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ASUS trots out AMD Geode-powered Eee PC netbook

by Tarinder Sandhu on 10 June 2010, 10:33

Tags: ASUSTeK (TPE:2357)

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Geode resurfaces

Just last month, AMD revamped its entire range of laptops CPUs in one fell swoop. The 17-chip launch was bereft of the usual fanfare associated with the heralding of new processor silicon, though.

One notable inclusion is the single-core V-series V105 chip, operating at 1.2GHz and featuring a 9W TDP. Perfect for a netbook, right? Acer seems to think so, as it shoehorns the V105 into the Aspire One 521.

ASUS, though, has a few other ideas on what a lower-power AMD-based netbook should be comprised of. One of the latest in a long line of Eee PCs is the PC 1201K, pictured below.

Geode

Outfitted with the usual 12.1in, 1,366x768px LED-backlit screen, up-to 320GB hard-drive, and weighing in at 1.46kg with a six-cell battery, it seems regular enough.

However, a closer examination of the specifications shows that it's powered by an odd combination of a low-power AMD Geode NX1750 CPU and SiS741GX chipset, backed up the 1GB of DDR1 (yes, one) memory.

The Geode chip development has gone the way of the dodo, as far as we know, with the V-series taking over for the netbook space, meaning ASUS' choice of components is rather baffling.

What do you think? Would you buy a Geode-powered netbook? Take a look at the full specs here.

HEXUS Forums :: 13 Comments

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Posted by scaryjim - Thu 10 Jun 2010 10:44
I'll buy it if it's less than £150. Though with the rest of the spec that seems unlikely… :rolleyes:

Gotta be a mistimed April Fool, surely?


EDIT: the spec sheets have just been pulled from the ASUS website by the look of it, but they seemed to be suggesting a 2hr battery life from a 6-cell battery. Got to be a mistake, surely…?

FURTHER EDIT: you can still find the 1201K by searching the asus website, but the through links take you to a path-error page…

FINAL EDIT? It appears the details are back up - so not a mistake or a joke, but I'm still struggling to see the point…
Posted by kingpotnoodle - Thu 10 Jun 2010 11:37
The Geode NX1750 was a cheekily re-branded ULV version of the Athlon XP-M.

I can't imagine that it'd outperform Atom (given that Athlon 64 at a similar clock speed is barely ahead) and had a TDP of 25W… that'd explain the 2 hour battery.

I think this has to be some sort of mistake by Asus, nobody would buy that!
Posted by amdavies - Thu 10 Jun 2010 12:32
ASUS actually had a EEE PC running Snapdragon that was pulled very quickly after being demoed.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/video-fanless-eee-pc-running-android-on-1ghz-snapdragon-oh-my/

The only thing I can think of, now that they're supposedly thinking about an AMD version, that would stop them producing the above is the lack of suitable OS. There are plenty of choices for ARM but none of them would really be consumer friendly right now so they may be waiting for Android to be suitable enough for netbooks and tablets.
Posted by aidanjt - Thu 10 Jun 2010 12:38
You know Linux has been running on ARM for a long long time, right?
Posted by kingpotnoodle - Thu 10 Jun 2010 13:14
amdavies
ASUS actually had a EEE PC running Snapdragon that was pulled very quickly after being demoed.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/01/video-fanless-eee-pc-running-android-on-1ghz-snapdragon-oh-my/

The only thing I can think of, now that they're supposedly thinking about an AMD version, that would stop them producing the above is the lack of suitable OS. There are plenty of choices for ARM but none of them would really be consumer friendly right now so they may be waiting for Android to be suitable enough for netbooks and tablets.

Ubuntu has an ARM port, and there is a new version of Win CE as demoed on the Asus Tablets recently… but that's a few months off.

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