JANUARY 2021 PCWorld 31WHERE’S THE NUC, INTEL?
Of course, you’re probably still wondering
where exactly is the “NUC” in all this. After all,
how do you get from a tiny, modular PC to
this laptop?
Initially we thought the M15 was built
around Intel’s radical NUC Compute Elements
(go.pcworld.com/icmp). That was proposed
as a modular laptop built around a
replaceable card. While not intended for
consumers to upgrade, a notebook built
around the technology would have let small
PC makers buy a shell and quickly slip in a
Compute Elements card that contained the
RAM, storage, Wi-Fi, chipset, and CPU. All
this would connect via a cartridge-like edge
connector to the ports, screen, keyboard,
and antennas in the body. For NUC
enthusiasts, that’s probably a lot more, well,
“NUC”-y than the M15, but NUCs aren’t what
they used to be either.JUST WHAT IS A NUC,
ANYWAY?
The original NUC (Next Unit of Computing)
started out as a mini-PC that consumers could
finish with their own storage and RAM. Intel
also originally envisioned different top-plate
configurations that could add NFC
functionality or additional storage.
The Hades Canyon NUC (go.pcworld.
com/hade) was far faster, but far less modular
(unless you wanted to swap out the top with
the skull on it). With its Ghost Canyon NUCs
(go.pcworld.com/ghos), Intel seemed to
lean back to its original intent, leaving
questions
about what the
basic element
of computing
actually is.
In the end,
maybe being a
NUC just
means being
something
really cool—
throwing
transistors at
the wall and
seeing what
What is a NUC? We’re not sure anymore anyway. sticks.