Pegatron and Freescale team for low-power, ultra-cheap netbooks and nettops

Pegatron has been pretty quiet ever since it split off from ASUS to do ODM stuff all by its lonesome -- which is sort of the idea, since Pegatron's mainly doing the behind-the-scenes manufacturing. We're glad, however, that the company peeked out of its shell to show off these new Freescale-based netbooks. The Linux-running laptops boast 8.9-inch screens, 8 hour battery life, 8GB of storage and projected retail prices around $199, while the nettop holds similar power in a pico-style form factor. Under the hood is Freescale's brand new ARM i.MX515 processor, which is a 1GHz chip that's described as basically being three times faster than the iPhone. The win here is that the chip draws very little power and generates very little heat, allowing Pegatron to squeeze impressive battery life out of a very thin form factor. Freescale is working with Ubuntu to prep an ARM-Linux distro, which will hit in May, and Adobe will have an ARM happy version of Flash 10 sometime this year. Supplementing the processor are chips for DSP, 2D, 3D and 720p acceleration, which switch on and off as needed -- we saw the computer in action playing 720p video smoothly while drawing a mere 0.5 watts and not even feeling warm to the touch. The limitation here is obviously straight-up processing power -- it's not very impressive, and certainly slower than Intel's Atom -- but for running an optimized Linux build and surfing the web or watching a vid, Pegatron and Freescale might've just found a new portability sweetspot. They're hoping to have an OEM pick these up around May or June sometime.

Gallery: Pegatron and Freescale team for low-power, ultra-cheap netbooks and nettops

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[Matt @ Jan 9th 2009 8:18PM]

So how long of a battery life are we talking here? Marginally longer than the others or an extreme improvement? (12+ hours)

[Matt @ Jan 9th 2009 8:19PM]

My bad, didn't read the 8 hour battery part...

[Charbax @ Jan 10th 2009 3:51PM]

I'm guessing 12+ hours even 15+ hours can be achieved with a 6-cell battery.

Consider also Pixel Qi will have better lower power screens available by then also. So 20+ hours battery life with this technology will be possible.

[KAIKAI @ Jan 9th 2009 8:28PM]

IMHO
if you drop the ssd and just give me a well sized hdd in place
and built in 3g card
this thing could have the potential to be a media powerhouse
i mean
i could hold ALL of my music and movies
and this thing plays 720p to boot
but thats probebly asking for tomuch ...again :(

[Yoyoma @ Jan 9th 2009 8:35PM]

Agreed, add a program like (virtual scratch, virtual dj or...) and I'm in heaven.

[StickMaker @ Jan 9th 2009 8:29PM]

Hey, we are still fighting about what is a netbook (vs a notebook) and now you throw "nettop" at me; vass ist das??

[madgic987 @ Jan 9th 2009 8:39PM]

Nettop has been around since companies started making Atom-powered slim desktops... It's almost as old at "netbook.."

Unless that was sarcasm.

[Homeboy @ Jan 9th 2009 8:34PM]

In other words this is the $199 netbook that Asus promised us but never delivered.

[Hung @ Jan 9th 2009 8:45PM]

>>Homeboy

This.

[Cory @ Jan 9th 2009 10:24PM]

Uh, please read the article. This is a company of ASUS developing the laptop.

[warrrennnnn @ Jan 10th 2009 4:03AM]

Uh, they did, and this is NOT Asus, this is a company that broke away.

[beast @ Jan 9th 2009 8:42PM]

Wasn't freescale the ones behind the zune / gigabeat new years fiasco?

I'll get my netbook / top / anything else from someone else.

[netcrusher88 @ Jan 11th 2009 7:49PM]

Eh, mistakes happen. Freescale semiconductor is behind the m68k chips in the majority of MIPS hardware that doesn't have a Motorola logo on it anymore (if I recall, Apple used Freescale up through G5) and behind a lot of ARM chipsets too. There's a fair chance any given cell phone runs on Freescale.

The Zune thing was just an outlier.

[Ender @ Jan 9th 2009 8:43PM]

Is it really that hard to use a flash when taking these pictures? I can't see a damn thing they're so dark.

[nhallstar007 @ Jan 9th 2009 8:47PM]

if u just have a external hd its probably worth buyin

[giantenemycrab @ Jan 9th 2009 8:49PM]

Wow, if they can deliver that for $199, I'm sold.

[Lonin @ Jan 9th 2009 8:57PM]

So wait, this lower power $199 netbook can handle 720p content while the $400+ models still can't. Why don't Asus/MSI/Sony/Acer/Dell/etc add in HD-decoding hardware like this machine does? It's obviously not expensive and that's the biggest thing holding me off from buying a netbook right now, the lack of HD support.

[Shyam D @ Jan 9th 2009 9:07PM]

Because Intel didn't add in HD decoding. This thing doesn't run on an Atom CPU. It can't run windows, because it has an ARM CPU, you know like the one in your phone. That ARM Chip has built in HD decoding. That is why it can run HD content.So, yes it is expensive since Dell,etc. would have to do a bottom up design of a chipset for Atom. Or.... you could just wait for Nvidia's Ion, which should give you HD decoding. AFAIK, current Atom setups can run 720P content quite fine. It is 1080p that is the problem.

[Lonin @ Jan 9th 2009 9:16PM]

Point taken, I'm pretty sure there are already plenty of Intel compatible HD-decoding hardware packages though. Whether or not they are power efficient and cost effective I have no idea, but I'd assume it's not too difficult is Freescale is doing it so cheaply. Also, I've to see a netbook (except the Asus N10) capable of 720p playback without overclocking or re-encoding it to a specialized format.

[Shyam D @ Jan 9th 2009 11:32PM]

My Wind plays 720p DIVX and XVID files just fine. H264 is obviously another deal. I also think the GMA500 on the newer Poulsbo chipset has hardware MPEG and CoreAV acceleration, so it may be able to play H264 and 1080p files better. Best bet is to see if someone with a Mini12 can confirm that, but it does look like newer netbooks will be using the Poulsbo chipset now that the Ram limit has been lifted to 2GB.

As for the hardware decoding aspect, it's not as easy as that. You would need to add another dedicated graphics chip, for which you would not have the room in these small machines, let alone the space to dissipate the extra heat.

Secondly, Freescale is a major SoC Manufacturer. Freescale was basically Motorola's Semiconductor Division. So they have the engineers to do this already. There is no extra overhead. Making chips like this is what they do.

Third, from the specs on the GPU, It seems like it is a PowerVR SGX530 core like the TI OMAP3530's. This means that it is very similar to the GMA500, but in fact not as powerfull since the GMA500 employs the SGX535 core. There is also the fact that Intel provides custom drivers for the GMA500 that will likely perform a lot better then the ones provided by Freescale. So expect GMA500 netbooks to be far better then the current GMA950 based ones when it comes to media playback. Games... I'm not so sure on.

[Joe @ Jan 9th 2009 9:23PM]

I love that netbooks pack so much features for so little money. It's something that perhaps OLPC could aspire to.

[Shadyman @ Jan 9th 2009 9:31PM]

Want.

[OddManOut @ Jan 9th 2009 9:54PM]

Any chance for WinCE ? I just bought a Razorbook 400, waiting for it to arrive, it's basically a Wince/ARM powered NEtbook. From my experience with Pocket PCs and Handtops over the years I think WinCE is probably just as good as linux in this case. A low overhead OS that will have all the apps you're likely to use bundled with it.

Of course, I've never heard of a WinCE device that could manage 720P...but who knows...maybe it's just never had the chance...

[loosely_coupled @ Jan 11th 2009 5:42AM]

"think WinCE is probably just as good as linux in this case."
??? Seriously? Just wait for the ARM-compatible Ubuntu distro.. That will slaughter WinCE...

[Michael @ Jan 9th 2009 10:41PM]

So what would be a better buy? This for $200 or the Coby $200 netbook. This seems to have more storage (speculation), and presumably better build quality but the Coby has Atom.

It is still nice to see that they have $200 net books that DONT suck like that hivision thing a few months ago.

[Michael @ Jan 9th 2009 10:43PM]

It is also REALLY thin looking. One question, it cant run windows so why does the keyboard have an MSN button in the pictures?

[Shyam D @ Jan 9th 2009 11:33PM]

Funny thing is that MSN messenger, at least the service is very popular amongst Linux users.

[wootman @ Jan 9th 2009 11:37PM]

In before open pandora.

[Rotaryfan @ Jan 10th 2009 12:20AM]

Its success will come down to how well it handles more than one application at a time. if it can run a few Firefox tabs and openoffice.org at the same time without stuttering, then it's a sure winner. can't beat 8 hours.

[Sweetspot @ Jan 10th 2009 4:44AM]

A computer that can't install windows? Dreams come true!

[jgood @ Jan 10th 2009 1:25PM]

It seems reasonable that the low-power ARM-based CPU itself would consume 0.5 watts, but probably not the entire system. I'd guess that the screen, which appears backlit, would consume at least 2 watts by itself. Apologies if the word "computer" was intended to mean the CPU. Anyway, the main points of the article still stand, it's an inexpensive and low-power machine...and that kind of battery-life is not something to be taken lightly. Moreover, if this thing was equipped with one of those Qualcomm MEMS (Mirasol) color displays (or similar) that use ambient light rather than backlights and this puppy wasn't constantly refreshing the screen (as in running a video), then perhaps it could run for 24 hours on a single charge. Cool! That'd be better than a human (if sleep = recharging, rather than food).

[kingu @ Jan 10th 2009 8:34PM]

YES

[Funz @ Feb 11th 2009 2:54AM]

Would be perfect for a little media center and file sharing server altogether.
That has to be quiet, low-consuming and always on.

[Unknown @ Mar 2nd 2009 7:53AM]

Here's a video demo: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39617753,00.htm