NetbookTech

A Samsung product roadmap has apparently leaked onto the Internet and based off of that information, it appears the company plans on producing its own ARM-based processors for the netbook market including quad-core processors which they hope will bridge the performance gap between netbooks and notebooks.

Here’s the breakdown of upcoming processors from Samsung:

• Orion processor – a 800MHz dual-core processor based on the ARM Cortex A9 series due out at the start of next year
• Pegasus processor – a 1GHz single-core follow-up version
• Hercules processor – a dual-core version of the Pegasus processor also clocked at 1GHz – expected at the beginning of 2010
• Draco processor – dual core 1.2 GHz processor expected towards the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013
• Mercury ULV processor – single core processor based on ARM Cortex A5 and clocked at 600MHz
• Venus ULV processor – dual-core processor based on ARM Cortex A5 and clocked at 600MHz
• Aquila processor – quad core processor based on ARM Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz due out in 2012 or 2013

While it’s great to see Samsung working on processor alternatives based on the ARM core, the launch dates are unfortunately still too far out. So much can change from now until 2012, let alone 2011.

[Check it out via Neoseeker]

ARM and Canonical Ltd announced a new alliance last week to bring the Ubuntu Desktop OS to the ARMv7 processor architecture. According to the Canonical press release,

“The combination of a commercially supported, optimized Ubuntu distribution for ARM, together with Canonical’s ability to tailor solutions to specific ARM technology-based devices and OEM requirements, ensures that highly-optimized systems can be rapidly deployed into the fast growing mobile computing market.”

The new OS version will target the ARMv7 architecture including the upcoming ARM Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processors which are expected in next generation netbook devices.

With this alliance in place, netbook manufacturers can now potentially develop netbook devices leveraging both ARM processors as well as a full blown Ubuntu Linux OS optimized for the platform. This is exactly what ARM needs if they intend to be a force in the netbook marketplace.

[Check it out via NetworkWorld]

The netbook processor market has been thoroughly dominated by a single vendor thus far – Intel. While there have been a small handful of systems based around the VIA C7-m processor, the vast majority of netbook systems have all incorporated the Intel Atom processor. However, this will most certainly change in the months to come. AMD announced earlier this month that they would be detailing their netbook strategy at some point next month and now ARM has announced that they will be releasing processors that will also be destined for netbook systems.

In an interview with ZDNet.co.uk, Rob Coombs – Director of Mobile Solutions at ARM – announced that the company’s next generation processor, the Cortex-A8, would find it’s way into “small low-cost subnotebooks”. According to Coombs, “In the future we’re going to be in netbooks, .. Expect announcements in the next few months.”

The Cortex-A8 is the successor to the current ARM11 processor and is due out shortly while the Cortex-A9 is the multi-core sibling to the A8 processor and will probably come out in 2010. Devices using the Cortex-A8 processor are also due out next year. While Coombs refused to reveal who was making netbook systems around the A8 processor, he did tell ZDNet.co.uk to look at the company’s published list of licensees which includes companies such as Samsung, STMicroelectronics, TI, Broadcom, Panasonic, Freescale, etc. Companies signed up for the A9 include NEC, NVIDIA, STMicroelectronics, and Toshiba.

Operating System support for netbooks based around the ARM processor will certainly be interesting. While neither Windows XP or Windows Vista supports ARM, many other OS’s do support the chip architecture including Windows CE, several Linux distributions, and a version of OS X (namely the iPhone). One would assume that vendors coming out with Cortex-A8 based netbooks will most likely go with Linux since it’s free and will not require a paid license like Microsoft’s Windows CE.

In any event, it’ll be great to see many more vendors come into the processor market. Having multiple choices will certainly push the chip vendors to design and manufacture smaller, more efficient and more powerful processors in the long run. 

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