$199 Netbooks Without Intel Inside

[exfileme]

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. However, Freescale Semiconductor's upcoming i.MX515 processor, based on the ARM chip architecture, should defy that belief, offering 1GHz speeds for under $200.

$199 Netbooks Without Intel Inside : Read more

 

[JonnyDough]

Can someone define just exactly what the hell a "1ghz speed" looks like? Just because something is 1ghz does not mean it's fast at all. First of all, these are ARM processors. Secondly, ARCHITECTURE makes a difference. A 1ghz P3 is not faster than .5ghz Core2Duo.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Correct. Also it's an ARM for crying out loud. No x86 for you.

As for the PS3 reference the PS3 Cell is faster at floating point than most (if not all) CPUs.

 

[mman74]

If this processor can play RMVB / Div X files then I am sold. I was thinking of getting the new Archos PMP with web apaibilities, but I would be niave if I thought the internet capabilities could compare to a Netbook. At 200 bucks - hell yes!

 

[JonnyDough]

I also get the feeling that these will never support Windows. Why? Because they're based on ARM, which basically means Linux. That's the only way these will: 1. Be price competitive, and 2. "Offer admirable speed for consumers" The reason that Freescale is jumping on board the netbook craze is because people are actually buying portable PCs that don't have Windows installed on them. They're getting in on the latest craze, and why shouldn't they? If we could get rid of Windows, or become more open source we'd have more competition and it would lead to better products. This is exactly why we SHOULD be buying non-Windows based PCs with non-Intel chips. At last, the PC revolution. Mac however, is not really part of any of that. OSX INCORPORATES Windows, and they've always used platforms based on Intel processors.

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]Shadow703793[/nom]^Correct. Also it's an ARM for crying out loud. No x86 for you.As for the PS3 reference the PS3 Cell is faster at floating point than most (if not all) CPUs.[/citation]
You read to quickly, he said P3, as in Pentium 3. I had to re-read that as well before realizing what he said.

 

[Guest]

Ti Already has a very similar processor out, OMAP3, but it only runs @ 600mhz, it can do 1200mips. The power consumption is very low, much lower than the atom CPU, but then again I saw a atom benchmark of ~3900 MIPS.

We all know how much disgust there is with the current power hungry chipset that intel bundles with the atom cpu. On the OMAP3, the total power consumption of their demo board was ~2w, which is as much power as the atom cpu uses alone.

Also the omap3 integrates a opengl GPU on the die.

The OMAP3 can also handle 720p decoding

If the freescale can do what the OMAP3 can already do but increase the MIPS then it will be a great product.

The only problem with using ARM based products for linux, is that ARM based products typically do not have high speed peripherial interfaces that we are all accustomed to with x86 platforms; PCI, PCMCIA, IDE, SATA, etc..

I am a really big fan of the synergies that ARM and linux bring to each other. Linux abandons the windows codebase, and ARM will never support the windows codebase anyways. Linux is less resource intensive and a high powered ARM can run linux decently. There are hardly any addons peripherials for ARM based computers so linux's lack of driver support should not me much of the sore thumb.

ARM has just made huge leaps with the introduction of its cortex core, this is the beginning. If Linux can get it's act together and be easy enough to use as windows, I have no doubt that ARM will take a huge chunk of market share away from Intel/AMD/Via.

 

[Guest]

To the original commentor:

Agreed, clock speeds mean nothing. Look at how crappy Atom is clock for clock, I bet Atom is on par with a 1.6ghz PIII, because a 1.2ghz Athlon64 stomps it into the ground for only a slight increase in power consumption ref: Toms Hardware.

 

[gwolfman]

almost as cheap as the OLPC PCs and it's way better. lol

 

[gwolfman]

[citation][nom]Shadow703793[/nom]^Correct. Also it's an ARM for crying out loud. No x86 for you.As for the PS3 reference the PS3 Cell is faster at floating point than most (if not all) CPUs.[/citation]
lol -> P3 = PS3 too funny (as mentioned above, P3 != PS3)

 

[Guest]

not tomention that the ARM has no hyperthreading like the Atom processor, and the memory bus speed (what made the atom so fluent on XP) is very low!
It's surprising that they offer DDR2 memory; it would be more surprising if it supported 533Mhz of DDR2 memory.
65nm is pretty ok, though 45nm and perhaps 30nm design would have saved lots of batterylife.
I guess it could compete with the OLPC XO or something.., and seems like a nice deice for hackers to play around, and software designers....

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]Atomsuxx[/nom]Agreed, clock speeds mean nothing. Look at how crappy Atom is clock for clock, I bet Atom is on par with a 1.6ghz PIII, because a 1.2ghz Athlon64 stomps it into the ground for only a slight increase in power consumption ref: Toms Hardware.[/citation]

The Atom actually has an in order structure, that is comparable to a 800Mhz Celeron in single threading,and 1100Mhz with hyperthreading enabled.
The hyperthreading, and support for 'faster' RAM speeds,allow the Atom to perform pretty well; especially on XP!

these ARM computers could be nice if multiple cores could be installed (like Intel's trying to do with their larrabee cards or something... (you know, the more processors installed onboard, the greater the computing power).

 

[vider]

200$ for a Netbook? !

If this will be around 250 CAD $ (282.5 CAD $ with taxes), I might buy one.
I for sure won't mind a netbook based on a Linux OS (with a recovery CD /
USB key), might help me learn about the way Linux works and help me get
use to it, Linux IS the future. Who needs a sparkly GUI (Windows 7 / Vista),
when all you really need is performance?

NOTE to all

multi-format HD 720p video decoder and a D1 video encoder hardware engine

.

This chip can decode VC1/H.264, that is very nice

 

[JonnyDough]

A sparkly GUI can mean the difference between ease of use and frustration for some people though. We need big easy to see buttons and sensible menus. Drivers and apps should update themselves and not interrupt what we're doing!

 

[eeejournal]

[citation][nom]ProDigit80[/nom]not tomention that the ARM has no hyperthreading like the Atom processor,[/citation]
AFAIK also VIA Nano don't have hyperthreading. Some MIPS processor do (called multithreading).
[citation] and the memory bus speed (what made the atom so fluent on XP) is very low!It's surprising that they offer DDR2 memory; it would be more surprising if it supported 533Mhz of DDR2 memory....[/citation]
533MHz is a "marketing clock" for DDR2 RAM, the real memory bus clock is 266MHz. This clock is achievable by memory controller used in ARM systems.
EEE Journal

 

[Guest]

we have been hearing about ARM based netbooks for YEARS already, Yes i know most us GNU/Linux people would get one if it could costs 200$ (like they have also sold us on years ago, like since 2008) all great except....

where are they? where are the low power arm netbook device?. Not tablets, i want damn keyboard, no stupid touchscreen and sub 250$ price. unless I hear about a store (even online) supplying a solid arm netbook for that price, THAT WAS PROMISED AGAIN AND AGAIN. I DONT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT.