Freescale Challenges Intel, Wants to Bring Down Netbook Prices to Sub-$200

January 5, 2009 1 Comment

If what it promises to finally bring down the price of netbooks to the sub-$200 point, then Intel may have something to worry about with Freescale’s alternative  – i.MX515 processor featuring ARM Cortex-A8 technology that can be used by netbook manufacturers.

Offering to deliver eight hours of battery life for 8.9-inch netbooks, Freescale’s solution would also include software, components and resources to help OEM’s in developing and deploying highly affordable netbooks.

According to Freescale, a netbook reference design featuring its i.MX515 processor and a new power management IC is already available.  The said netbook reference runs on Canonical’s Ubuntu OS, has the SGTL5000 ultra low-power audio codec and Adobe Flash Lite.

And of course, if OEM’s would take on Freescale’s processor in their next netbook offerings, price point will be at $200 max.

Via Business Wire

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  • Harry

    Chances are that in a year the cheapest Atom based netbooks will also be at $200, or less. So for the ARM design to survive it would have to offer something compelling that is hard for Atom netbooks to match, or users just won’t bother.

    There are two things I can think of: One is huge battery life. I am thinking of 12+ hrs as standard in a sub-Kg package. Here the low ARM power will come in very handy (assuming the chipset is also low power). The other is an instant-on capability (for the complete environment-not a limited one), although linux based Atom netbooks might match that.

    One or both of these could make the Freescale netbook useful enough. Otherwise the non-compatible CPU could turn out to be fatal.


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