S4000Pro update.

[PaulBusta]

Thanks for the update Chet. My Pro is so close I can almost smell it. I havn't been this excited about getting a product since waiting for my new 1970 Grabber Orange Mustang Sportsroof to be delivered soooooo many years ago. BTW I still have it, but it's not orange anymore.

[chetdavis]

Paul, indeed it is a good feeling to know we are this close (you'd have to see my fingers to get the full sense of the analogy)


I thought this a good place to share the folloowing - a list member on the Cassie Tips List over the weekend asked a reasonable question "Why does each new Casablanca model introduced seem to be one generation behind on processor power. The quad processors from AMD and Intel are available and all we get are dual processors in the latest model."


Here is the reply from - CEO Macrosystem Jörg's Sprave:

To answer an earlier question here, I'd like to share our reasons we had when we decided to go with the dual core "mobile" CPU in the S 4000 Pro product, instead of using Quad Core CPUs..

First, the main advantage of Quad Core technology is apparent only when many tasks (more than two) are running at the same time. Then the OS will automatically spread the tasks amongst the four cores. If only one or two tasks are running at a given time, then the other cores will simply be dormant.

Under BogartSE, it almost never happens that you use more than two rendering intensive tasks at the same time, even if background rendering is activated. A Quad Core CPU would not have made the product noticably faster.

But it would have made it more expensive. Now of course stock PCs may be less expensive than the S 4000, but remember that the S 4000 is having a second, dedicated processor: The NXP Nexperia chip. which does important
things like the scaling independently from the CPU, and also powers the analog ins and outs. This costs serious money. We wanted to avoid the extra price burden of a more expensive CPU that would bring almost no advantage.

The S 4000 Pro is also totally quiet, thanks to the passive CPU cooling method (using heat pipes and a large heat sink at the back of the unit). This is only possible because we employ a mobile CPU, normally used in laptop computers. They use much less power and therefore create much less heat. A desktop type Quad Core CPU would have to be cooled with a fan, and therefore would make the system noisy. Even though mobile CPUs are much more expensive than desktop variants, we still decided that the quite operation is worth the money.

I hope this helps!

Regards
Jörg Sprave

[CliffHawkins]

Thanks, Chet and Jörg for the response to the Quad Core question. Did I miss the response on the Cassie List?

I am also very excited that my S-4000 is being delivered shortly, right??

Cliff

[alex]

Thanks Chet:
I too will be looking forward in getting my S4000Pro, also thanks for posting this. Looking forward for the January get together in Orlando Florida.