Take note, Intel: New silicon to redefine Netbooks

Move aside, Intel. New chips from Advanced Micro Devices, Freescale Semiconductor, and Qualcomm may redefine the Netbook and ultraportable market next year.

To date, Intel has pretty much defined Netbook performance and features with the popular Atom processor. "We're very comfortable with our product leadership but we don't take anything for granted. And we expect competition in this space. Stay tuned," said Bill Calder, an Intel representative.

Stay tuned indeed. As the Netbook market grows, other chip heavyweights want a piece of the pie. Netbooks--which typically weigh less than 3 pounds and have screens under 11 inches diagonally--got a lift this week when they became one of the top sellers at resellers on "Cyber Monday."

Qualcomm's Netbook prototype using its 3G Snapdragon silicon

(Credit: Natasha Lomas/Silicon.com, a CBS Interactive site)

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, AMD is expected to introduce its ultraportable platform. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chipmaker is targeting "Yukon" technology at consumers that want "smaller, sleeker, and lighter notebook form factors that offer great performance," the company said.

AMD is hoping to one-up Intel by focusing on ultraportables that would have larger screens (ranging up to 13 and 14 inches), bigger keyboards, better graphics horsepower, and ultimately dual-core processors. (Though Netbook vendors are expected to come out with dual-core Atom designs, Intel says its current dual-core offering is targeted at Nettops, not Netbooks.)

Yukon, which AMD first discussed at a November analyst meeting, comprises the Huron single-core processor, RS690E graphics, and the SB600 chipset. A dual-core Conesus chip (as part of the "Congo" platform) with RS780M graphics silicon would come later.

In addition to standard 802.11n Wi-Fi, the Yukon platform also includes 3G broadband wireless, according to AMD slides.

And 3G may be the next big leap for Netbooks. A source at one large chipmaker said that a Japan-based telecommunications company may roll out a subscription-based "$1" Netbook with 3G. And this may also be the next big feature included on Netbooks in Europe where the form factor has proven to be popular.

Enter telecommunications chip giant Qualcomm, which comes at these devices from the opposite direction of PC chipmakers Intel and AMD. Qualcomm has been making and designing highly integrated chips for cell phones since it was founded in 1985.

The San Diego, Calif.-based company has been showing off a Netbook-like design based on its Snapdragon chip. (See photo.) While Snapdragon supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it is designed from the ground up as a 3G platform. And Qualcomm does this all on silicon that can fit inside a smartphone. Like a cell phone, Snapdragon-based Netbooks would have always-on connectivity.

In November, Qualcomm introduced a 45-nanometer chip (Atom is 45nm too) with "two integrated computing cores" running at speeds up to 1.5GHz. The dual-CPU Snapdragon single-chip QSD8672 offers long battery life and a full range of 3G mobile broadband options.

Sampling of the newest Snapdragon chip is scheduled for the second half of 2009.

A Qualcomm spokeswoman said Thursday that the company is working with end-product Netbook manufacturers including Acer, Toshiba, and HTC, with products expected in the first half of 2009 using current Snapdragon technology.

The 3G wireless broadband technology uses integrated multi-mode modems including HSPA+ for up to 28 Mbps when downloading data and up to 11 Mbps when uploading. Other features include support for Linux and Windows Mobile, GPS, Bluetooth, 1080p high-definition video recording and playback and support for Wi-Fi and mobile TV technologies such as MediaFLO, DVB-H and ISDB-T.

The integrated 2D and 3D graphics support display resolutions up to WSXGA (1440 x 900).

Freescale--formerly Motorola's chipmaking arm--also plans to get in on the Netbook act. It plans to announce its entry into the Netbook market at CES with an addition to its i.MX application processor family.

Freescale says its processor will be the "only one in the space that offers a dual-core graphics engine targeting OpenVG and OpenGL, which enables 2D and 3D graphics as well as Flash and SVG." (SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics.)

The new i.MX processor is based on a highly-advanced, GHz-class ARM core, according to a representative.

[erichmercado]

This is good news for consumers who would like to have a netbook or 2nd computer with 100% connectivity. It will also tip the scale for regular laptops too. Who knows, all laptops can have a SIM card slot or WCDMA compatible and make calls directly from Windows or Linux even Mac OS.

[zeroplane]

Better yet, how about a web-enabled 3G set-top-box that provides internet, streaming video and music, and HDTV quality video?

Forget the whole installation, one room BS of Comcast and Qwest or the Satellite services. Have 3G and watch it anywhere. Add to that a single sign-on account where I can watch the service either on my totally mobile set-top-box, netbook (via internet) and cellphone.

Then suddenly the US would be like Asia and Europe.. gasp maybe we won't be the back-water 3rd world technology infrastructure in a 1st world power.

Once the current land line corporations go on the defensive it translates to pure benefit to consumers.

[czmyt]

I am disappointed that there are no netbooks with XGA (1024x768) or WXGA (1280x768/800). Is it true that Microsoft will not let the hardware companies put XP on their "netbooks" if the resulution is bigger than 1024x600? Someone needs to come out with a netbook that has at least an XGA display no larger than 10", a decent processor (current Atom or newer dual-core Atom), Bluetooth, and a solid-state drive. If Microsoft won't let them put XP on such a machine, then put Linux on it and I will install XP Pro myself.

[BigGuns149]

One reason I foree there not being much demand for said resolutions on such a small notebook is that it would either require the notebook to have a narrower keyboard (the keyboards are barely big enough as is) or make the DPI so high as to drive people crazy. The DPI on a the 8.9" laptops with a 1024x600 is ~133dpi, which is almost too high as it is. An 8.9" display would have 144dpi with a 1024x768, which might be tolerable, but going to a 4:3 aspect ratio would either shrink the keyboard (not desirable) or create a keyboard wider than the display, which is a little strange.

A 8.9" display with 1280x768, while largely resolving the compressed keyboard issue by getting almost the same aspect ratio as 1024x600 results in a downright tiny pixels because the dpi goes up to ~159dpi. Good luck selling that to a lot of customers. While I like higher resolutions because they give one more room to work, I think most people find 159dpi squeezes too much information in too little space.

I don't question that there are some people who want what you are looking for, but the market would be too limited for most vendors to even be interested.

[chrisx1]

Come on! 14 inch "Netbook??!!"
Just get a laptop then!!

[tipoo_]

Intel's Atom isnt as good as everyone seems to think it is...

[pithenumber]

It is good enough to get you on the internet and that is all that it needs to do