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ARM officials told attendees at a Computex press conference they aim to have more than half the mobile PC market by 2015. However, they tempered expectations for the server space, where only a subset of customers is critically interested in saving power.
At this week's Computex conference in Taipei, Asus unveiled an Android-based hybrid tablet/smartphone device called the Padfone, embedding a removable smartphone in a 10.1-inch tablet. The company also announced a more conventional seven-inch tablet called the Eee Pad Memo 3D, with Android 3.x, a stylus, and glasses-free 3D video playback.
At the Computex show, Intel executives spoke of a new notebook segment called “ultrabooks,” thin portable computers that will employ future power-sipping Core processors. The 22nm “Ivy Bridge” Cores are “on track” for delivery in the first half of 2012, and 2013 “Haswell” versions will save even more power, officials added.
Undeterred by slumping netbook sales, Asus announced three such devices, one of which — the Eee PC X101 — will be offered with the Linux-based MeeGo operating system for just $200. The EeePC X101 comes with a new 1.33GHz Atom N435 processor, while the Windows-only EeePC 1025C and 1025CE will include the “Cedar Trail” Atom N2600 and N2800, according to multiple reports.
Linus Torvalds announced a new RC1 preliminary release of the next Linux kernel, but instead of calling it Linux 2.6.40, as had been expected, he's dubbing it Linux 3.0. The final Linux 3.0 will coincide with the 20th anniversary of Linux in August, but will offer no great breakthroughs, concedes Torvalds.
Though it came late to the growing tablet space, AMD is apparently about to announce a set of Z-Series (“Desna”) chips for this market. The announcement, expected at a June 1 press conference, follows the May 27 leak of a company slide show on the Android Community website.
Linaro announced an open-platform $199 “Origen” development board made by InSignal that incorporates Samsung's dual-core Cortex-A9 Exynos 4210 processor, a Mali400 GPU, and Linaro open source Linux and Android BSPs. At Computex this week, Linaro is demonstrating its first Linaro Evaluation Builds for Android and Ubuntu, and announced a Linaro Partner Program, with founding members including Canonical and Mentor Graphics.
Advantech announced a pair of panel PCs for HMI (human machine applications), touting enhanced display technology and lower pricing. The 12.1-inch PPC-L128T (R81) features an “anti-corrosion” display with LED backlighting and a 600-nit brightness rating, while the 6.5-inch PPC-L61T (R71) has a 700-nit brightness rating and an expanded 22 to 185 deg. F operating range, the company says.
Habey USA announced a compact, Mini-ITX-based signage PC based on a dual-core 1.8GHz Intel Atom D525 processor. The EPC-6563 offers up to 4GB DDR3 RAM, dual SATA bays, dual mini-PCI Express slots, plus gigabit Ethernet, USB, and HDMI connectivity, and is available on Amazon.com starting for just $200.
The Mint project released the final Linux Mint 11, which is based on Ubuntu 11.04, but skips over the Unity and GNOME 3 desktops in favor of GNOME 2.32.1. Linux Mint 11 offers UI updates to the Software Manager and Update Manager, while also speeding the latter, and supplies new default apps in LibreOffice, Banshee, and gThumb, says the project.
Intel will respond to falling netbook sales by slashing the price of its upcoming “Cedar Trail” Atoms, bringing the cost of complete devices below $200, reports say. The 1.86GHz Atom N2800 and 1.6GHz Atom N2600 will both sport dual cores, while TDPs will be 3.5 and 6.5 Watts, respectively.
Envizions opened pre-orders for a hackable Android-based gaming console due to ship this fall for $249, and announced an “open” developer version for a $149 per year support fee. The Evo 2 Cloud Console runs a modified version of Android 2.2 on a Samsung 1.2GHz processor with 512MB of DDR2 RAM, and offers cloud storage and social networking integration, says the company.
Hours after announcing its Android-based Google Wallet mobile payment service, Google was accused by eBay's PayPal unit of using the latter's trade secrets. Google Wallet will launch this summer with the support of Citi, MasterCard, and First Data, enabling Samsung Nexus S 4G users to make payments at retailers offering terminals fitted with near field communication (NFC) technology.
U.K. distributor Datasound Laboratories (DSL) announced a fanless box PC that accepts power ranging from 11 to 32VDC and can be mounted on DIN rails. The RoHS-compliant ACS-2210 has a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, CompactFlash and Mini PCI slots, and room for a 2.5-inch SATA hard disk drive, according to the company.
WonderMedia Technologies announced the first ARM11 model in its Prizm line of multimedia system on chips (SoCs), now featuring 1080p video playback. Aimed at entry-level Android and Windows CE tablets and available with a Prizm WM8710 Tablet Reference Design Kit, the Prizm WM8710 offers an ARM11 core clocked to 800Mhz, plus video, 3D graphics, and security engines, the company says.