ARM to release netbook, MID chips

Intel's Atom is enjoying some pretty lonely dominance in the netbook market, with nary a spot of competition from VIA's ephemeral Nano or whatever AMD has in store for us -- a void ARM has just announced it plans to fill with ARMv7 chips. The mobile device chipmaker has partnered with Canonical to develop a version of Ubuntu specifically tailored to run on netbooks and MIDs with ARM Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processors, a platform ARM says will offer all-day battery life as well as advanced video functionality. That sounds pretty good to us (and Intel, actually) -- too bad we won't see any of these mythical machines until at least Ubuntu's April 2009 street date for the ARM port. Good thing Intel will be lying around counting cash and not developing anything until then, right guys? Sigh.

[collegekid13 @ Nov 13th 2008 12:17AM]

man i'd be in charge of intel right now. no economic slowdown for them

[1234321 @ Nov 13th 2008 12:33AM]

nice try ARM, but the general public wants Windows, and Windows wants X86,
though if you can make it cheap enough, there will a niche market for Ubuntu users
now, another question is, will this ARM port also work on current devices running the A8 and A9

[PRJ @ Nov 13th 2008 2:09AM]

It's people like you who have made this Microsoft era last for too long!

Most people don't care/know what they are running as long as it just works. Most people don't even know they have an option. I'd say Ubuntu gives a much better user experience than any version of windows. When it comes to compatibility it's not as crucial if we're talking about an MID. It's not like you're going to run many windows only apps on it anyways. And if the price is a little bit lower because you don't have to pay the Microsoft tax I think this could be a success.

The ARM architecture in it self is way better than the Intel arch. It's faster, easier to optimize code, doesn't have to be backwards compatible to the 1980's technology. It's simple and clean. The two words that both Intel and Microsoft forgot about 20 years ago.

[ethana2 @ Nov 13th 2008 2:50AM]

Screw you.

[urandom @ Nov 13th 2008 5:55AM]

Yes, I can see it now. The masses, featuring Joe Sixpack (Plumber?) and son screaming that they want Windows on their brand new netbook, as they are soo computer literate.

[linuxamp @ Nov 13th 2008 12:36AM]

This Cortex-A8 is still ARM architecture right? I thought netbooks/MIDs were x86 by definition. Sticking an ARM in a netbook makes it a giant PDA, probably without a touchscreen. That's exactly what the world needs, a 9 inch touchpad Windows Mobile.

[OziD @ Nov 13th 2008 2:28AM]

lol que

[Macdelaney @ Nov 13th 2008 5:20AM]

O RLY?

[Shyam D @ Nov 13th 2008 12:51AM]

An ARM MID would probably work, but I think we're all waiting for Nokia to release the new N-Series Tablet for that niche market.

Netbooks, I'm not too sure about. That's laptop territory and you're edging on "Why doesn't it run Windows", non-computer savvy people.

[DarkLight @ Nov 13th 2008 1:41AM]

I know I'll get lowest ranked (the rank, not the dude), but I'll write it anyway:

Screw the normal people!!

I'm tired of Winblows stopping technological advance

Comparing the Cortex-A9's architecture to _the best_ X86 out there is like comparing a 200MPG supersonic jet to a 5MPG Volkswagen Beetle

If winblows is in the way between us and (almost) magical devices, screw winblows, use an ARM Linux desktop

(Not that winblows has a better desktop/software than Linux, it's just the unfamiliar ambient what sets people down... Well, the unfamiliar ambient and crappy video editing, but it's improving)

[ethana2 @ Nov 13th 2008 2:52AM]

Video editing is indeed abysmal. Hopefully lumiera doesn't end up like Duke Nukem Forever.

[Shyam D @ Nov 13th 2008 10:07AM]

DarkLight, sure, but from the perspective of a company. Normal People = much larger market then the niche tinkerer market. Hence, as a company I would want to target that segment, especially with something low-cost.

[iofthestorm @ Nov 13th 2008 12:55AM]

Hmm, I'd say one already exists, the Pandora. It's running a Cortex A8, is specced for 10 hours of battery life, and already can run Ubuntu. I imagine with a netbook-sized device you could easily get 24 hours of battery life and performance better than that of an Atom, since clock for clock ARM is far more efficient than x86. Sure, for the Windows netbook market this won't make a difference but why get a Windows netbook with Atom and 4-6 hours of battery life when you can get an ARM-powered Linux netbook with a battery that will last all day? Really, if the point of the netbook is to be cheap, boot fast, and provide internet and light computing tasks, then the Cortex A8 is ideal.

[maveric101 @ Nov 13th 2008 11:23AM]

amen.

[Dubb @ Nov 13th 2008 4:58PM]

The Ubuntu was hacked on there from what I understand and isn't fully optimized. I can't wait to see how it operates once an official ARM port is released for Ubuntu.

[mlau @ Nov 13th 2008 1:10AM]

There's a simple reason why Intel is enjoying success in the netbook market:
Atom runs windows. Windows is what the taiwanese reference-design cloners known,
all their validation is built around windows.

Windows (at least not the CE versions) doesn't run on ARM -> intel + windows win.
Sad, really.

[fischju @ Nov 13th 2008 3:39PM]

That was a little confusing. There ARE versions of Windows CE for ARM.

[Jeff @ Nov 13th 2008 1:45AM]

While I understand the argument for Windows, I think it's becoming less important to run a particular operating system these days... especially in a mobile situation. What we do need is a standards-based internet browser. Firefox, while not completely perfect is slowly filling this void. I've also got my eyes on Safari and Chrome, but in terms of market share, Firefox is doing what no other browser has done before (challenge Microsoft).

When you need to sit down and get work done, there are full size laptops and desktops. When you're on the road the only important piece of software is a browser. Think about what you CAN'T do in a browser and then think about if you would actually want to do those things on a small screen and cramped keyboard anyway.

I couldn't care less if it's x86, ARM, or a hamster running a wheel. If it has a good browser, I'll be interested (especially if the batteries last all day).

[zmjjmz @ Nov 13th 2008 1:51AM]

Good browser unfortunately requires proprietary flash. Not sure if there's an ARM9 version of that.

[Omar @ Nov 13th 2008 2:10AM]

I'm personally not a fan of netbooks (i consider them to be too small), but thet are an opening for ARM and Free OSes. All they have to do is not screw it up. The people who really care about Windows tend to be gamers, and it's not like anyone is seriously going to want play Crysis on them.

[DarkLight @ Nov 13th 2008 2:42AM]

@zmj: Yes there is Flash for ARM Linux...

The Nokia internet tablets have it.

[vance @ Nov 13th 2008 8:07AM]

A browser AND a few simple apps like a word processor, spell check, calculator, basic spreadsheets. Sometimes I'd like to do some basic work without connecting to the net.

I can't wait till netbooks run 10 hours... :)

[zmjjmz @ Nov 13th 2008 1:49AM]

If these become popular enough, we could see an ARM9 port of Windows 7.

[ethana2 @ Nov 13th 2008 2:53AM]

Yay, competition.
I'm still sad AMD never went into ARM chips, I think that'd be a hilarious way to fight back against Core2 and Atom.

[WillHe @ Nov 13th 2008 2:30AM]

Wow, this looks like what I want in a netbook.

1. Runs Linux
2. Small Form Factor, but big enough to type on (sorry Pandora)
3. Long Battery life
4. Cheap (assumption here...)

[Anand Patel @ Nov 13th 2008 5:01AM]

The windows argument is pretty lame... On a small form factor screen you are not going to want to edit your home movies, you are not going to want to do full desktop publishing. The things you want to do when you are on the road are things like surf the web, check email, watch a film or write a word document. You do not need windows to do any of this and the ARM processor is more than capable of all this.

[NickNick @ Nov 13th 2008 7:52AM]

Whoever gives me a good and fast porn streaming on the move and last the longest wins

[htd @ Nov 13th 2008 8:05AM]

I dont see x86 mentioned in the article.

[Jeff @ Nov 13th 2008 8:18AM]

Running WinCE/WM on ARM is probably easier for the general public to accept. I have seen prototype MID devices running WinCE and they customize the desktop to look almost exactly like XP.

[cb88 @ Nov 13th 2008 12:57PM]

And what is stoping linux from doing the same?

you gain no advantage with WinCE since you can't run x86 apps

also who are "they"? I customise MY desktop to look how I want. and I'm sure most windows users can pick up linux pretty fast (the biggest hurdle is HW configuration and that would be non on a preconfigured netbook)

[Sean @ Nov 13th 2008 3:26PM]

There is a reason ARM has 80% market share in the mobile processor market: nobody can come close to touching them on power consumption. I've been waiting forever for them to move into the UMPC market and cream the Atom. FYI for the Apple fans that may be reading this, the iPhone sports an ARM.

[nalala2004 @ Nov 13th 2008 7:51PM]

That's good sound and It can meet the power feature for mini PC
but I am just wondergin It is working smoothly for full application ? on which spec? Clock speed ? how much size cache or memory require.. anyway I think it's working well on cortex-A9 Thanks