The Fiery Source » Desktops

Commodore 64 is back, with the same ol’ look but better

admin — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:38:02 +0000

Anyone remember the Commodore 64 computer? Yes indeed we do, it was the machine of it’s time. Well, it’s back but only better. The new Commodore 64 computer, first released in 1982, looks the same on the outside, but whats under the hood is a different animal. It’s still a computer sitting beneath a big keyboard — mouse and monitor aren’t included.

Don’t let that retro look fool you, it’s a new up-to-date machine with modern features even some of today’s computers to include Apple haven’t caught up with, such as HDMI outputs to connect to a HDTV and the option of a combination Blu-Ray and DVD player.

“It looks just like the original Commodore 64, with even the old-style keyboard,” said Barry Altman, chief executive of Commodore USA, LLC, the company making the new all-in-one PCs. “In fact, that keyboard was the biggest accomplishment of all, so far. The keys look like a piece of clay that you pushed a marble into — so it fits your fingertip.”

Whats the price for this new Commodore 64 basic model? Surprisely the price is the same as it was for the base unit in 1982 — $595. The new and improved Commodore 64 went on sale on the company’s website Tuesday for it’d debue and sold out within 24 hours.

“We expected our audience to be the nostalgia crowd and that’s true, a lot of people buying them owned an original Commodore 64 back in the ’80s, like me,” he said. “But we’re also finding that there are young kids who are geek geniuses who have iPhones and iPads and things like that and they’re looking at this thing and they’re into it. They’ve actually been a big part of our customer base so far too. It’s been a surprise.”

The company is hosting a second sale and is going on as we write this, but won’t be shiping out until about May or June.

“We’re having a hard-time keeping our online store up, because the servers are getting overloaded from the amount of traffic,” Altman said. “That’s been a bit of a surprise, too.”

“Almost 30 years ago, we were filing our paperwork and even payroll manually — we couldn’t afford the expensive IBM machines at the time,” Altman said. “And someone showed us a Commodore and it worked incredibly well to do what we needed to do and we used it for about five or six years and then we upgraded like everyone else, but I’ve always had a love in my heart for that product.”

“It’s a good basic computer for work, for email, for multimedia use, for even basic gaming,” Altman said. “It’s more like a Mac Mini than a little netbook.”

The new Commodore 64 has a dual-core Intel Atom 1.8GHz processor, a Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset, and as much as 4GB of RAM and 1TB of memory under the hood. The machine runs on Ubuntu, an excellent choice, but are also capable of running Windows 7. What I like best about the new Commodore 64, like the old one, is built in the United States — in Ft. Lauderdale Florida, which is where the company operates from.

“It’s 99% American made — everything except the motherboard is American made,” Altman said. “It just didn’t seem right to have the Commodore 64 become a Chinese import, though we sell other computers that are and they’re just fine. It probably goes back to a nostalgia thing, and we don’t have the benefit of the less expensive labor, but we felt strongly that it was the right thing to do for this model.”

LA Times

ASTRA II the Desktop Super Computer with 13 GPUs

Bob — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:36:04 +0000

You may remember the small supercomputer that the folks over at the University of Antwerp built using eight GPUs across four Nvidia GeForce 9800GX2 graphics cards, well the team behind that rig have out done it again. This time they built the FASTRA II, and it’s the world’s most powerful desktop supercomputer.

The FASTRA II has six NVIDIA GTX295 dual-GPU cards and one GTX275 single-GPU card, that’s not all – this desktop monster features an impressive thirteen general purpose graphics processing cores for a total performance of twelve teraflops – trillion floating-point operations per second. In order to feed all 13 GPUs, the supercomputer has four power supplies humping away inside a Lian-Li PC-P80 Armorsuit case. This bad boy cost them just under €6000 (£5,400). If you want to build your own supercomputer, the team has produced a list of the hardware used in FASTRA II just for you. We got some video for you after the jump, check it out.

CyberPower Gamer Xtreme Series Upgrades to USB 3.0 And SATA III

Bob — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:16:44 +0000

CyberPower has announced that it is upgrading it’s Gamer Xtreme series computers by adding SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (awesome) and SATA III 6.0 Gbps interfaces as standard features. In case you didn’t know, these gaming systems come either with an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor. I hope we will see more of these leading edge technological upgrades from other manufactures sooner rather than later, good job. The new upgraded Gamer Xtreme Series PCs are available now from CyberPower. Prices for the Gamer Xtreme series start at $749.

Stealth Announces LPC-395F Rugged Mini PC

Bob — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:14:23 +0000

Stealth.com Inc. (Stealth Computer) a leading ISO 9001 manufacturer of industrial rugged computers and peripherals has released the new Model LPC-395F, a rugged, small footprint, fanless computer with integrated removable storage.

Stealth’s LPC-395F fanless mini PC includes front loaded removable media slots for both hard drive and compact flash media. An industry standard mobile 2.5″ SATA hard drive slides directly into the machine without having to open the chassis. The system also supports a front loaded CF memory card for easy system updates and file deployment. Ed Boutilier, President & CEO of Stealth.com states; “Stealth’s removable storage feature presents a new level of security, maintenance and data protection in a small form factor PC. There is no longer any need to spend lengthy time to open a chassis to change/ remove the hard drive. Our removable storage feature allows the user to secure or replace their critical data in a matter of seconds.”

The new Stealth LPC-395F small form PC offers a tremendous price-performance value in a robust little package. The LPC-395F small PC punches through with Intel’s energy efficient ATOM N270 processor technology. The rugged light-weight metal chassis measures only 6.54″(W) x 6.18″(D) x 1.89″(H) in size. Its sturdy small size and noise-free fanless design make it ideal for applications where space is critical.

The LPC-395F Fanless PC features a multitude of I/O connectivity built into its impressively diminutive design such as; Dual Gigabit LAN, 4-USB 2.0, 2-Serial RS232, 1-DVI, Audio ports with optional Wi-Fi 802.11g. The LPC-395F supports up to 2GB in memory and has a removable hard drive with up to 500GB’s of storage space for archived data. For applications that require extra high shock, vibration and wide temperature ranges an optional SSD (Solid State Hard Drive) is available. The PC can also operate from 12-19VDC making it an ideal choice for field and mobile applications. Systems are compatible with Microsoft Win7/Vista/XP, Linux etc and can be custom configured to meet the exact needs of the OEM or end user. The LPC-395F is ideal for numerous applications such as digital sign, mobile/field deployment, process and discrete control, automation, human-machine-interface, data acquisition, shop floor and machine control to name a few.

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