(Credit:
Lenovo)
Do you believe in smartbooks yet? Smaller than Netbooks, running custom OSes and miniature smartphone processors, these newly-coined devices are supposed to offer the best of smartphone convenience with the form factor of a Netbook. They're ready to start appearing on the scene, and Lenovo has one of the first with their Skylight.
With a 10.1-inch screen, it's not exactly a supersmall device compared to an iPhone--but it is much thinner than nearly any Netbook. With built-in 3G and Wi-Fi, Lenovo promises a seamless browsing experience. The OS, however, is not Windows, or even Ubuntu: it's a Linux-based custom OS with "web gadgets" for accessing functions such as Gmail and Facebook, sounding much like a smartphone's apps. The Skylight comes with 18 built in, including Amazon MP3 and Roxio CinemaNow to add music and movie purchasing.
A promised 10 hours-plus of battery life sounds tempting, but of course we'd have to see that for ourselves. And how well does it play videos? That
... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
Tablet and Netbopk combined: the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
(Credit: Lenovo)Tablets are rapidly becoming the hot chatter-buzzword of 2010. Netbooks were very 2009. Combine them both and perhaps you end up with a great idea--at least, so hopes Lenovo. In one of the boldest moves in laptop technology at CES, the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid doesn't just flip its screen to become a tablet--the screen detaches completely as its own separately powered computing device.
Perhaps it sounds too good to be true, and we're both skeptical and very curious here at CNET. At an estimated cost of $999, the U1 will have in its main body an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor, and its 11.6-inch multitouch screen will house a separate ARM processor and battery. Both devices will produce completely different experiences, however, according to Lenovo's press release. Availability hasn't been revealed yet, but Lenovo should release those details soon.
In its notebook form, the hybrid will run Windows 7 Home Premium and
... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
Lenovo smartbook: Smaller than a Netbook, or a smartphone in a different body?
(Credit: techtickerblog.com)Remember how we said new Netbooks were coming for CES? We might as well expand that statement to include smartbooks. The new terminology, coined to describe laptop-style devices running sub-Atom processors (Snapdragon from Qualcomm being one of them), is rapidly gaining in fashion lately, especially in relation to cell phone carriers. Packaging these types of extremely small and cheap smart devices in with cellular data plans seems like a match made in gadget heaven.
We've seen prototype smartbooks from Nvidia featuring the Tegra processor (the same that's in the Zune HD), but the Lenovo smartbook unveiled ever-so-briefly at a Qualcomm event Thursday is new and intriguing, and is the first smartbook to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon. Reports say that it runs a variation of a Linux OS (Windows 7 stops at Netbooks) and has an HD-supporting screen, although it's not clear whether HD video can actually be played.
On Tegra smartbooks, we know that the answer ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
The 1GHz smartphone has arrived. A Japanese telecommunications carrier is the first to launch a device based on Qualcomm's much-anticipated Snapdragon processor.
The Toshiba-Docomo T-01A uses Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon chip.
(Credit: Docomo)Docomo is now offering the T-01A in Japan, while Microsoft is pitching the phone on its Japanese Web site.
This would mark the first commercially available product using the Snapdragon chip, a Qualcomm spokeswoman confirmed Monday. The chip's claim to fame is that it's an ARM design running at 1GHz. Typical ARM architecture chips used in mobile phones, such as the iPhone 3G S, peak at about 600MHz.
A legion of other chip suppliers offer ARM-based chips for mobile devices, including Texas Instruments, Freescale Semiconductor, Samsung, Nvidia, STMicroelectronics, and Broadcom.
The Toshiba-Docomo T-01A--which will be offered outside of Japan as the TG01--runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and is designed to take on the iPhone. Only 9.9mm thick, it uses a 4.1-inch WVGA 800x480 384k pixel resistive touch screen and comes with support for 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and assisted-GPS.
The TG01 is also slated to be available in Europe this summer.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon silicon supports high-definition (720p) video decode, 3D graphics (up to 22M triangles/sec), XGA display support, a 12-megapixel camera, and mobile broadcast TV.
Qualcomm has been talking up the Snapdragon (aka QSD8250) since November 2007, when the company announced initial sample shipments of the chipset.
And Qualcomm won't stop at 1GHz. The San Diego-based company has demonstrated Netbooks running a 1.3GHz Snapdragon processor and will eventually push the chip to 1.5GHz.
The future Qualcomm QSD8672 will be a dual-core Snapdragon that features two CPU computing cores and will include HSPA+, up to 28Mbps download speeds, 1080p high-definition video, Wi-Fi, mobile TV, and GPS. The graphics core is based on Advanced Micro Devices' ATI unit's technology.
Pricing is not immediately available.
(Via Engadget)
Smartbooks: a different beast than Netbooks? (conceptual design from Freescale)
(Credit: Freescale Semiconductor)While many eyes are on E3, Taiwan's Computex conference is more quietly generating some interesting news on the future of Netbooks and laptops that will eventually make their way stateside. For a peek into the crystal ball of mobile computing, let's take a look at what's been announced in Taipei, Taiwan, this week.
Mobile-phone-based Netbooks are growing: "Smartbooks," as they're being called by companies like Qualcomm, seem to be this year's Netbook. It's mostly a naming convention shift: ARM processors based on smartphone chips, like Qualcomm's Snapdragon, were demoed on Asus Eee PC Netbooks--running Android, no less. While Snapdragon competitor Freescale Semiconductor, who makes an ARM-based iMX515 processor, predicts hybrid Smartbooks that will look like tablets, others see them being even more portable Netbooks.
Regardless of the processor, companies are finally announcing the release of honest-to-goodness Android Netbooks, running a laptop-based version of the Google-created smartphone OS, later this year. Acer took the leap by confirming their release of Android Netbooks by the third quarter of this year, suddenly accelerating the "Android on Netbooks" argument we've been having on CNET. Is Android really a better OS solution? The point may be moot for laptop manufacturers such as Acer who are also entering the smartphone space, and are mostly likely interested in targeting Google for an across-the-board mobile OS option on their future devices. According to Acer, "a majority" of their Netbooks will run Android as an alternative to Windows. ... Read More
An Eee PC Netbook based on a Qualcomm processor that runs Google's Android operating system looks promising as an alternative to the millions of Netbooks out there tethered to Intel Atom processors and Microsoft Windows.
An Asus Qualcomm-based smart-book is a promising alternative to Windows-Intel Netbooks
(Credit: Asus)Asus was showing a Netbook at the Computex conference in Taipei running the Android OS on top of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor, according to this TweakTown video.
When Asus plans to ship a Netbook based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor isn't clear and Asus is not disclosing its plans (later this year?), but it becomes even less clear when you add Google's Android operating system to the mix. Michael Rayfield, an Nvidia executive, doesn't expect Android Netbooks to appear commercially until next year.
What is clear, however, is that these Netbooks are different from the Windows-Intel variety. Qualcomm is calling them "smartbooks" rather than Netbooks to draw attention to the fact that they will operate more like smartphones: standard 3G connectivity, always-on, and all-day battery life.
And what makes this Asus demonstration at Computex interesting is that all Asus Netbooks to date have run on Intel processors. Obviously, Asus thinks the Snapdragon technology is different enough to warrant a separate design.
Other specification for the Netbook include a 10-inch screen, a built-in Webcam, and a universal 3G radio that supports UMTS and CDMA networks on all frequencies used globally, according to an IDG News report.
I'm no fan of Windows Mobile, but Toshiba Europe just dropped a new smartphone that might make me forgive the OS. This is the TG01, a new touch-screen handset that Toshiba is apparently aiming at the iPhone. And it runs on the Snapdragon CPU at 1GHz.
The speedy proc is nice, and the other features are as high-tech, such as the HSUPA/HSDPA data modem for 3G connectivity, the 4.1-inch hi-res WVGA display, Wi-Fi, GPS, and built-in support for DivX.
Toshiba also has a TouchFlo-like UI layer over the ugliness of Windows Mobile 6.1 that appears fairly slick. And the form factor is very nice indeed. But until it's sporting WinMo 6.5, it's not really an iPhone replacement yet.
Qualcomm has Snapdragon. Intel has Atom and Moorestown. Which of these chips is (will be) a more viable, compelling chip for the fit-in-your-pocket device and ultralight computer market? I'll let the reader decide.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon is a highly integrated chip that is shipping now. Products are due in Q1 2009.
(Credit: Qualcomm)All of these chips are targeted at mobile Internet devices, like the Apple iPhone, and ultralight (less than 3 pounds) notebooks, like the Asus Eee PC. Two (Snapdragon and Moorestown) are aimed at high-end smartphones.
Here's a very quick overview of the silicon. You decide which seem more compelling.
Atom is here now. For Intel, it is a very-low-power chip (but not considered low-power in the cell phone world), boasting a thermal envelope of about two watts, compared to 35 watts for a typical Intel Core 2 chip for laptops.
Atom, however, is not highly integrated. Graphics, audio, memory controller, and communications silicon are all on a separate chipset.
Importantly, Atom runs the same software and Web applications as any other x86 architecture Intel chip in a typical PC. This is a big selling point for Atom (or any Intel chip for that matter), according to Intel.
But Atom isn't fast. High-end Atom processors (1.6GHz) benchmark more or less on par with a low-end Celeron processor. (Celeron is Intel's low-end line of processors.) And Intel is on the record saying that Atom is similar in performance to circa 2003-2004 Pentium mobile chips.
Less is known about Intel's Moorestown (see graphic below), due in 2009 or 2010. This much is known: it will integrate additional logic, bringing it more in line with silicon designs in the smartphone market--at which Moorestown is targeted. For example, the SOC (system-on-a-chip) will integrate components like the memory controller and graphics, boosting communication speeds between these crucial devices. And, like Atom, it will run all the popular software on PCs today.
Enter Qualcomm and Snapdragon (aka Qualcomm QSD8250 and QSD8650), which is targeted at high-end smartphones and mobile Internet devices.
The key difference between Snapdragon and Atom (Intel's only well-documented processor for ultrasmall devices) is power and integration. Qualcomm--because of its background in the cell phone market where integration and low-power are the name of the game--has packed a lot of features onto one piece of silicon that is short on power consumption and long on battery life. By comparison, delivering integration and long battery life in a tiny device are not things Intel has focused on in the past.
(Qualcomm has been involved in the market for cell phone silicon since the early 1990s. Intel isn't even a player yet.)
Another salient point: Qualcomm isn't licensing the technology from ARM in the traditional sense. The company has licensed the instruction set only and then built its own processor, allowing it to boost the clock speed to 1GHz and beyond while keeping the power low. Snapdragon, however, is not a speed demon. It will offer relatively good performance within the targeted power envelope.
Key features: Snapdragon operates below 0.5 watts, is based on the newest ARM v7 instruction set, runs as fast as 1GHz, and integrates almost everything including the processor, GPS, an ATI graphics core, multimedia (digital signal processor), and 3G modem, all on one 15mm X 15mm piece of silicon (see graphic).
Qualcomm is claiming cell phone-like battery life.
The San Diego-based company is shipping Snapdragon to customers who will ship products in the first quarter of 2009. HTC and Samsung have announced that they will bring out products based on Snapdragon.
Moorestown silicon due in 2009-2010 is the closest thing Intel has to Qualcomm's Snapdragon
(Credit: Intel)- prev
- 1
- next
