Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200
By Darren Murph 
posted January 4th 2010 12:01AM
posted January 4th 2010 12:01AM
Freescale evolves second-generation smartbook form factors with new tablet design
Solution combines best attributes of smartphones and notebook PCs for the ideal blend of performance, portability and battery life
AUSTIN, Texas – Jan. 4, 2010 – Freescale Semiconductor has unveiled the future of the smartbook category with a tablet reference design featuring a 7-inch touch screen with up to four times the viewing area of a typical smartphone and based on a form factor that is approximately one-third the size and volume of today's typical netbook.
The design is intended to enable a second generation of smartbook products with prices less than $200 and featuring form factors that fully leverage the power, performance and functionality advantages of advanced ARM® processor technology. It is designed to provide instant-on functionality, persistent connectivity and all-day battery life. The design will be demonstrated at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show running both the Android and Linux® operating systems.
The solution is based on Freescale's highly integrated 1GHz i.MX515 processor incorporating ARM Cortex™-A8 technology, and it also includes Freescale's MC13892 power management IC, SGTL5000 audio codec and the MMA8450Q 3-axis accelerometer. The solution is designed to help OEMs jump-start creation of smartbook tablets. End products based on the design could hit retail shelves as soon as the summer of 2010.
"Freescale's new tablet opens the door to an exciting new world of compelling form factors specifically designed and optimized to support common online activities including social media, high-quality audio/video playback and light gaming," said Henri Richard, senior vice president of Sales and Marketing for Freescale. "We believe the tablet will emerge as a popular form factor for the next generation of smartbooks. By introducing this prototype reference design, Freescale intends to play a vital role in propelling the mainstream adoption of smartbooks."
The design is the first platform in Freescale's Smart Application Blueprint for Rapid Engineering (SABRE) series. The SABRE tablet platform for smartbooks incorporates feedback from of a recently completed end-user research study conducted in conjunction with Savannah College of Art and Design's prestigious Industrial Design program.
"Semiconductor providers looking to differentiate in the nascent tablet market will need to offer solutions-focused system reference designs if they are to succeed with the world's foremost consumer electronics OEMs," said Jeff Orr, senior mobile devices analyst at ABI Research. "There is clearly strong end-user demand for tablet form-factors, and new reference designs look to play a major role in helping OEMs speed tablet smartbook products to market."
The tablet includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® wireless connectivity, and also features a 3D desktop framework with touch screen/QWERTY keyboard support. 3G modem and RF4CE protocol options are available. The tablet's modular approach to 3G connectivity lets systems designers select carrier-specific air interfaces appropriate for different regions. Modules can be pre-certified by carriers and selected to match a range of features and performance ranges. This method makes it easy to migrate quickly to new modem technologies as they are introduced.
Example smartbook platform applications intended to run on the tablet include a web browser with Adobe® Flash® Player and multimedia plug-ins, a media center, PDF and image viewers, a mail client, an RSS reader, an office suite, handwriting utilities and various widgets for Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Weather SMS and other applications.
Smartbook reference design features
• Size: small/thin form factor (200mm x 128mm x 14.9cm and weighing 376 grams); no need for fan or heat sink
• Processor: Freescale i.MX515 applications processor provides high performance and low power
- ARM Cortex-A8 1GHz
- OpenVG & OpenGL/ES graphics cores
- HD video decoder hardware
• Memory: 512 MB DDR2
• Display: 7-inch (1024 x 600) touch screen
• Storage: 4-64 GB internal storage; removable micro SD
• Connectivity: 3G modem (option) 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, RF4CE (option)
• Ports: USB 2.0 and USB mini (also for charging), audio in/audio out, SIM card
• Audio: speaker, microphone
• Camera: 3 Mpixel (video recording up to VGA @ 30fps)
• Battery: 1900mAh, USB charging
• Sensors: the MMA8450Q 3-axis accelerometer and an ambient light sensor
• Power management IC
Partners
Freescale and its partners offer a range of support, including turnkey designs. Inventec Appliance Corporation (IAC) provides expertise in design and manufacturing services for handhelds and netbooks. Freescale has also partnered with Thundersoft for software integration customization and optimization. For companies wishing to manage their projects internally, Freescale offers design aids including block diagram, schematic, list of materials and a Linux board support package.
Availability
The smartbook reference design is expected to be available for evaluation beginning February 2010 through local Freescale sales representatives. Reference design details are available at www.freescale.com/smartbook.
See JooJoo? some people actually tried to make it affordable!
I HATE BEZELS. Why the hell is the bezel so fat on all sides? A 6 to 7 inch tablet needs to be 2:1 or 2.5:1 aspect ratio. Minimally, at least substantially reduce or eliminate bezel on the two sides so that the device isn't unnecessarily wide. It need to be able to fit in a pants pocket.
Fudge's sake I hate bezels more than I hate buttons. Seriously.
@JS ... It's got an accelerometer, so what would you hold when you went portrait? And as for putting it in your pocket - that's what your smartphone's for, silly.
Product niches:
Dumbphone < MP3 Player < Smartphone < *THIS SMARTBOOK* < Netbook < Nettop < Laptop < Desktop
@JS
This type of comment makes baby fatbencher cry. Just an experiment: try holding an A4-sized paperback (closed of course) without any part of your hands touching the front cover. In both portrait and landscape orientation.
You can't touch the screen -- because that would cause the touchscreen to register. Now sit in that awkward position for 5 minutes and come back to tell us a bezel is useless.
@fatbencher
And Neuromancer is right too: in landscape mode you'd have to be able to use one hand for navigation. Which means that your other hand would need to hold on to the whole tablet. But you can't grasp it with one hand without a bezel. True, that does work for phones, but unless your hands are 2 feet long this won't work.
@fatbencher
A 6 inch display with no bezel that HAS 2:1 aspect ratio is only slightly wider than the iPhone. a 7 incher may be about 30% wider. Also on the lengthways side there can be a place to hold it I guess. but honestly I don't need a place to grasp it. I can hold it comfortably without a place to grasp it .. open my right hand palm and then have my pinkie vertical and also the thumb (which is also vertical and a sort of angle)applies a slight friction perpendicularly (thumb may need about a milimeter of bezel).. and it can fit snuggly in my palm .. I am testing now with a book. ?Wish I could take a pic.
Anyway none of that is necessary a 7 or 6 inch display WITH A 2:1 or 2.5:1 aspect ratio is not that much wider than an iPhone which doesnt have much bezel on two of its sides.
Ideal tablet (how I'd design it):
1. two (one front facing, another rear) to four cameras (for 3D)
2. 2:1 aspect ratio (maybe 2.5:1 even)
3. Highest possible resolution in a 6 or 7 inch diagonal width multi-touch touchscreen (remember 2:1 or 2.5:1 aspect ratio, also check with pixelqi if they have anything that may work)
4. multi core CPU (ARM, x86 don't matter .. low power though)
5. USB
6. LEDs to notify of stuff
7. 3G, maybe even LTE, Wifi, bluetooth, GPS (duh)
8. 8 hour battery (I don't mind if it needs a thicker battery)
9. Android OS
10. Induction charger (though I guess the tech aint ready for this yet so fuck it I'll do with it)
$800
just do it ...
1. make some slick cg
2. promise great specs and impossible low price
3. get a lot of venture capital
4. get someone to design hardware and software
5. get one of the few actual factories to build it
6. update specs and price
7. hope someone still wants to buy it
Why put a MicroSD slot on such a large device? It's stupid. Put a full-sized SD slot on any device that's big enough, and then you can always adapt it to smaller cards.
The design looks a little boring, but if i can pic up a tablet for around $250 i will survive somehow.
Is that main pic gold or brown? If it's brown, just put a vibran sole on the back and call it a shoe.
Dedicated back button, wtf?
and if it had an Apple logo they would be drooling and swooning like a bunch of teenage girls... sheesh
Woah, it's ugly.
WTF is this? An e-reader?
Its a demonstrator/reference model. Its not meant to be sold to the public. Its meant to show freescale customers what can be done with freescale components. Companies would use this as a jumping off point for their own devices.
Cortex A8 processor = pretty slow for a netbook even if you call it a 'smartbook'. Aren't we supposed to be getting the dual-core A9 this year? Wait for that.
This should have about the same processor performance as a current phone; N900 runs a (different brand) Cortex A8 at 600 MHz, for instance, so this is 'about half as fast again as an N900' but it has to run a bigger screen. (Other current smartphones also use Cortex A8 processors.)
And this looks a lot more like an 'internet tablet' to me (earth to Freescale: can we please not use any of the 'book' words for something that doesn't have a keyboard).
So basically, if you think of this kind of device as a phone without the phone features and with a bigger screen, it could be quite good. (Aren't there several available now? Maybe for more than $200.) But if you want a general-purpose netbook built on this kind of hardware, it's probably still a bit too slow to be worth saving a few dollars.