If Russian site Mobile-Review’s editor Eldar is to be believed, we won’t just see ARM’s multi-core Sparrow processor on netbooks by 2011, but also on Nokia’s very first Linux-based MID. Pictured above is a mockup the guys at Unwired View did of the device, which is said to be a multi-slide keyboard and display equipped computer and cellphone hybrid. Its keys are small, diamond shaped and elevated, and they change with every application running on the device’s display. All this is based on info Eldar spewed after he got the chance to play with a prototype in one of Nokia’s closed booths at Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona. He also revealed a bit of the juicy stuff, but there’s surely more to know that he just won’t say. It would be interesting to see how Nokia’s final, finished product turns out. We’ll be giving updates on this as we get them, but for now, check out the sites linked below for more info.

Via Electronic Pulp and Unwired View

During its presentation at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, mobile phone processor maker ARM announced plans for a new chip called “Sparrow” which could offer a multi core solution to netbooks in the future. According to the company, Sparrow is a small, inexpensive chip that’s based on the same processor chip being used in the Palm Pre, and has about enough processing power as an ARM11, the chip used in Apple’s iPhone. Now, you might wonder, how can a processor based on something made for smartphones (as hinted by the last few sentences) be used to power netbooks in the future? ARM answered this in their MWC presentation by saying that a Cortex-A9 can deliver around 1500 DMIPS of processing capability per core, with up to four cores. They even showed a multiprocessing-capable version of the Symbian OS. Ubuntu for ARM is scheduled to go public in April 2009, so we might see the first fruits of ARM’s labor in retail with netbooks, then.

Via PC World