It is not just AMD which is forging a new relationship with ARM, which we saw evidence of during the AMD Fusion Developer Summit, several other manufacturers are making good on previous statements made while waiting for AMD, and are going to be selling ARM based notebooks. These companies are not on the fringe of the market, these are major vendors like ASUS which are releasing quad-core ARM based notebooks which will use SnapDragon, Tegra or TI for the graphics portion. DigiTimes has the scoop here, as well as news on a tablet which will be released by Amazon running an unspecified TI processor which we should see by August.
"Several vendors, including Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, Acer and Asustek Computer, plan to develop ARM architecture notebooks, with products possibly to be launched as early as the end of 2011, according to industry sources.
The sources pointed out that ARM-based systems using Android were already launched under the smartbook name two years ago with Toshiba and Lenovo both launching products in the retail channel. However, due to weaker than expected demand, the related products were soon phased out of the market.
Since ARM’s CPU has already been upgraded from single-core two years ago to quad-core with a significant increase in performance, while the platform’s storage capacity has also seen significant improvements, and an enhanced user interface, ARM is already capable of launching notebook products that are able to run for a long period of time, and if the price is attractive, there is a great chance for the products to create a brand new market segment in the IT industry.
Asustek has already made plans to launch a 13-inch ARM-based notebook adopting Nvidia’s processor with Android.
The sources pointed out that there are already several brand vendors reportedly set to launch ARM-based notebooks with prices lower than US$299 to compete for market share and the vendors’ processor choices include Nvidia’s Tegra, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and processors from Texas Instruments."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Google Chrome extension detects dangerous websites @ The Register
- Programmers urged to code with their tootsies @ The Register
- The Linux Kernel Power Problems On Older Desktop Hardware @ Phoronix
- Making Airsoft guns far more potent @ Hack a Day
- AMD Rejects BAPCo’s SYSmark 2012 – Should We? @ Techgage