ARM chips will be in upcoming Netbooks...but with which company?

Seth Weintraub
|
October 23, 2008
|
Share

ARM is saying that an A8-Cortex based processor is likely to be used in upcoming NetBooks...soon.  iPhones, as we know, use an ARM-based Samsung S3C6400.  Next generation iPhones and iPod touches will likely be good candidates for the A8-Cortex architected processors as it is logically the next step up from the current designs.  The iPhone has used the current processor for over 15 months through both iterations.

Although many other handset makers use the ARM architecture and there are many possible companies building this type of device, Apple would certainly be a great candidate for expanding its ARM presence....especially since it acquired PA Semi, whose work with ARM processors are the reason they were acquired by Apple.  Apple is also rumored to be a recent ARM licensee.

Intel, ARM's biggest competitor and also an ARM licensee, last week attacked the iPhone architecture and the "slow browser". 

Apple is rumored to be testing a device somewhere between an iPhone and a MacBook.  Oh, and Stevo dropped a few netbook-related hints at the last earnings call.

You see where we are going with this, right?  Right?

Comments (4)

Dr. Macenstein (not verified) | October 23, 2008 - 1:00pm

Seems like someone's got a case of the "what if's", and not much more than speculation at this point...

Now, to spend 5 minutes trying to defeat your captcha...
:(

-the Doc

Benjamin Dobson | October 23, 2008 - 1:04pm

Sorry, but this article seems to be based on almost nothing. It's more like you didn't have anything to report, so you created something out of an almost-certainly-irrelevant piece of news.

Now watch me get proved wrong...

Cory Schulz | October 23, 2008 - 10:13pm

 What I really wish they would do with the next iPhone hardware revision is add more RAM. I think the current one has 128 MB ram, which is used by both the iPhone version of OSX as well as whatever programs are running. I wish Safari had a larger cache to better handle larger (and more) web pages, and I also think more ram might help applications load faster and function more smoothly. It would also allow me to listen to music while I'm using other applications (Mail, Facebook, Safari, ect...) without the iPhone crashing after 2 minutes of use. This is actually a really huge deal when it comes to hardware and functionality limitations, and I think it would greatly improve the overall user experience, which is really what Apple is going for, and is what sells the device. Other hardware improvements include a better camera (w/autofocus) and a better battery. I know Apple doesn't like to add unnecessary buttons to the outside, but if the camera was better I would probably use it a LOT more and an external camera button would make it really easy to whip it out and start taking pictures. (that's what she said)

Justin (not verified) | October 25, 2008 - 10:25am

with corey that is. I would much rather see more RAM and a better camera. Also if were talking about iPhone 3.0 (probably next year) I would love to also see silver-zinc battery (silver-zinc batteries have 2x the life in the same amount of space for those who maybe do not know.) If they can really have that much longer battery they could even adopt the Atom processor or it's successor or something else that takes a little more power. Also a software update soon to make the camera app a photobooth app with effects and video recording would be very nice as well as replacing TXT app with iChat app that can send messages AND pictures to AIM, Yahoo IM, Windows Messenger, MobileMe, and more as well as phones. they could even make the messages go through AT&T as a SMS or MMS instead of over the data network and try to sell the unlimited messaging plan for all i care.