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ARM brigade and netbook vendors leap to support Chrome OS
Published: 9 July, 2009
Tags >> Netbook | ARM
Although Google's new Chrome OS operating system, heavily geared to web-optimized netbooks, is carefully neutral about chip architectures, the ARM-based community has leapt to claim it for its own, arguing that the OS' instant start-up, low power credentials fit with the ARM architecture, which has always touted power efficiency as its main edge against Intel x86.
Both Texas Instruments and Qualcomm came out in support of Chrome OS, saying it would boost acceptance of new, lightweight formats such as the MID (or 'smartbook', as Qualcomm calls it), where ARM-based processors have made most headway. Intel Atom, of course, dominates conventional netbooks, and following its recent alliance with Nokia, could accelerate its move into smaller form factors. But the new closeness of Nokia to Intel's Atom/Moblin platform could drive Google, politically at least, closer to ARM in the smartbook arena.
Texas Instruments, which has been working with Google on Chrome OS, is anticipating major changes in device design norms. Its head of mobile business development worldwide, Ramesh Iyer, told CNET: "Netbooks are really the tip of the iceberg. We need to fast forward into the future and think of things beyond the netbook thanks to this initiative from Google." Although TI is moving back from mainstream cellphone basebands, it still places great store on its OMAP family of application processors for smartphones and MIDs - and while a rising number of phones may integrate the app processor into a single-chip architecture, TI believes a dedicated chip will remain the primary choice for higher-end mobile products like netbooks.
"We see the future being cloud computing really. You are walking around with a simple tablet, that is probably no thicker than the thickness of your display," he added, while Qualcomm's VP of software strategy, Robb Chandhok, echoed the theme. "Probably one of the biggest things you can read into the Chrome announcement is that in this proposed world the browser is the platform," he said. He also differentiated Chrome OS from Android, explaining that Chrome is Javascript-based and so apps like Gmail run in a browser window, not as a separate app.
Meanwhile, an Intel statement said: "We welcome Google's move. More choice in this area will benefit the industry and help to speed innovation."
Google also named the first vendors that are promising netbooks with Chrome OS next year. Dell was markedly absent from the list, but most of the other usual suspects are there - Acer, Asus, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo.
ARM itself has been talking up its move into new devices. Processors based on its IP are now present in over 3bn phones but it is eyeing new markets such as netbooks and home equipment like ultra-thin digital televisions, which also require low power. Rob Coombs, ARM's director of mobile solutions, said in an interview: "We did 4bn units last year, and that means one billion didn't go into phones."
The firm was present in 200m smartphones last year and expects this number to rise to 500m by 2012, with high end devices sporting as many as five ARM chips. Next year it will introduce dual-core and eventually quad-core devices to scale up performance.
