Netbooks based on ARM processors on the way

Within a few months, the first netbooks equipped with ARM processors will be announced. However, the company behind the architecture does not want to name names yet.

The Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processors were originally designed for the smartphone market and should replace the widely used ARM11 CPU from next year. In a interview With Zdnet, Rob Coombs, chief of the mobile technology development division at ARM, states that the Cortex-A8 CPU can run at speeds of up to 1GHz. The Cortex-A9 processor, a multicore variant, according to ARM in 2010 on the market.

Coombs does not yet want to name manufacturers who want to build the new ARM processors into netbooks, but the list of Cortex-A8 licensees includes big names such as Samsung and Panasonic. NEC, Nvidia and Toshiba have already signed up for the Cortex-A9 architecture. Despite the fact that the ARM chips are not x86 compatible, several Linux distros support the ARM processor architecture, as well as Windows CE and a modified version of OS X. Still, it will be quite a challenge for ARM to gain market share in the netbook market. to win; Intel currently serves almost the entire segment with its Atom CPU. In addition, the chip giant also wants to enter the smartphone market, the home of ARM.