No, it’s not a Mac Mini, explains Silent PC. It’s AOpen’s new Pentium-M based Mac Mini lookalike, codenamed “Pandora”.
Unveiled at Computex 2005, this tiny product takes advantage of the powerful formerly mobile Intel CPU into the desktop world.
A fully integrated system incorporating wireless LAN, the “Pandora” was brought to prototype form in just a month, according to Joseph Hsu, a Technical Manager at AOpen. It uses a single blower fan that turns on only when needed.
The aluminum casing was warm but the fan was not running when these photos were taken in the hot tradeshow room, reports Silent PC. Look for a Sept market release date.
AOpen manufactures PC and components as a subsidiary of the Taiwanese corporation Wistron, and is affiliated with the giant Acer group. Several small companies already offer tiny Windows PCs like the Mini ITX that are similar in size to the Mac mini, but they are relatively expensive, niche products.
“I don’t think the two — Mac mini and whatever Intel puts out — are really in the same market; that is, of course, unless Apple starts running OS X on x86 hardware,” said IDC analyst Roger Kay.
Via’s next-generation x86-compatible processor, the C7, is labeled “the world’s smallest, lowest power, and most secure native x86 processor.” It targets thin and light notebooks, mini-PCs, green clients, personal electronics, and high-density servers and appliances. The Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor will likely blow them all out of the water.
These tiny PCs might be great for community hotspots embedded with music downloads. So everyday is a SXSW Festival.
Tiny servers, access points and storage devices are the future. Today.
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