ARM's Cortex-A9 beats Atom N270: too bad it's not 2008
By Thomas Ricker 
posted September 16th 2009 7:18AM
posted September 16th 2009 7:18AM
ARM's doing some chest thumping today by revealing a 2GHz clock speed on its dual-core Cortex-A9 processor. The move is meant to remind manufacturers that ARM can scale beyond its traditional smartphone strong-hold and into netbook territories currently dominated by Intel. ARM's even handing out benchmarks showing the Cortex A9 out performing Intel's single-core 1.6GHz Atom N270 -- a processor launched back in 2008. Of course, Intel already ships a dual-core Atom 330 processor with its low-power Pineview processor set to launch on the near-horizon. It's also worth remembering that Windows 7 won't run on ARM so future Cortex A9 smartbooks will have to settle for Windows CE, Android, or perhaps, Google's Chrome OS if you ask politely. ARM is licensing its Cortex A9 speed- and power-optimized technology today with delivery in the fourth quarter of 2009.[Via PC World, thanks Ian]
Or you could run Debian or Ubuntu, or any of the other Linux distros with ARM builds, no need to ask politely.
I can't see why everyone is focusing on this chip vs the Atom. The real benefit is when we start to see it in smartphones. As an example, I have absolutely no issues with the speed of my Pre as it is now. It's a little laggy, but not enough to be a bother to me. But could you imagine how much better it'd be with a multi-core Cortex A9 chip in there?
Ubuntu. Is it really that easy to forget Linux?
As a wise man once said, "you have to assemble the chair, it's really comfy, the plane food is great, you get there really quickly, and the attendants are really nice. But when you try to tell someone about it, all they say is 'You had to do WHAT to get your chair?'"
I use Windows mostly because I don't really have a need for the extra customization as a sacrifice for simplicity at a general consumer level, but I'd readily spring for one packing this processor.
you forgot the part about the plane ticket being free
Are you guys senile? You're comparing the Cortex A9, a mobile processor, against an desktop Atom variant (Atom 330). Given that netbook makers are still putting the N70 into netbooks being sold today, this is a perfectly good comparison for ARM to make.
Now your sentence about Pineview is more valid but still a bit unfair since nobody has seen them so comparing against them would be hard.
But the real news is the power consumption. You have the Cortex A9 at 250 mW while the mobile Atoms start at 2 W and go up to 8W with the desktop Atoms. This is an entire order of magnitude of difference! Expect real full-day computing on the horizon with ARM smartbooks.
As for the OS, don't forget many of the major Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Debian. Smartbook makers and ARM have already been working with Ubuntu to get out a polished ARM port. See http://blog.canonical.com/?p=74 and http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/arm
Looks good to me, we need the competition!
Hopefully WinCE 7\WinMo 7 will be good, I am hearing good news regarding the Zune HD.
Linux can go to hell.
There's a light & fast derivative of Ubuntu in the works called "Lubuntu". It is based on LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment). It may be another great option, for this type of device.
Check it out, on the LXDE website:
http://www.lxde.org/
You're wrong about the performance!
The 800Mhz version beats the (2008) N270. (max. 0.5W)
The 2Ghz version is 2.5x faster! (max. 1.9W)
2.5x faster while using less power is quite a feat (especially considering that Intel is using a more advanced process).
You can keep your 5-hour netbook, I'll take something like the Touch Book from Always Innovating with this new ARM processor and get 12 hours battery life. And Android.