Intel Porting Android for x86 Notebooks, Tablets

[exfileme]

Intel is porting Android to x86 for Atom-based devices.

Intel Porting Android for x86 Notebooks, Tablets : Read more

 

[kyeana]

That is good news, although personally i would still prefer a normal linux distribution on a netbook, as they have much larger distro specific repositories.

I do like all the love android is getting though

 

[webbwbb]

That last paragraph is very quizzical. I really do not know how or why Intel thinks Atom processors would work in a smart phone. If they are able to achieve massive power reductions they will still be about 10 times what they should which will not only drain a battery but may even require an active cooling system. It just seems like an unachievable goal.

 

[wcooper007]

hey webbwbb have you not been keeping up with the news on the atom procs the newest ver. that they have has two models one which is for netbooks and nettops and the other for SMARTPHONES.... and its power consumption is almost equal to that of the arm processor and its able to preform about 2x faster than anything else on the market at this time soo do some reading man your way behind...

 

[samwelaye]

finally, a very viable option to windows 7 starter on the netbooks

 

[flightmare]

Nice they are working on 2.x, Android x86 project is still on 1.6.

 

[crashtest]

[citation][nom]webbwbb[/nom]That last paragraph is very quizzical. I really do not know how or why Intel thinks Atom processors would work in a smart phone. If they are able to achieve massive power reductions they will still be about 10 times what they should which will not only drain a battery but may even require an active cooling system. It just seems like an unachievable goal.[/citation]

They are talking about Moorestown

 

[voodoobunny]

Android on quad-core Atom FTW!

Imagine a tablet with FroYo or Gingerbread and a quad-core Atom...

 

[zdzichu]

Quite schizophrenical for Intel. They already have full distribution (MeeGo) working with tablets, netbooks and phones. Touching Android looks like marketing gimmick without real value.

 

[Guest]

I think Intel is just covering all their bases so that Moorestown takes off properly in the smart phone market. They have MeeGo and Android ready for their chips which will make them more attractive to hardware developers.

 

[Guest]

@zdzichu More OS choices for atom = more sales. Pretty obvious.

 

[hellwig]

Intel is sort of desperately clinging to x86 at this time. Sure, its been extremely successful in the desktop market (that's still and understatement), but its has its limitations. There are reasons embedded systems use ARM/RISC/PPC chips.

For the consumer, there's just no benefit to using x86 over ARM (we don't really care what its running, as long as it runs). As for developers, since everything these days is Java, they don't really care about the platform either. Since these smartphones have much different hardware setups than a desktop computer, there's really no re-use argument here. You can't port a desktop app to a cellphone app any easier with x86 vs. ARM (when it was already in Java).

In the end, Intel is spending a lot of money to try to enter into a market where it really doesn't belong. They should be happy with 90% desktop/computer dominance. They really don't need another market tempting them to do something the FTC will frown upon.

 

[m-manla]

I like this!

 

[WR]

[citation][nom]zdzichu[/nom]Quite schizophrenical for Intel. They already have full distribution (MeeGo) working with tablets, netbooks and phones. Touching Android looks like marketing gimmick without real value.[/citation]
What about the 65,000 strong Android App marketplace? And in case MeeGo tanks on one or more of those platforms?

[citation][nom]hellwig[/nom]Intel is sort of desperately clinging to x86 at this time. Sure, its been extremely successful in the desktop market (that's still and understatement), but its has its limitations. There are reasons embedded systems use ARM/RISC/PPC chips.[/citation]
It couldn't be that ARM didn't want to pay for the x86 license? And that Intel doesn't want to pay for an ARM license? Who here doesn't want to see some real competition in mobile phone CPU architecture?!

[citation][nom]hellwig[/nom]For the consumer, there's just no benefit to using x86 over ARM (we don't really care what its running, as long as it runs). As for developers, since everything these days is Java, they don't really care about the platform either.[/citation]
Right, but Intel does x86 better than anyone else. The eventual vision for the consumer would be faster/cheaper phones/mobiles. Intel has process tuning expertise. And Moorestown is power-management experience for their other segments.

 

[matt87_50]

For the consumer, there's just no benefit to using x86 over ARM (we don't really care what its running, as long as it runs). As for developers, since everything these days is Java, they don't really care about the platform either. Since these smartphones have much different hardware setups than a desktop computer, there's really no re-use argument here. You can't port a desktop app to a cellphone app any easier with x86 vs. ARM (when it was already in Java).

tell that to game developers... PC, xbox, ps3, wii, DS and psp, iphone, all c++. and you most certainly CAN reuse all of your game code between platforms. and anyway... there is no such thing as porting between x86 and arm, as long as you have two competent c++ compilers, you don't have to do anything. so as long as intel add the appropriate stuff to the Android NDK, our life will remain easy, unlike with winmo7 where we have to recode everything in c#

 

[Azriel4444]

WTF happened to MeeGo? LOL, almost everyone is jumping on the Android bandwagon.

 

[eddieroolz]

This might possibly open up a niche of netbook converted to a quasi-phone via Android. Just a thought.

 

[Guest]

Intel porting Android to x86 while Nokia porting MeeGo to ARM - that is the beauty of open source, you can do what you want to do

 

[dEAne]

Good for netbooks.

 

[back_by_demand]

I have Nero and my printer installed on my netbook, I attach a USB DVDRW, will I still be able to run Nero if I jump to Android? Will I still be able to print things out?
Must be like the 100th time i've asked and still not got a straight answer.

 

[digiex]

Is Intel really abandoning its partner, MS?

 

[vvhocare5]

If past software work is a guideline, Intels solution will be abysmal. As impressive as their CPU work is, their software development skills are the joke of the industry. It will be bloated, buggy, not supported, dropped in 6 months.

 

[Guest]

It will most likely not hold the same power specs on the x86 architecture.
So I won't find any interest in it, as it's a linux less capable than Ubuntu or Windows.

 

[kronos_cornelius]

[citation][nom]kyeana[/nom]That is good news, although personally i would still prefer a normal linux distribution on a netbook, as they have much larger distro specific repositories.I do like all the love android is getting though[/citation]


Same here. I enjoy Android on the phone, but when it came to loading an OS for my netbook, I went with Ubuntu (actually Kubuntu). Android needs more time for the community to port many application that are already mature and easy to use on normal Linux distros.
I thought there was already a port of Android to x86, I think I even tried it using virtualization. I think probably Google did more work porting the Linux kernel to ARM than Intel porting Android to x86

 

[Guest]

I thought Intel had teamed up with Nokia to form MeeGo to fight Android's dominance??