DIY Eee Keyboard from Russia with Love

From Liliputing -

A member of the Russian Eee-PC.ru forum has created his own Asus Eee Keyboard by cramming the guts of an Eee PC 900 into a Sven Multimedia EL 4002 keyboard. The DIY Eee Keyboard may lack wireless HDMI, and it may not be as slim but it is a complete computer, including a VGA output, USB ports, and headphone jacks and mic.

Modding: Eee PC 901 “Black Leather Edition”

Photos above are of a leather-modded Asus Eee PC 901 posted at Eee PC News. They were uploaded by Eee PC.ru forum member Nikussan, who has dubbed his project "Oперация Антиглянец" (Operation Anti-Gloss).

Asus' 1 million Eee PC order from Russia?

Submitted by a Russian reader with a gmail address. Unfortunately his name appeared as ?????? ???? [b***83@gmail.com] on my inbox -

Hi, I'm from Russia and I've read one interesting article about EeePC.
Check this link (in russian)

or this one translated into english

It is from site of one well known newspaper in Russia. In short, it is about that "mysterious 1 mil. EeePC's pre-order". It says that "that developing country" is Russia. Time will show :)

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The Financial Times reported that Asus president Jonathan Tsang has announced his company has received a firm order for 1 million Eee PCs from the government of a developing country. But Tsang refused to identify the country, only saying that it was not China. Sources close to Asus indicated it was either Brazil, India or Russia.

Vedomosti, the Russian business daily however has reported that Tsang identified the country as being Russia. Accordingly, Tsang has said that the transaction includes the supply of one million laptops not immediately but over a period of several years.
Asus Director of Marketing in Russia Alexei Voronkov, however, has retracted comments.

According to Vedomosti, its source in the Ministry said that while specific arrangements have not yet been achieved the Ministry has ordered the Eee PCs as part of its "A Computer in Every Home" project and expects to sell one million PCs by the end of 2008.

However Gartner Group analyst Anneta Dzhamp said that an order of 1 million computers would be a world market record. She expressed doubt that any government can immediately buy in such huge quantity as it would be more logical to start a pilot purchase. Per Gartner, there were 1.9 million notebooks and 5.4 million desktops sold in

Over the past year, in the assessment of Gartner, in Russia sold 1.9 million notebooks and 5.4 million desktop computers. Bestsellers (data for the II quarter of 2007, in descending order) - Acer, Asustek, Depo Computers.

According to the analyst, with a price of $ 200 EeePC will more than double cheaper than other laptops. "The demand for typewriters has been and will be, but the question is whether to pay for their $ 200? "Vice President, Product Marketing Depo Computers Alexander Barinov admits that even with the VAT (18%), import duties and retail margins in EeePC could cost Russia $ 300 cheaper. A laptop can be a substitute device, but the device-niche product and not a high demand for a mass market, he warns. Head of Acer in Russia Gleb Mishin Asustek declined to discuss plans.

ASUS Eee PC 701: субноутбук at the price of a handheld computer

Submitted by reader Bruno Campos - A comprehensive Russian review of a black Asus Eee PC from the Russian site 3DNews.

We will cite just the important and new info. The complete translated version is available at Translate.ru -

Note test unit is a preselling sample that may differ from the production units. Here are the results:

Characteristics (for Russian production model )

The processor	Intel Celeron M 900 MHz ULV, cache L2 of 512 Mb, FSB 400 MHz
Operational system	Linux-based
System logic	Intel NG82910GMLE/NH82801FBM
Memory	256 Mb DDR2 of 400 MHz
LCD the Display	7 " wide-screen, 800 x 480
The module schedules and video	Integrated Intel 910GMLE Express
HDD	Flash-disk in volume 4 Гб
Optical drive	No
Communications	Built in module Ethernet LAN, 56K modem, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
Dimensions, mm	225 x 165 x 21~35
Weight, kg	0,89

Design and appearance

The Eee PC 701 looks like classical "book", without a cover latch. The fit between the cover and case is tight. Both case and cover are made from black matte plastic with a slightly rouogh but very pleasant touch. It looks stylishly expensive.

All the connectors are located on the left and right sides of the unit. The SD/MMC, two USB ports and the VGA-out are located on the right side.

An Ethernet port, the modem port, a 3rd USB port and the audio ports are located on the left side.

On the bottom there are several air vents along the perimeter. There are also four rubber legs to stabilize the unit.

The battery is secured by two separate locks.

Interior

The LCD display is attached to two massive ring supports. The hinge works very smoothly and is moderately stiff.

The keyboard is also made from the same matte black plastic and is less than full-sized. The lay-out is more or less standard. However, it would have been desirable to see the block with курсорными keys displaced at the bottom.

The alphabetic keys, number keys , and also курсорный the block are essentially allocated with the almost full-sized keys.

All keys have precise tactile feedback and travel short distances. The keys also slightly jingle but this should not matter. The substrate of the keyboard hardly noticeably caves in, but it is not appreciable almost.

The touchpad is small but works well with the display. It has scroll bar on the right, and also two standard buttons integrated in one long metal strip.

There is a slot for a web-cam above the display but our unit did not come with a web-cam.

The display

The LCD is a 7" TFT with 800 x 480 resolution. While the 7" should not be a problem, the 480 pixel length is not enough for Windows applications. The display has a huge range of brightness control, a fine saturation and color rendition.

Sound

The speakers are located near the display and sound is okay - not bad, not worse than other
ноутбука. But the loudness has to be set to a maximum and on a bustling street it would be necessary to use headphones.

Internal

Both RAM and flash memory are soldered on, making upgrades impossible.

The test unit had the Intel Celeron M 800 MHz running at 570 Mhz.. However production models are supposed to have the Celeron M of 900 MHz (Dothan 353: architecture 90nm, cache L2 of 512 Mb, frequency of the system trunk of 400 MHz). The BIOS did not allow us to make any adjustment on the clock frequency.

Near the processor two more large microcircuits of a set of system logic Intel NG82910GMLE/NH82801FBM are located. They comprise the Mobile Intel 910GMLE Express with the built in graphic kernel.

RAM is 256 Mb DDR2 400. The sample unit uses Qimonda HYB18T512161BF-25 64MB modules. The memoy have an access time of 2.5 nanoseconds.

The Asus Eee PC has no hard drive and uses flash memory instead. While production units will have 4GB, the sample unit has 2GB, composed of two 1GB HYNIX HY27UG088G5M chips. These chips are commonly used in MP3-players. A number(line) locates the controller from company Silicon Motion-known microcircuit SM223.

Battery

The power adapter of the Asus Eee PC is tiny - similar in size to those used by mobile phones.

Using Battery Eater ’ 05 Pro 2.70, the Asus Eee PC is estimated to last 2 hours 30 minutes.

Heat

There are several air vents along the bottom perimeter but these may be blocked if the unit is set on the user's lap. But the ULV processor is not expected to generate excessive heat.

There is a fixed fan inside the case but it never made a sound during our testing. Interestingly, it does not cool the ULV processor directly.

Quality

It is easy to throw this ноутбук in a backpack and bring it around all day.

The lack of a hard drive may be an issue but it depends on the flash memory installed. Windows XP occupies nearly 1GB so a bigger flash size might be necessary. Alternately, an external hard drive can be connected via the USB port, or even SD or CF cards.

Windows XP boots up in 30 seconds but is sluggish.

Russian Eee PC Site

Notwithstanding the continuous delays in the release of the Asus Eee PC, as well as rumored downgraded specs coupled with price increases, the sub-note continues to appeal to a worldwide market.

While the interest is not as huge as the pre-sale publicity hype generated by Apple's iPhone, it nevertheless is as worldwide in its range, as evidenced by the Russian site LiveInternet which now has an ongoing thread.