Intel lobs out new Core m3/m5 Compute Sticks, shouts 'Fetch!' Intel's lifted the lid on a refresh of its PC-in-your-pocket Compute Sticks, with new Atom and Skylake Core m-based models. At the top of the line, a Core m5-6Y57 vPro processor is matched with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of eMMC. The other Core variants have m3 processors and the same memory, one of them available with Windows 10 …
As is: the stick is bigger than an HDMI cable, so if it fits at all, it may block other HDMI ports. Behind the TV may get Wifi reception, but it is a bit far for bluetooth and useless for infrared. The USB port is pretty much restricted to a small, permanently attached memory stick or you end up with another cable tugging the device out of the HDMI port. The weight restrictions mean the undersized heat sink needs a fan.
The only practical way to use this thing is with an HDMI extension cable. If the CPU went in the power supply, all those problems get fixed at once. That just leaves justifying over double the price of a boxed, powered Pi with an SDHC card.
Well HDMI supports controlling devices over it. Not every TV has that functionality, but many now do have. So you usually don't need infrared or bluetooth if you want to use it as a "media PC". What's actually worse is that this device doesn't seem to have Ethernet so you cannot easily connect it to networks.
If they are aiming for media PC, then they need to compete on price with a Pi. I agree about the lack of ethernet. Things that run on batteries are allowed wifi. Anything chained to a power socket loses nothing and gains sufficient to get an ethernet connection.
To actually use this thing as a computer, it will need a keyboard and mouse. From what I have seen of CEC, it can barely send key presses from the TV's remote to a device made by a different manufacturer. One day, you might be able to buy IRDA mice/keyboards, a TV that forwards IRDA to HEC, a graphics card that presents HEC as a network interface to the OS, and configure the OS to look for a keyboard and mouse on a network interface. In real life, your choices are bluetooth, USB, or 'Keyboard not detected, press F1 to continue' + 'Mouse not detected, click here to change'.
Does anyone have a use case that requires a bigger CPU than a Pi controlled via a TV remote control?
Yes, I'm thinking of making a smart photo frame using a spare monitor and some cheap processor. I'll want to be able to rip CDs with it as well as download photos from the various cameras (phones) we have. Not sure a PI will have enough grunt to run cdparanoia and replaygain as well as do a nice photo screensaver. Wifi will be OK for the data speed as I'm not planning on video.
Lack of ethernet is a huge oversight IMHO, whilst yes I can stream media etc around my home, so can my wife and my kids. It's get crowded and short of a divorce there's only so many times I can fiddle things to "make it break" for them so I can see the latest Jessica Jones in peace..
"Lack of ethernet is a huge oversight IMHO"
One big problem all these small devices have is that an RJ45socket is very large in comparison and often requires an increase in the devices thickness so massively increasing the volume.
Intel have muscle to create a new smaller ethernet connector standard. I do hope they do.
Did you know that in many modern devices, the RJ45 connector isn't just a connector? It also includes components (inductors?) for RFI filtering and ESD protection and such. These components would have to be *somewhere* even if they're not in the connector itself. So there may be a limit to how much smaller it could sensibly be. And there's also a practical size limit associated with the size of the patch cables and such.
Anyone know if micro-HDMI-sized LAN connectors are anything like possible?
I know that some RJ45 sockets have integrated magnetics like on the Raspberry Pi, on most PCB's I've seen with an RJ45 separate magnetics can clearly be seen on the PCB next to the socket.
Smaller possible? Nearly all the volume in a plug and socket are plastic with electronic purpose.
Ummmm.. That's what WiFi is for, n'est ce pas?
I find the large earthed steel chassis of my TV rather effective at attenuating the household wifi signal. That will not be true for all, but it will be true for many given the common living room corner placement of TVs.
There's workarounds, but (for what it is) this is a premium product, why should users be messing around with power cables, HDMI extenders and the like so that the dongle can then hang inelegantly at the side or below the screen?
Looks like a solution searching for a problem. There's a lot of those about these days.
Yes, but Wifi is way slower than a pice of CAT5 cable.
However, its the people moaning about the moulded HDMI plug thats making my shit itch. Just buy a cable from ebay for 99p inc postage you tight moaning bastards. It can then be placed where IR. BT, WIFI etc are then all in easy "reach".
> Why two boxes?
Because one box would require Intel to get electrical safety certification for a mains powered device in all countries they intend to sell into. And then repeat the process whenever they upgrade the processor, or add memory etc for the next model. A separate power supply means they can off-load the mains certification process to the component supplier.
Convenient for Intel, inconvenient for you and me. Just as using a molded HDMI plug is convenient for Intel, inconvenient for you and me. Repeat ad infinitum.
"I got a smart TV"
"what would be the point of getting one of these?"
Depends on the definition of "smart TV".
Maybe you should come back and ask again in a year or three's time when your smart TV supplier decides they no longer want to support some function which is important to you (e.g. Youtube recently vanishing from a variety of not very old and formerly quite respectable smart TVs).
Obviously the Intel sticks aren't what you'd buy instead, for reasons already noted. But who wants a smart TV at a $200 premium each time, complete with built in obsolence with months, when you can replace the "smart" bits with a $100 stick that will last as long as you want. Which is probably why decent "dumb" TVs were getting hard to find last time I looked.
But who wants a smart TV at a $200 premium each time, complete with built in obsolence with months, when you can replace the "smart" bits with a $100 stick that will last as long as you want.
This is why Sat-Navs should have a standard ISO size and new cars should come with a slot that they can plug into.
Think about it a bit more, the whole dash based in car entertaintment system should be pluggable.
Like they used to be.
But who wants a smart TV at a $200 premium each time [...] decent "dumb" TVs were getting hard to find last time I looked
That is precisely the point. At sizes over about 26" it's near impossible to find a TV which isn't "smart" in some way, with all the future support implications that has. After all, my last TV was 19 years old when it finally died. If I don't get 10 years out of this one I will be very disappointed, but I'd be extremely surprised if the thing gets a firmware update beyond 18 or 24 months.
In some ways I'd have preferred to buy a computer monitor - I have external boxes for everything - but they get stupidly expensive (or, indeed, impossible to find) beyond 32" or so and aren't always equipped with HDCP, which could be a problem (and are never equipped with passive 3D, which would definitely be a problem now that the children have a small collection of 3D films).
I would much rather buy a (say) £500 TV with a fantastic picture and absolutely no smart features at all than a £500 TV where money that could have been spent on the panel has instead been spent on smart features I'll probably never use. Likewise, at the moment, and at "normal" sizes I'd rather have the best 1920x1080 panel possible than a mediocre "4k" panel.
Me, although I've just bought a TV, I didn't spend all my budget and the rest is going into a savings account so that in 3 - 5 years time I can ditch this LCD unit for OLED. At the moment OLED is just too expensive (£1,500 is about the cheapest), too large (nothing smaller than 55") and too "flashy" (only one model available that isn't curved!) but the picture on OLED can blow even the best LCDs out of the water when set up properly. Then again, the same could have been said of plasma screens and you can't buy a plasma now for love nor money, so obviously in marketing terms picture quality isn't even close to being a prime concern.
Sorry, that was rather OT. No, I can't see a point for these sticks either, but mainly because the form factor is stupid. I work with HDMI a reasonable amount and even with normal-size plugs and cables, it's a precarious connection. Dangling these things out of the port - assuming you can actually fit them into the back of your TV or monitor(*) or HDMI switch(**) - is a recipe for loose connections very quickly methinks, especially if you have anything additional plugged into the USB ports.
M.
(*)I dunno about you, but all the computer monitors I use at the moment have down-facing ports and when they are stand-mounted there just wouldn't be enough height to get one of these sticks in
(**)all the HDMI switches I have come across, including the ones built-in to devices such as AV amplifiers, have the sockets so close together that even the fatter "normal" plugs are a bit of a squeeze
I see a use for these Windows sticks as always-on family kiosk PC things. Or thin clients for connecting to Citrix Receiver. But this is far too expensive.
I've had a Zotac Zbox Pico for a year or so which sits in the study if any of my users need to do a bit of browsing/cat videos/word processing/skypeing etc. And at £150 that was much more reasonable and has decent enough specs for the job. Zotac have just released a bunch of updated models as well so might be worth a look... http://liliputing.com/2016/01/zotac-launches-mini-pcs-with-high-performance-graphics-up-to-6-displays.html
This is too expensive for media playback as well. I have local media handled by a Pi running OpenElec, streaming and on-demand using an Android TV box (a Minix something, supports Sky Go output over HDMI).
"so you charge them without having to disconnect keyboard or mouse".
You don't "charge" it at all, it has no battery. It may be USB powered like the first version. (Intel planned to allow gen2 devices to power from the HDMI port if the HDMI port supports this, I don't know if this made it to production.) In terms of blocking HDMI ports, the first version can with a short HDMI extension cable.
Note: I tried the first gen one, but then a windows update bricked it. Re-installing windows 10 resulted in it working, then automatically updating itself, then becoming bricked again. There is a known flaw with the custom chipset drivers that intel don't know how to fix. Needless to say I returned it.
I hope they have sorted the wifi issues out, I have the original unit bundled with Windows 8, and while good,the wifi suffers from horrific 3-4 Kbps transfer speeds when the Bluetooth is on and a snails pace 1-1.5 MBps when Bluetooth is disabled. Forums are plagued by people with the same issue. Does the same on Linux as on Windows with multiple wifi routers.
Using a usb Ethernet adapter makes the whole thing clunky for using with kodi.
These have the CPU and the power supply in a single box, and are placed below the TV so the WIFI works. They do lack keyboard and mouse connectivity.
The development environments and communities for these 'media PCs' are both fully fledged and free, plus you stand some chance of recouping your outlay if you make a decent product.
What are Intel trying to do with these units? Are they intended to be eMail handlers and Word Processing gadgetry for Joyce in the front office?
I agree to the previous comment - a solution without a problem to solve.
I was thinking of using one to turn my laptop into a dumb terminal, hoping that the OS can't be upgraded. Then I could override the laptop OS with a second OS.
The comment above that Windows not only updates, but also that the upgrades stop normal function counters this dream - Press rethink.
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