Ultra-cheap ultra-mobile laptop comparison matrix

[mogui]

Kaser doesn't show any such specs on their site, but I sent them an email.

[yvanleterrible]

I was surprised to see a flash drive so big so fast and so cheap! I guess you're one year ahead of us mogui.

Say! do you see a $200 flexible A4 colo(u)r eink device in that time zone of yours?

[Nightwing]

Originally Posted by mogui

Kaser doesn't show any such specs on their site, but I sent them an email.

Thank you... ^_^

I wondering since the batpack in the Asus is a 2 parallel 2 serial configured... Not sure how long it can run at 1/2 amp { max USB } draw.

Be nice if it can handle the newer SD HD modules... Just caught a 16GB one...

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Nightwing

Any specs on power requirements??? Max via USB is around 1/2 amp at 5 volts..

There are not very many 1.8" drive vendors. Tom's hardware has a recent review of the Toshiba 100 GB drive, and about a year ago they reviewed 30-40 GB drives from Hitachi and Toshiba. Power Draw (Max/Active/Idle/Stand-by) is about 1.8/1.1/0.4/0.07 W.

[Nightwing]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

There are not very many 1.8" drive vendors. Tom's hardware has a recent review of the Toshiba 100 GB drive, and about a year ago they reviewed 30-40 GB drives from Hitachi and Toshiba. Power Draw (Max/Active/Idle/Stand-by) is about 1.8/1.1/0.4/0.07 W.

Since they normaly run at 5v that about

I = P/E

MAX: 360ma
ACTIVE: 220ma
IDLE: 80ma
SB: 14ma

Thank you for the information! ^_^

[mogui]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

I was surprised to see a flash drive so big so fast and so cheap! I guess you're one year ahead of us mogui.

Say! do you see a $200 flexible A4 colo(u)r eink device in that time zone of yours?

Lest I be accused of having been gulled, I should qualify my purchase decision. I was wandering the floor of Fry's with cash in my pocket. A dangerous situation. I had intended to buy the largest thumb drive I could find. Thumb drive, USB key, flash drive and so on -- we call them a you pai in China, pronounced yo pie. It is easier to remember you pai than to have to choose from all the English synonyms.

I asked a clerk where the you pais were. Of course I used an appropriate English synonym. He led me to a dim section of the underlighted store. I was wishing for a flashlight. Preferably head-mounted. The 8 Gig you pais were $90. Right next to them were these Kaser Portable Vault drives. I made the unquestioning assumption that they too were flash devices. Since they were very light and compact and the smallest one was almost twice the capacity of the largest you pai for almost $30 less, well, it was an easy choice. In fact I bought two of them because one of the ladies in my household is a computer science major.

Now about the A4-sized eReader. Of course they are all over the place here but they only display upside down in Chinese. They are in every supermarket right next to the synonym rolls.

[mogui]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

There are not very many 1.8" drive vendors. Tom's hardware has a recent review of the Toshiba 100 GB drive, and about a year ago they reviewed 30-40 GB drives from Hitachi and Toshiba. Power Draw (Max/Active/Idle/Stand-by) is about 1.8/1.1/0.4/0.07 W.

I also asked Kaser in my email if the drives time out and spin down when not being accessed. This is an important consideration for those of us who wish to avoid torque pollution.

[Nightwing]

Originally Posted by mogui

I also asked Kaser in my email if the drives time out and spin down when not being accessed. This is an important consideration for those of us who wish to avoid torque pollution.

USB by def's has a shut down feature built in... Be interesting if it does have it.

[mogui]

The drive in the Kaser Portable Vault is a Toshiba MK1504GAL. From Toshiba's user manual:

INTRODUCTION – MK1504GAL (HDD1285)
General Features
• 1.8" sized drive
• 1 Platter
• 15 Gigabytes*
• 5mm High
• 15ms Average Seek Time
• ATA (2 - 5) Interface
• Ultra DMA 100
• 512KB Buffer
• Rotational speed of 4,200rpm
• MTTF 300,000 Hours

SPECIFICATIONS – MK1504GAL (HDD1285)
General
Model MK1504GAL (HDD1285)
Interface ATA-2/3/4/5
Functionality
Formatted Capacity 15.0GB*
Rotational Speed 4200rpm
Avg. Rotational Latency 7.14/ms
Spin-up Time 3.5sec (typical)
Buffer 512KB
Seek Time Average Maximum 15 26
Internal Transfer Rate 125.5 ~ 253.1 Mbits/sec (max)
Host Transfer Rate Ultra DMA mode PIO Mode 100Mbytes/sec 16.6Mbytes/sec
Interleave Factor 1:1
*Toshiba defines a megabyte (MB) as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte (GB) as 1,000,000,000 bytes.
Internal Drive Characteristics
Number of Disks 1
Number of Data Heads 2
Track Density (TPI) 3,039 (77.2k)
Logical Cylinders 16,383
Logical Heads 16
Logical Sectors/track 63
Bytes per Sector 512
Logical Blocks (LBA) 29,297,520
Reliability
Preventative maintenance None
Non-recoverable read errors 1 error per 1013 bits read
Electrical
Voltage 3.3V 5%
Power Consumption
Start 1.2W typ
Seek 1.4W typ
Read/Write 1.4W typ
Sleep 0.08W typ
Energy Consumption Efficiency 0.027W/GB avg
Shock
Operating 1,960m/s2 (200G)(2msec)
Non-Operating 9,800m/s2 (1000G)(1msec)
Physical
Height 0.2" (5.0mm)
Width 2.13" (54.0mm)
Depth 3.09" (78.5mm)
Weight 1.8oz (51g) typ

The drive is very close in size to a PCMCIA card. This model drive is used in the iPod.

[Nightwing]

Also use in a few other units...

Nice work! ^_^

[Snappy!]

Has anyone added Kohjinsha to the list yet? Seem to be a good choice.

[branko]

Originally Posted by Snappy!

Has anyone added Kohjinsha to the list yet? Seem to be a good choice.

1000 USD makes it cheap, but ultra-cheap?

[sea2stars]

Has anyone seen anything else mentioned about Microsoft SideShow devices?

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by sea2stars

Has anyone seen anything else mentioned about Microsoft SideShow devices?

There is an existing thread: More E Ink: Ricavision eReader for Vista is introduced.

[Nightwing]

I have cooked up a crew paper model of the 701... Its in Publisher format.. Very crude but really helps in making up your mind....

Would any one like it???

Could try to convert it over to 4 Jpeg's. It takes four 8.5 x 11 sheets to make it.