“Jack PC” set to hit store shelves

Rob Updegrove (GHoosdum) It's a PC that's as small as a wall outlet. And it could be coming to a store near you very soon.

June 1, 2006 12:34 PM ET in News,

It’s a PC that’s as small as a wall outlet. And it could be coming to a store near you very soon.

Containing all the electronics needed to run as a low- to medium-power PC, the Jack PC, as its name suggests, will fit into a standard size wall socket. The entire PC sits on two layered circuitboards. It contains an AMD RISC processor to help reduce power consumption and heat output.

According to Jade Integration’s managing director, Andy MacLellan, low power was one of the big breakthroughs achieved with the Jack PC. “A regular PC will use 80 Watts or more of power, and this only uses 5 Watts. That makes a big difference to the cost of running it, as well as other things.”

Source: ZDnet

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12 Comments:

  1. madmat
    1 Jun '06, 1:04 pm

    I just wonder how well it runs HL2.

  2. Sledgehammer70
    1 Jun '06, 1:10 pm
    It runs Internet Explorer 6.0 to connect to Web-driven applications, and runs an "up to 500MHz" AMD RISC processor, which the company says is equivalent to a 1.2GHz x86. It can come with up to 64MB of flash memory and 128MB RAM.

    Analogue or digital monitors are supported, and the system can include support for dual-screen and 16:9 screens. It has four USB 2.0-compatible ports, 16-bit audio in/out and support for 24-bit (true colour), 1280x1024 graphics. The Jack PC will also support wireless connectivity.

    While the device itself consumes less power than a standard PC, users who want to run a range of applications will need to connect it to a server. This will raise the total power consumption.

    This is the part I like. I mean if they can make it a a bigger I can see full graphics support, and a bigger Processor. making smnall business computing much easier. just plug into the wall

  3. RWB
    1 Jun '06, 3:50 pm

    It would be neat if it fit on top of a wall outlet, and you plugged everything else in from there, of course then I'd worry about power surges.

  4. Thrax
    1 Jun '06, 3:59 pm

    That's actually really cool.

  5. Winga
    1 Jun '06, 4:30 pm

    I think it's really cool. A bit gimmicky, but cool.
    Imagine having one of those in each room. You turn round to your guest and say "'scuse me I just need to jack my keyboard and mouse into the wall here for a second, I'd like to send some e-mail

  6. shwaip
    1 Jun '06, 5:59 pm

    I wonder if the Jack PC will run Microsoft Bob...

  7. drasnor
    2 Jun '06, 10:22 am
    Quoting shwaip

    I wonder if the Jack PC will run Microsoft Bob...

    I bet it runs Windows CEMeNT.

    -drasnor

  8. 2 Jun '06, 6:46 pm

    I would put linux on it, if you want any kind of performance on it, not to mention linux is more configurable, its like a match made in have, linux and jack, you could even make a new distro called JackOs

  9. profdlp
    2 Jun '06, 8:27 pm
    Quoting Guest

    I would put linux on it, if you want any kind of performance on it, not to mention linux is more configurable, its like a match made in have, linux and jack, you could even make a new distro called JackOs

    I think that would be your only real option to begin with. I see the specs list 128MB of RAM and 64MB of Flash Memory, but where's the HD?

  10. airbornflght
    2 Jun '06, 9:58 pm

    That was mine, the os is probably stored on the flash memory, but I see no reason one of those one inch drives from a mp3 player couldnt be used. although, they are starting to use those flash based hard drives, so there is no reason they couldnt at least expand it to 5 gigs.

  11. rapture
    3 Jun '06, 8:07 am

    Now if they can swap 2 of those USB ports for ethernet I'd be interested. Could be a nice way to play your movie 'backups' around the home.

  12. airbornflght
    3 Jun '06, 11:30 am

    you could use an external usb ethernet adapter. not sure how well it would work.

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