vertex shaders. I don't know how "modified" the GMA 3150 is, but if the transition from the GMA 3000 to the GMA 950 was any indication, the modifications should have a negative effect on performance, not a positive one (e.g. downclocking, etc.). Which supports the conclusion that the GMA 3150 would not be better than the GMA 3100, a card that already does not offer hardware acceleration in any way at all.

In contrast, though it most likely would perform worse than the GMA 3150 in benchmarks, the GMA 500 would be able to assist the Intel Atom CPU in a multitude of relevant, everyday tasks, such as rendering of webpages (in the future) or playing Blurays/Flash HD video (current). I know for a fact that playing 1080p Blurays or watching Youtube HD is absolutely impossible for the Atom+GMA950 - and this isn't gonna change with the new revision unless the GMA3150 can support H.264 decode.

Which it doesn't.

[berga.d]

A little correction... GMA500 is not natively dx10 compatible... Because it's powervr core is sgx535 and not sgx540. However it support perfectly in hardware dx9Ex (the latest dx9), and through "10on9" in Win7 is compatible with dx10.

I can bring you some BEAUTIFUL news!

1-Win7 driver development is in act, and they are working a lot, but they have started just this summer... They found tons of problem to fix in very build! Xp and Vista drivers are not developed anymore at this moment. (except iegd drivers)

2-They know of Flash 10.1 problem and they are working on fixing it in very little time. This is a BIG thing. =o) Buy gma500/moorestown(its next version) and not pinetrail netbooks!

3-They know about direct2d hw acceleration and the latest driver now support it. However it doesn't work firefox experimental d2d build yet... =(