It seems that after Intel, just about every chip maker wants a piece of the netbook pie. AMD is an obvious competitor, but VIA is also eyeing the little notebooks. However, more exotic options like the Chinese Loongson chips and ARM's Cortex A-8 and A-9 chips are also among the contenders. We can now add a new contender: Freescale.
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Member since:2005-06-29
And how many netbooks shipping today or this year actually are non-x86? So far, ARM and Freescale have done a lot of talking, but little releasing.
So far, it makes zero sense for any software company to invest time in non-x86 netbooks.
Member since:2006-07-25
i don't understand why you were modded down, what you say is totally correct.
Ok we can get the OS ported to ARM however what about the apps? Unless the OS can do some emulation which in itself would be pretty pointless.
I think x86 will be with us for a long while.
I can see perhaps a sub-netbook market with the device sporting an OS and custom apps purely for the machine and architecture without the ability to install other OS's, more a focused device like a phone etc..
Member since:2005-07-06
remember windows NT was ported to PPC and MIPS (among others)
Microsoft could port xp to ARM tomorrow but I doubt any of the 3rd party devs would rewrite the parts of their software to support it
The same thing would kill XP(ARM edition) as did the NT system on different archs... no apps
Member since:
2007-03-26
With more and more lower-powered laptops shipping with non-x86 CPUs, Microsoft are going to have to port XP* or lose out
Having said that, it's nice to finally see some competition.
* I can't see Windows Mobile taking off on netbooks.