OMAP everywhere
![](/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/linux-magazine.com/online/blogs/beagleblog/354164-9-eng-US/Beagleblog.png)
Beagleblog
My preoccupation with the Beagleboard has made me more aware of ARM and in particular OMAP based hardware products. Even more so as I am very much interested in low power computing and rumour has it that ARM cores use a lot less power than any i386 architecture including Atom chips. In my view using ARM cores with an additional DSP (which can be seen as a kind of asymmetrical multi-core) is a good fit for low power computers with an occasional need for high performance multimedia computing such as video decoding.
So I got pretty excited when Dell announced an ARM based laptop a while ago which is supposed to have a "multi-day" battery life. (Dell also does Via Nano based rack servers but I don't know anything about their power consumption yet). While looking for those on the Internet I had to learn that presumably Dell has changed their plans and the E4200 and E4300 devices have silently become Intel based devices. Probably someone at Dell has become aware of the fact that there is no general purpose Windows for the ARM processor family (CE only).
However I encountered another OMAP based netbook called Touchbook by the company Always Innovating. You can pre-order the device which is supposed to be shipping this month according to their web site. It has an OMAP3530 (same as the Beagleboard) with 256 MB RAM and 256 NAND memory (that is non-volatile memory). It doesn't have a hard disk but instead permanently saves data on an SD(HC) card. The device will be running Angstrom Linux Angstrom with the Xfce window manager and the usual media applications such as MPlayer, F-Spot and Pidgin.
You will find more or less the same hardware in the long-awaited Open Pandora handheld game console, which unfortunately has been delayed due to the financial crisis. Not to mention the constantly growing number of smart phones that make use of the OMAP chip series. You may take Adobe's recent announcement to bring the Flash technology to the OMAP platform as a sign of it's still growing importance, too. Oh yeah, and the Palm Pre, too :)
Comments
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.
Omap has been everywhere already