Freescale challenges Intel's hold on netbook market

Lincoln Spector — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:11:16 -0500

Freescale Semiconductor announced a new processor this morning that could result in $200 netbooks with eight hours of battery life.

Designed as a one-chip solution, Freescale's i.MX515 processor will have both OpenVG and OpenGL graphics cores, "enabling 2D and 3D graphics as well as Flash and SVG for enhanced user experiences," according to a Freescale press release. The chip uses an ARM Cortex-A8 core and 65-nm process technology. According to an article in eWeek.com, "The new Freescale netbook platform consumes less than half a watt of power."

A reference design is now available to systems manufacturers. It includes a power management IC, a low-power audio codec, Adobe Flash Lite, and Ubuntu Linux. Freescale's press release makes no mention of Windows, but an article in eFluxMedia states that Microsoft's operating system won't be supported.

Freescale is currently sampling the chip, and hopes to be in full production in the second quarter. Actual netbooks are not likely to reach consumers until late this year.

Until recently, netbooks have been synonymous with Intel's low-powered Atom processor. Netbooks are generally smaller than laptops, and are intended for relatively lightweight computing tasks, such as email and Web surfing.

Long-time Intel competitor AMD is also hoping to enter the netbook market this year with its upcoming Yukon processor.

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Freescale challenges Intel's hold on netbook market