Gerhard Potgieter

Last year’s recall of overheating Xbox 360s was caused by Microsoft trying to bypass  ATi and going straight to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to save cash, according to analyst outfit Gartner.

Bryan Lewis, research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner, said that the overheating problem in the Xbox 360s was caused by Microsoft trying to avoid using ATi.  It designed the graphics chip on its own, cut ATi out and took it to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to make.

However the chip overheated and in the end Microsoft had to go back to ATi  to redesign the chip so that it worked. Lewis that if Microsoft left the graphics processor design to ATi in the first place it could have designed a graphics processor that dissipates much less power.

It cost Microsoft $1 billion to conduct the recall.

The mini-notebook market has no shortage of compelling systems, especially with this week’s release of the Eee PC 900 in the U.S And with models from both Acer and Dell on the way, how can a lesser-known brand stand out in the crowd?

MSI certainly thinks that their entry will shake things up. MSI shared that the Wind will:

1. Come in two display-size variations: an 8.9-inch and a 10-inch. Only the 10-inch display will be available to the U.S. market.
2. Be available starting June 3rd. The Linux version, running Novel’s SUSE, will have 512MB RAM and an 80GB hard drive. It will retail for $399. The Windows XP version will have 1GB RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and Bluetooth, retailing for $549. However according to MSI a base configuration of the Windows XP product will be available for under $500.
3. Come in four different colors, including black, white, silver, and pink. Both sizes will be available in these colors.
4. Get 6 hours of battery life with the standard six-cell battery. MSI attributes the power savings to the Intel Atom processor, since the system will not have a solid state drive.

Lets just hope that when the Wind hits the South African Market that it would retail for about the same amount as the EEEPC, cause then I would defenitly buy one of them. I love the EEEPC to bits it just that it doesn’t have the power I would like, but looks like things are about to change thanks to MSI.