Tim Almond

A computer running at 1/4 of current laptop power requirements? Low enough power to run on solar power?

A company in London has come up with a small (about the size of half a dozen CDs), low power, low noise PC - the Aleutia E1. It claims to use 8 watts, considerably less than most laptops, and with a small screen, 18w. It’s less than £200. It has a rollout keyboard.

So, how do they do it? Fundamentally, they reduce the number of moving parts and lower the processor to something very basic. It’s running a 200Mhz processor and has no hard drive (uses CF card instead).

Of course, this has a downside. You’re not going to run the likes of World of Warcraft on such a machine. In fact, you’re not going to run Microsoft Vista on this. They’re running a heavily stripped down version of Linux (Puppy Linux) pre-installed and I’m guessing that the likes of Xubuntu will run too.

But that’s not the point. There are plenty of people who don’t need either. I can think of plenty of users who have their PCs to connect to the net, run a world processor and not much more. For them, they get a PC they can use anywhere, or simply save on their electricity bill. The basic model would fit in something the size of a handbag.

It’s also another option for people in many countries where the electricity supply may not be too reliable who can gain from computing power to add to the likes of the OLPC and the Eee.

Tags: Linux //