As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. However, Freescale Semiconductor's upcoming i.MX515 processor, based on the ARM chip architecture, should defy that belief, offering 1GHz speeds for under $200.
The company plans to showcase the new silicon this week at CES, hoping to wow consumers with its low-power, gigahertz performance. Freescale, once a chipmaking arm of Motorola, doesn't consider its latest product as an attempt to compete with Intel. Rather, the company wants to remain on the lower-priced spectrum while offering admirable speed for consumers.
“We see a huge opportunity in the netbook market as consumers demand more cost-effective and higher performing solutions,” said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Networking and Multimedia Group. “Our solution for netbooks will enable OEMs to develop compelling products that feature cell phone-like battery life at extremely aggressive price points. We believe the combination of the i.MX515 processor and related enablement solutions will dramatically accelerate the evolution of this exciting new space.”
With the help of Pegatron (a wholly owned Asus subsidiary), the company already has a reference design netbook ready for display at CES. The device will not only sport the i.MX515 processor, but feature Canonical’s Ubuntu operating system, a new power management IC from Freescale, the SGTL5000 ultra low-power audio codec and Adobe Flash Lite software, Adobe’s Flash Player for mobile phones and devices. The demo unit also features an 8.9 inch display and a battery capable of sustaining eight hours of life between charges.
The company manufactured the i.MX515 processor using 65-nm process technology, provides up to 2100 Dhrystone MIPS and can scale in performance from 600MHz to 1GHz. The processor uses no cooling fans or heat sinks, relying on "advanced power management features" such as dedicated, hardware-based acceleration block. Freescale will also incorporate low-cost printed circuit boards and a memory interface supporting both DDR2 and mobile DDR1.
"The i.MX515 is one of the only processors to offer both OpenVG and OpenGL graphics cores, thereby enabling 2D and 3D graphics as well as Flash and SVG for enhanced user experiences," says the company. "Video created for the Adobe Player is one of the leading video formats on the Internet today. Working with Adobe, Freescale plans to enable the Adobe software to run on the processor’s dedicated OpenVG graphics block, thereby extending battery life and enabling netbook web browsing experiences as rich and responsive as those on traditional PCs."
The netbook's summary page also lists a few interesting features, including analog HD720p component TV output, a multi-format HD 720p video decoder and a D1 video encoder hardware engine. Freescale plans to begin mass production sometime in Q2 2009, with a commercial release slated for the 2009 holiday shopping season. With the $200 pricetag, this netbook is definitely worth a peek when it appears at the end of the year.
