ARM: 'Eagle' to follow Cortex-A9, will support Google TV
ARM kicked off the long list of Computex press conferences this morning, and though most of the time was spent giving us a history of mobile computing, ARM president Tudor Brown did shed a bit of light on future plans. When showing off the current family of ARM processors, we couldn't help but notice the next generation "Eagle" above the current Cortex-A9 platform. While Brown didn't share any specifics on the ARM v7-based chip, he did say that it will provide improved performance, and would be fully announced at "a later date." Also, when asked about supporting Google TV, Brown noted that it's in the works; he also said that with the company's recent Flash and Chrome browser support, they plan to optimize for the TV-based operating system. That's all we've got for now, but as you'd expect, the outfit brought along a load of ARM-based devices for showcasing, all of which you'll find in the gallery below.




























Yo Google, make a tablet with this and Android.
@Nitesh
They will;)
@JonnyB
They damn well better.
@Nitesh
It will be most likely be built by HTC, they already said HTC will make a tablet with Android soon, but i forgot when?
@Nitesh
Netbook please Google (or anyone...)
Is Microsoft and Intel screwed? Does the future need them?
@catfood
Of course the future needs Intel.
No matter what, ARM processors will never be viable alternatives to Intel processors, except on the netbook and tablet level.
@Ryuzaki unless of course, AMD somehow destroys intel on the desktop front, then intel would be completely gone if ARM rocks the table game, which is so much more important than netbooks, with the new iFad thing happening, pushing us into a new form factor.
@Ignoramus table->tablet*
@Ryuzaki I think the point that catfood is trying to make is that the future is netbooks, and tablets, and other mobile devices. And honestly it does seem like the mobile world does not need intel or MS.
@Ignoramus
Well, except on the price, there is no way AMD could beat Intel on the Laptop and Desktop front anytime soon.
On the discrete graphics front, NVIDIA and ATI will continue to share the market 50/50.
On the High-performance computing front, Intel will gain some headway with its new Xeons and future parallel-computing plans, but NVIDIA still has far better marketshare than Intel (still not nearly as much as the likes of IBM), and Tesla has more potential. AMD never invested much in HPC segment of the market, so some loss there.
Intel is entering the Mobile chips with Moorestown, and will be competetive with Medfield in 2011. NVIDIA has Tegra, but AMD is still far behind.
Intel practically owns the netbook/portable computing market, and AMD Fusion has to mature a bit more, but will have much better integrated graphics.
And Microsoft. They have Office. They have Windows. That is all they need. For now. WP7 has HTC, Dell, LG, and Samsung on board. With their tight control over the phone specifications, and the possible unity of the platform, it does have potential to reach Microsoft's goal of having 30 Million WP7 phones out in the consumers' hands in 18 months from launch date (by the end of 2011).
ARM is amazing for what it does with licensing and their architectures, but any ARM-based chip that can match an Intel Core chip or AMD Athlon chip will cost far more than the Intel/AMD equivalents. Just look at the server sector, and the price of ARM cpus there.
@Ryuzaki Yes but how long will desktops or laptops last as the primary computing device for your average consumer? At some point, a netbook, tablet or phone will do everything the average user wants and there'd be no point in buying a desktop or laptop. We've already seen laptops replace desktops as the top selling computing device.
@Edobe There's definitely going to be a shift in that direction, but as long as there's a market for desktops and less-mobile electronics, then it's unlikely that Intel and MS are going to become completely unnecessary in the overall electronics industry, even if they become unnecessary in the mobile world.
@metafor
Exactly my point. Joe the consumer does not need a Photoshop machine, Joe wants a facebook machine.
@catfood
That Joe just needs a beer. Facebook doesn't extend very well into the Average Joe category.
@kapanak
Yes but when that Joe is watching football on his ARM-ANDROID-GOOGLE TV thingie, I'm sure Intel & MS arn't in that setup.
@catfood
In case you missed it, GoogleTV is confirmed to use Intel Atom CE4100. Sony and Logitech are both using that chip. ARM hasn't come up with a solution for GoogleTV, and once they do, they need to get it licensed, and by the time manufacturers begin making it, it will already be the end of 2011 or 2012.
Keep in mind, Cortex A9 was introduced and licensed out at the end of 2008, and we STILL do not see a consumer product out with Cortex A9 in it. Microprocessors do not magically make themselves or produce compatibility with software.
@kapanak
Cool, I totally stand corrected there.
Nice stuff .
The picture says "eagle" I cant seem to find the part that says "eye" anywhere.
Awesome. I can't wait until ARM has more information for us on Eagle. Cortex A9 is already insanely powerful and efficient, bringing things like dual-channel memory controllers and full out-of-order execution support to ARM SoCs, I can only imagine what Eagle will bring.
Not sure why they say that they'll "support" Google TV, when the actual device runs on an Intel Atom anyways. Two versions then?
for some reason i read eagle-eye, it must be my subconscious being alarmed of processors that have potential a.i. rogue capabilities.
Time to market is critical. It's taken two years for Cortex-A9 products to be made since ARM's initial announcement. How can ARM drop that in half?