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  • repoman27 - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    While that board does look rather dense, and the Spectre Folio looks quite interesting in general, 12,000 mm^2 is still pretty huge. For comparison, the logic board for the 12-inch MacBook is < 4500 mm^2 including the SSD.
  • jeremyshaw - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    To be fair to HP/Intel, the 12" Macbook only has two ports (USB-c, 3.5mm TRRS) and everything is soldered on. The Spectre Folio has a M.2 (NVMe) slot for a removable SSD, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, one USB-c, and the 3.5mm TRRS jack. The TB3 controller set (3 ICs) is not insubstantial, and neither is creating clearance for a 2280 M.2 card. The LTE modem antenna escape routing probably added a bit, too.

    That being said, that 12" Macbook mainboard is still tiny. I wouldn't turn down a 12" Macbook, though the $1300 HP and Apple are asking for these laptops is positively crazy.
  • skavi - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    I won't deny that Thunderbolt necessitated extra space, but I don't think the removable SSD was really a good choice, at least apart from cost savings. Would you even be able to open this guy up without damaging the leather?
  • IntelUser2000 - Friday, October 5, 2018 - link

    There's also the benefit for HP, being able to change drive configurations easily.

    Years down the road, inevitably some will try to open it up as well.

    But I think the tradeoff is flexibility. You can make designs smaller, cheaper, and lower power if you optimize it for one chassis. Try to make a different one then you have to spend all that time doing it again. If you have a base chassis, you can switch between them faster. Smartphones and Tablets are generally very difficult to repair/replace components because its optimized entirely to make it as mobile as possible.
  • Jeremy G - Saturday, October 6, 2018 - link

    Apples MacBook board is double sided though; a trade off that takes up less of a footprint but is terrible for heat build up. I think for what this includes, 3000 mm^2 more giving you a replicable M.2 drive, many more ports and the built in LTE modem is a pretty big achievement.
  • iwod - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    I wonder if it means Apple will introduce MacBook with LTE connections.
  • RaduR - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    For sure Business Laptop.

    I was looking for one of these years ago and none was on the market.

    Still just using a discrete modem should not be a problem.
  • jackywebdesign - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    Anyone else notice that the board in the bottom picture isn't even the same shape as the board shown in the exploded view?
  • dogie - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    Because its a prototype from the design phase blogging.
  • PeachNCream - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    That is some impressive integration. It's interesting to see the level of custom design work that went into what was already a drool-worthy computer based on the leather exterior and specs alone. I do wonder if a one-off product like this is worth the cost of somewhat more customized hardware, but the bean counters at HP and Intel must have seen potential in the effort.
  • HStewart - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    This looks like where the technology is going, This does not state anything about Kaby Lake G EMIB but I feel it similar. But focus for light weight with LYE communications.

    I would not doubt a similar XPS 13 2in1 is coming with similar package.
  • IntelUser2000 - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    It may look similar, but there's an important difference. Kabylake-G uses EMIB. LTE modems do not require that high of a bandwidth so it uses a traditional multi-chip packaging, which have been used for decades.
  • jeremyshaw - Thursday, October 4, 2018 - link

    Yeah, even Kaby Lake G only used EMIB for the HBM interface, which requires a LOT of pins. PCIe (which is the most likely interface for the modem) does not, so the CPU-GPU interface was done with regular old package traces, as you noted.

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