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Texas Instruments (TI) announced a new member of its industrial-focused, ARM9-based Sitara AM1x system-on-chip (SoC) family that adds an integrated Profibus interface. The AM1810 Sitara is clocked to 375MHz, includes EtherCAT support, and ships with a Linux-ready development module, says the company.
Acer announced three Android tablets due in April 2011, as well as a “Clear-Fi” media-streaming service and an “Alive” app store. The Android tablets include a Dell Streak-like 4.8-inch, telephony-enabled “smartphone” model with 1024 × 480 resolution, a dual-core, seven-inch, 1280 × 800 tablet, and a 10.1 inch model with 1080p video playback.
Skyfire has added more social networking content to its mobile web browser, which is available for Android and uses the company's servers to render web pages complete with Flash. Skyfire 3.0 with Facebook Connect adds a new content-sharing “SkyBar” toolbar and a Fireplace Feed Reader that offers a filtered view of a user's Facebook feed, says the company.
Internet Connectivity and Networking (ICAN) has launched both a seven-inch and a 10-inch tablet running Android 2.1 on a 1GHz processor. The $400 ICAN! 7 and $500 ICAN! 10 ship with 16GB of internal storage, plus SD expansion, Wi-Fi, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, dual USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI ports, says the company.
Nvidia announced the availability of the production release of its CUDA (compute unified device architecture) Toolkit 3.2. This provides performance increases, new math libraries, and advanced cluster management features for developers creating next-generation applications accelerated via GPUs (graphics processing units), the company says.
Intel announced six Atom processors that include on-chip Altera FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays). Offered in versions up to 1.3GHz, the Atom E6x5C processors will make it easier for customers to create custom-made designs, save on board space, and are offered with seven-year manufacturing support, the company says.
Novell has agreed to be acquired by Attachmate Corp., a 30-year old IT host connectivity and systems management integration firm, while also agreeing to sell $450 million in IT assets to a consortium led by Microsoft. The $2.2 billion deal brings Attachmate Novell's enterprise-focused SUSE Linux distribution, which it will spin into a separate business unit.
American Industrial Systems (AIS) announced a seven-inch panel PC designed for factory automation, SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition), and HMI (human machine interface) applications. The IPW07I93S-A2 includes a resistive touchscreen, a 1.1GHz Atom Z510P processor, and a Mini PCI Express-based SSD (solid state disk), the company says.
OSADL, which has been overseeing real-time Linux (RTL) development patches to the Linux kernel, announced a “quality assurance testing farm” where manufacturers can test a variety of RTL systems under simulated production conditions. The multi-platform test center aims to prove RTL as a capable, and more flexible, alternative to real-time operating systems (RTOSes).
Amazon.com is offering a one-penny sale (plus contract) for more than 100 phones, including high-end Android models like the Motorola Droid X and Droid 2. Meanwhile, mobile ad firm Adzookie says that smartphone adoption is being hindered in the U.S. by high subscription and service costs.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that the company's cloud-oriented Chrome Operating System for netbooks has been delayed for several months. Google won't say why, but analysts speculate that the Linux-based Chrome OS may have been delayed due to the huge success of the search giant's own Android OS as well as the Apple iPad.
Advantech announced a fanless embedded PC that includes a dual-core Atom D510 CPU, dual hard disk bays, and CompactFlash storage. The ARK-5260 has four RS232/422/485 serial ports, parallel and PS/2 ports, plus both PCI and PCI Express x1 expansion slots, the company says.
Corporate types with small fingers will find much to like in Verizon's Android 2.2-based Motorola Droid Pro, says this eWEEK review. Most business users, however, will have trouble with the tiny keyboard, let alone the small screen, and would do better with a BlackBerry.
Lanner announced a low-end network appliance powered by the dual-core Intel Atom D510 or single-core D410 processor. The FW-7539 is equipped with four gigabit Ethernet ports with optional LAN bypass, dual USB 2.0 ports, and Mini-PCIe expansion, says the company.
An unlocked version of Hewlett-Packard's Palm Pre 2 smartphone is now available in the U.S. via Palm.com and HP's SMB channels for $449. The upgraded 1GHz Pre 2 runs the new version 2.0 of the Linux-based WebOS operating system.