Seven-Hour Battery Life

The N230 weighs just over 2 pounds and the battery life, according to the manufacturer, is seven hours on this 10.1-inch netbook, which sounded like a lot a few years ago. Nowadays it’s about average. The fact that it starts about ten times as fast as the average laptop is however really interesting, and it looks like Samsung will offer the same feature on its older models, the N150, N210 and N220.

Other than the quick-boot feature, the specifications are instantly recognizable: an Intel Atom N450 processor, Windows 7 Starter, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, and a 1024×600 LED-backlit screen (matte).

Samsung N230 – Best Prices
		$379.99

Other features include 1GB of memory, 250 GB hard drive, Intel GMA 3150, Wireless LAN 802.11bgn, and Bluetooth. A 3G modem will also be available as an option. Instead of groundbreaking new hardware, the Korean manufacturer focuses on long battery life. The new laptop comes with two different battery options: one 32 Wh and one 66 Wh. These will provide 7 or 13.8 hours of operating time respectively. The Samsung N230 will be out in July.

The new processors can use up to four gigabytes of DDR3 memory running at 800MHz, but also older DDR2 memory at 667 or 800 megahertz, so it is easy to improve on existing machines. Heat development remains at the same levels as before: a mere 10 watts for the single-core D425 and 13 watts for the dual-core D525. Higher clock speeds and faster memory ensures better overall performances of the netbook computers based on them.

Disable file access time updates to reduce writes

When a file is accessed, many file systems update the “last accessed time”. This update generates additional I/O for all file reads, and has little benefit. So, it’s probably a good idea to disable these updates. To disable file access time updates, you’ll need to edit the “/etc/fstab” file, which tells the system what file systems to use and how to use them. Since screwing up “fstab” can seriously mess up your system, I recommend backing the file up, and having a boot able Linux USB drive waiting will make it easier to fix the worse screw-ups.

To edit “fstab”, you’ll need to launch a text editor with root privileges. One easy way to do that is to open a run dialog via Alt+F2, then execute “gksudo gedit /etc/fstab”. Enter your password when prompted. You’ll see a text file with several lines, each with several white space separated fields. The first line describes the format of each line. The first line starts with a “#” to indicate that it’s a comment.

Each non-comment line describes a file system. The default Dell Ubuntu install, for example, only uses a single partition. The line describing that single partition has a second field (mount point) of “/”. The fourth field is a comma-separated list of mount options. Add “noatime” to the list of mount options.

Code:

/dev/sda2 / ext3 defaults,noatime 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

(The amount of white space between fields doesn’t matter.)

Reboot or run “sudo mount -o remount /” in a terminal to see the results of your change.

Move temporary files to a RAM disk to avoid unnecessary SSD I/O.

Create a RAM disk and set it to be mounted at “/tmp” by adding the following line to “/etc/fstab”.

Code:

tmpfs /tmp tmpfs mode=1777

When you reboot, a dynamically-sized RAM disk will be created with a maximum size of 1/2 your total RAM amount. It will be mounted at “/tmp”.

Some programs, like Firefox, will still need a setting changed to use the RAM disk as temporary file storage. In Firefox, enter “about:config” in the address bar, and add the preference “browser.cache.disk.parent_directory” with the value “/tmp”. Or disable Firefox’s disk cache entirely, and only rely on its own memory cache. Be aware that files under “/tmp” will be completely lost on reboot, power down, or power loss.

Change the I/O scheduler to one more suited for a SSD’s quick seeks

The I/O scheduler manages I/O requests. The default I/O scheduler in Linux is CFQ, the Completely Fair Scheduler. However, it’s designed to maximize performance on conventional hard drives, not solid state drives.
Based on what I’ve read, the dumb “noop” scheduler or the “deadline” scheduler may offer improved performance on SSDs.
Add the following line to “/etc/rc.local” before “exit 0″ to enable the “noop” scheduler on the internal SSD.
Code:

echo noop > /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

Add the following lines instead to use the “deadline” scheduler.

Code:

echo deadline > /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler
echo 1 > /sys/block/sda/queue/iosched/fifo_batch

Adjusting the “fifo_batch” value for the “deadline” scheduler is another tweak which I’ve read about. A higher value should reduce seeks, but also increase latency. SSDs don’t need to worry about excessive seeks, so we can set the value low. I’m using the “deadline” scheduler myself. Because when I had the “noop” scheduler enabled on an SD card with my music, a large file copy was able to interrupt my music playback for several seconds.

Unfortunately, my technique sets the I/O scheduler late in the boot process. So, booting will still use the default CFQ scheduler. You can override the default by setting options in GRUB’s config file, but overall I prefer my solution.

Other than some new hardware, the specifications for the new mini laptop look look similar to most modern netbooks, i.e., with a 10.1-inch screen that displays 1024×600 pixels. On the inside it has been upgraded to Intel’s latest platform, including an Atom N455 running at 1.66 GHz, 1GB of DDR3 memory, a 250 GB hard drive, and GMA 3150 integrated graphics.

It will be available soon with either a 3-cell or 6-cell battery and weighs around 2.5 pounds depending on which battery you choose.

The specifications:

Atom N455 is said to be set at 1.66 GHz clock speed and should be ready for DDR3 memory. The processor will also have a big brother in the form of N475, whose clock frequency is 1.83 gigahertz.

The machine is based on an AMD Athlon II Neo K325 processor (dual-core, 1.3GHz) combined with a 512MB dedicated graphics card – probably from ATI. Furthermore, it has 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive and Windows 7 Home Premium. Wind U250 is equipped with a 12-inch display and has a power consumption of 10.6 watts when idle.

It thus appears that you get a fairly powerful notebook for the size. MSI Wind U250 should have a suggested retail price that is slightly higher than the average netbook, but we’ll have to wait for the official launch to get anything specific on that.

Source: liliputing.com

A supposedly leaked document from HP has revealed that the huge laptop manufacturer may very well be planning an new 11.6-inch netbook featuring the Nvidia ION, which consists of an Intel Atom processor coupled with the integrated 9400M graphics core, also found in the latest aluminum MacBook lineup.

Thus far we haven’t seen much of the ION after Nvidia’s presentation at CES last winter. Only a 12-inch Lenovo S12 netbook and the Samsung N510 have been unveiled, and both of them are still hard to come by.

The HP Mini 311c, as the netbook is apparently called, will come with all the standard netbook components including an Atom N270 at 1.6GHz, 160GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. Not much to write home about, unless you include the ION LE – a slightly downclocked Nvidia chip for netbooks (that should still provide enough horsepower to kick Intel’s GMA950 out of the ring for good.)

The current Mini 110

It is slightly larger than the average netbook with an 11-inch screen – probably with the higher 1366×768 resolution to take advantage of the added graphics power – and weigh in at a little over three pounds.

Moreover – again, these are still just rumors – the new Mini 311c is expected to ship shortly after, or coinciding with the launch of Windows 7 and would be sold with the downgraded Windows 7 Starter Edition.

In spite of these potential setbacks, i.e., the down-clocked ION  and the less-than-full featured Windows 7 I could definitely go for one of these babies, especially since all HP netbooks (so far) ship with an excellent keyboard and a very eye-pleasing design. More news on this will be posted as soon the story is confirmed or updated.

Nokia has been struggling with its cell-phone business for a while now. While still the leader, Nokia continues to lose market share to newcomers like Apple’s iPhone and others. Maybe it’s for that reason that the company is trying to show some versatility by releasing a mini laptop, or maybe the Finnish phone giant just wants a share of the revenue generated by these popular little gadgets.

Anyhow, the Nokia Booklet 3G certainly looks like a “premium” netbook, with integrated 3G wireless broadband, GPS, HDMI, and according to Nokia – HD capable video – which indicates that the netbook won’t be using the regular Intel GMA graphics but something more powerful. Likely something from ATI or Nvidia, perhaps the elusive Nvidia ION that has been struggling to get a piece of the market lately.

There’s also mention of an impressive 12-hour battery life that should be a strong selling point even if it’s exaggerated (which it usually is). There’s no word on the price tag yet, but considering the specs it will almost certainly be more expensive than the average netbook. The built-in 3G modem, on the other hand, indicates a possibility that it could be subsidized if Nokia strikes a deal with one of the networks.

(Source: pcpro.co.uk) Here’s the official teaser from Nokia: