The power of a PC shrunk to a wall socket: the Jack PC

ZDNet UK ^ | 31 May 2006 13:45 BST | Colin Barker

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Newcastle-based Jade Integration will launch one of the smallest thin-client computers available in the UK to date, the Jack PC, next month.

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."

The device was developed by Chip PC Technologies, a company that specialises in what it calls "post-PC technologies". According to MacLellan, Chip PC Technologies created the first Jack PC over a year ago and has been working on perfecting it since then. The University of Northumbria was one of the first organisations to take delivery of the device.

"This can be used as a standard PC on standard power," MacLellan told ZDNet UK, "or it can be used with power-over-Ethernet, and that really makes it efficient."

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