Smartbooks on Their Way: ARM-Based Mini-Notebooks

Jun 02, 2009

Marcel Hilzinger

When the Computex show opens in Taipei on June 2, among the announcements will be a series of Linux notebooks with ARM processors.

A day earlier Qualcomm officially announced the new smartbooks device class and the 45-nanometer Snapdragon chipset platform. The hellosmartbook.com site already has some info and a promotional video.

The smartbooks device class is somewhere between a smartphone and a notebook. All devices should work over WLAN, 3G, Bluetooth and GPS. Battery life should range from six hours to a few days. The CPU includes ARM processors, limiting usage to Linux and Windows CE, prompting most manufacturers to call them Linux devices.

Next to Qualcomm, Freescale ARM-based devices should also appear under the Smartbook brand, as LinuxDevices.com announced. Freescale may not be using Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform, but its own i.MX515 system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution instead, as we reported. The first devices are targeted for Autumn of 2009. The smartbooks should cost around $200 and weigh less than a kilo, with most of them possibly implementing a touchscreen.

Related content

Freescale Calls Up Second Generation Internet Tablets

Freescale drums at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Just as smart, but a bigger display than the Smartphone and costing less than $200 is what the next Internet Generation of 12 to 25-year-olds wants. At least the chipmaker has a fitting idea for it.

more »
New from Qualcomm: ARM Netbooks, Open Source Initiatives and New Technology

Qualcomm invited everyone to their Innovation Event 2009 in London on November 22, where they presented the newest out of their research labs and gave a glimpse of where their journey was taking them. Of interest to us were the ARM netbooks and Qualcomm's newest open source team.

more »
NVIDIA Eschews Android and Linux, Prefers Windows for Tegra

NVIDIA sees itself obliged to openly announce its preference for Windows CE for its new Tegra platform. This news alone would be suspicious if it weren't for the graphics chipmaker's not so subtle dig at Android and Linux.

more »
Freescale Plans Reference Design for Linux ARM Netbooks

When will power-saving and affordable ARM netbooks become available? Freescale Semiconductor has ventured into an advanced standard, albeit with their homegrown i.MX515 chip.

more »
Asustek Retracts, Puts Qualcomm Android Eee PC on Ice

June 1 Qualcomm presented its new superflat Eee PC with Snapdragon chipset and Xandros or Android to the public. But the enthusiasm waned shortly thereafter.

more »

comments powered by Disqus

Issue 201/2017

Buy this issue as a PDF

Digital Issue: Price $9.99

(incl. VAT)

News

GitHub Announces Open Source Friday Program

They encourage people to take time out and work on open source projects on Friday.
System76 Announces Their Own Distro, Pop!_OS

Pop!_OS is based on Ubuntu and uses the Gnome stack.
Linus Torvalds Talks About His Motivation

He never tires of working on the Linux kernel.
Debian 9 Stretches Its Wings

The new release of Debian has a very strong focus on security.
Trojan Turns Raspberry Pi into a Cryptocurrency Mining Device

Two trojans in the wild are targeting Linux machines.
Fedora 26 Beta Comes with New Features

The workstation comes with the latest Gnome desktop environment and support for many application build systems.
Raspberry Pi Foundation Merges with CoderDojo Foundation

The two foundations join forces to expand their efforts to reach young people.
Samba Security Hole Patched but Risk is Bigger

Millions of devices that use Samba Server are vulnerable to attacks.
Red Hat Announces OpenShift.io

Red Hat takes its IDE online.
Microsoft Bakes Linux into Windows Server

Microsoft is slowly becoming a Linux vendor.

Smartbooks on Their Way: ARM-Based Mini-Notebooks

Related content

Issue 201/2017

Buy this issue as a PDF

News

Tag Cloud