Pixel Qi has begun showing off its new 7 inch display based on the same technology used in the company's low power 10.1 inch screen. Pixel Qi's displays can function both as full color LCD screens and as high contrast, grayscale displays which are viewable without a backlight by relying on ambient lighting — much like an E Ink display. The difference is that while E Ink screens have slow refresh rates, a Pixel Qi display can handle full motion video whether the screen is in color or grayscale mode. The only difference is whether the backlight is on or off.
Turning off the backlight not only makes a netbook, tablet, or other device with a Pixel Qi screen readable in direct sunlight — it also drastically reduces the amount of power used by the display — which is often one of the most power-hungry components of a computer.
The new, smaller display has the same 1024 x 600 pixel resolution as the 10 inch model. Pixel Qi has also improved the viewing angles — although they're still not great. With the backlight off, you can view the screen from pretty wide angles. But in full color mode, the colors start to wash out pretty quickly when you view the screen from the side, which is a bigger problem with tablets than netbooks.
Pixel Qi is also showing a new reference design for a controller that can automatically adjust the screen brightness to improve the battery life of devices with the company's displays with little to no user intervention.
The first consumer product expected to ship with Pixel Qi's 10 inch display is the Notion Ink Adam tablet, which is set to start shipping to customers next week. But Pixel Qi is finally starting to show some of the other products that will soon ship with its displays, including another tablet and two netbooks — all of which are set to launch in the first quarter of 2010.
Two of the most interesting products are a netbook from Genesi with an ARM-based processor and Linux-based operating system, which should get excellent battery life with the backlight turned off, and a Windows netbook from Clover Systems called the SunBook.
Pixel Qi has been showing off netbooks retrofitted with its screens for well over a year. But unlike those Lenovo computers, the SunBook is actually designed for the Pixel QI screen and even included a special Fn key for turning off the backlight with a keystroke.
The netbook has an Intel Atom N450 CPU, and Clover Systems says it gets between 8 and 12 hours of battery life and runs Windows 7 Starter. 3G and 4G wireless options will also be available.
Unfortunately, while the SunBook will be one of the first Windows 7 netbooks to ship with a Pixel Qi screen, it will come at a premium price. The company will charge $865 for the netbook.
That's likely because the company is buying low volumes of the displays. Pixel Qi founder Mary Lou Jepsen told me that Clover Systems actually started the SunBook project by purchasing some of the $275 DIY screen kits from the Maker Shed and Pixel Qi didn't even find out about the netbook until later. Companies like Notion Ink which purchase larger quantities will be able to negotiate much better pricing.
Jepsen says the company hasn't decided whether to offer its new 7 inch displays through the Maker Shed or not, but she'd like to make it possible for DIY enthusiasts to buy the new screens.
AMD has unveiled its new line of CPU and GPU products, with a heavy emphasis on low power chips for netbooks, ultraportable laptops, and low power desktops. Probably the most interesting new chips in AMD's lineup are the new Fusion chips which combine graphics and CPU functions onto a single chip. We've been hearing about these products for ages, but they're finally available starting this month. In fact, HP has already introduced one of the first notebooks to use an AMD Fusion chip, the HP Pavilion dm1z.
Two of the first Fusion chips are the AMD Ontario (C-Sereis) and Zacate (E-Series) chips. The Ontario chip has a total power draw of 9W, but manages to bundle low power "Bobcat" CPU core with AMD Radeon HD 6000M series graphics capable of handling 1080p HD video Playback, DirectX 11, and 3D graphics acceleration. Ontario chips will likely be found primarily in 10 inch netbook sized laptops and other low power computers priced at $400 or less.
The Zacate chip has a higher TDP of 18W, but features a higher performance dual core chipset while still providing long battery life. AMD says a computer should be able to get more than 10 hours of run time with a Zacate chip… although that's basically what you get while the computer is idling with the WiFi turned off. Expect somewhat more modest battery life under real world conditions, but don't expect the same 2-4 hours of run time we saw from AMD chips just a few years ago.
AMD is also launching a new line of discrete graphics cards based on the HD 6000 series. The bottom of the line version is the HD 6300M, which will still support HD video, DX11 and more, but it won't have all the bells and whistles available in higher end versions such as support for DisplayPort 1.2 technology or 3D Blu-Ray.
The new graphics cards will also work in conjunction with software designed to take care of hardware graphics acceleration. That includes Windows Media Player, Adobe Flash, and other video apps, but also apps such as Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox. By offloading some of the work to the GPU instead of the CPU, you'll be able to perform some tasks more quickly while using less CPU power, which will help with multitasking performance. There's also support for hardware acceleration in transcoding video.
One of the coolest things AMD showed me during a recent demo was how the new AMD Catalyst software supports real-time video enhancements. Say you're watching a YouTube video that's a bit fuzzy and features shaky camera work. If you've got a new AMD graphics card and the latest Catalyst software installed, not only will the video look sharper, but the software will actually do its best to reduce the shaky camera angles in real-time, showing you a more professional looking video.
While AMD"s Fusion chips have integrated graphics processing capabilities that are on-par with a discrete graphics chip, meaning there's no need (or ability) to switch between graphics cards, AMD is also highlighting the fast graphics switching capabilities for its discrete cards. Say you have an Intel or AMD CPU with integrated graphics and a higher performance AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics card, and you don't need the discrete card all the time. You can just turn it off without rebooting the computer.
I asked AMD whether there were plans to make the process automatic, the way that NVIDIA has done with its Optimus technology which detects which apps you're using and turns the high performance graphics card on or off as needed. While that's not currently possible with AMD"s latest chips, the company says it is on the roadmap.
While AMD was a bit late to enter the netbook and low cost ultraportable space, the company clearly hasn't decided to cede the market to Intel. Instead, the company is doing exactly what Intel hasn't done yet: producing low power chips that offer the kind of performance we've come to expect from a laptop, but for small computers priced in the $200 to $500 range.
While Intel has a vested interest in differentiating its low power Atom chips from pricier, higher performance chips which are much more profitable for the company, AMD has a market share of just about 12% to 14% in the laptop space, and is
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