thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Forum

Freescale Semiconductor Working on Chrome OS

Posted on 03. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments

The folks at Freescale Semiconductor were kind enough to invite us to their offices yesterday in Taipei to show off the fact that they are actively working on Chrome OS for ARM processors.

I learned a lot during my time at Freescale, and I now better understand that it is taking a good deal of work to port Chromium over to the ARM architecture as opposed to x86. They had a version of Chromium running on their iMX515 processor that was from last year’s Google open source build.

I happened to have the latest spring release of Chromium on a USB drive in my bag while I was there. However, the build that I had was specifically for x86 and the reality is that a lot of work has to go into making Chromium compatible with ARM’s low power, mobile specific platform.

Here are some pictures that they allowed me to take, giving an indication that they are working closely with Google to ensure that Chrome OS will not just run on Intel processors. My time at the Freescale office in Taiwan yesterday gives me an indication that there will probably be ARM devices running Chrome OS in the first quarter of 2011.

More Chrome OS news will be coming in the closing days of Computex, keep checking our RSS feed or follow us on @thechromesource if you’re a Twitter addict like I am.

Four Chrome OS Contenders that Could Take on Apple’s iPad

Posted on 10. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 4 Comments

The iPad is ushering in a new era of computing device: the tablet. What’s really exciting is that this has all just begun, and we should expect to see a wide array of new tablets coming to market during the rest of this year. So here are the tablets that are expected to be launched with Chrome OS (along with an app store, we hope) as either the only platform or as an option. Without further ado, some of the contenders that will take on Apple tablet-style.

Freescale

Specs: 7-inch display, 1GHz Cortex ARM processor, WiFi, Optional 3G

Freescale Semiconductor showed off a tablet running Chrome OS at CeBIT that they said would cost only $200. Although the prototype that they displayed needed a keyboard in order to provide input, they were the first to actually show off a tablet. It’s possible they could bring something like this at a very good price to market, but the concern would be that the components at that price would not be cutting edge and therefore could have problems competing in the market.

But at the same time it’s a cheap tablet, right?

Notion Ink Adam

Specs: 10.1-inch PixelQi display with multitouch, nVidia Tegra 2 graphics and dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, 16GB solid-state drive, Wi-Fi, 3G

Designed in India, the unknown Notion Ink Adam could be a hit, although many also thought that the Fusion Garage JooJoo tablet would be, so we shall see. Nevertheless, this device looks stunning, and with the innovative PixelQi display which can turn off the backlight this could be a great e-reader and web enabled device all in one. It’s expected to have options in terms of storage and connection options, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this tablet is priced close to the iPad. It also has features that Apple’s tablet doesn’t such as a 3.2 megapixel camera and an HDMI output port.

HTC

Specs: Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor, possibly dual-touchscreen?

HTC privately showed an Android tablet at CES a few months ago, and speculation is mounting that they will be working together with the folks at Mountain View to produce tablet which may or may not be branded as a Google tablet. Seeing as how Google and HTC have a cozy relationship with Android (Nexus One and G4 smartphones) the first Chrome OS tablet could very likely come from HTC.

The photo shown here is a prototype dual touchscreen concept that the folks at Phandroid have posted. We don’t have any other pictures, so this is the best one to ponder upon.

Asus

Specs: Unknown, likely similar to the Eee T91 (pictured here)

Asus is primarily a netbook manufacturer, but CEO Johnny Shih has been adamant about making a tablet. The company already has a hybrid netbook-tablet device called the Eee PC T91, which pairs a keyboard with a display that can be rotated and folded over to transform it into a slate. It has the same specs as your average netbook, running an Intel AtomZ520 with 1GB RAM standard, but interestingly packs a 32GB solid state drive which is a requirement by Google for Chrome OS devices to ensure speed and user interface quality.

The Others

I’ve left out a few manufacturers that I need to give mention. Acer has claimed that they will have the first Chrome OS netbook but that is not a tablet and there hasn’t been any good information even if they are working on one. We know that the Dell Linux team has been openly working on Chrome OS (April 7 build here), and it would fit on their Mini 5 line of tablets (also known as Streak) coming out but that is pure speculation.

If there are any manufacturers that I have forgotten, please let me know. In the end, we’ll see some more developments relatively soon. Computex is coming up which will be closing in on the third quarter, a period of time when Chrome OS devices are expected to surface.

IDC: Hardware Components Will be Pricey for Chrome OS

Posted on 12. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

Owing to the notion that a Chrome OS netbook will require specialized hardware from computer manufacturers, Bob O’Donnell of IDC believes that such a device will actually be just as expensive as netbooks that run on Windows. O’Donnell, who is vice president of clients and displays, seems to take a view that perhaps the technology is not quite ready for public consumption.

“PC OEMs say the hardware requirements—still under NDA–will make the systems actually more expensive than a Windows device, yet they don’t have anywhere near the applications support,” O’Donnell said. He was talking up this point while at Directions 2010, which is an economic conference that is held in Reno, Nevada. ”Clamshell systems need Windows or Mac OS because if a system looks like a notebook people want it to act like one,” he said.

IDC does a lot of research, and they know what they are talking about. However, we have already seen devices that are running Chrome OS that don’t cost that much – the Freescale 7″ tablet that was shown off a few weeks ago is expected to go for only $200. And a quick look at the Chromium site shows that manufacturers and developers have successfully tested a Asus Eee PC 1005HA, which retails for around $300.

Now, it is possible that in order to offer users the best user experience possible Google is making some heavy handed demands for these devices to be able to quickly boot and get users where they need to be – right on the web. Since the experience is so important, I would not be surprised by that. But the reality is that they are going to need to balance this with a price point that makes it possible to compete in a totally new class of cheap and lightweight computing device.

Even Chrome OS Engineering Director Matthew Papakipos said in an interview last November that the goal of the operating system was going to be for something cheaper than traditional netbook fare.

It certainly explains why we are only seeing devices from manufacturers with Android on them, because perhaps the right mix of hardware and software just has not been pinpointed just yet.

Video: $200 Chrome OS Tablet by Freescale

Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 20 Comments

So it does exist. I had heard that there was going to be a Chrome OS tablet at the Mobile World Congress, and sure enough we finally see in a somewhat lengthy video the folks from Freescale showing off their prototype with a 7″ screen. This was the same model that was shown at CES running Android. The cost? Around $200, running on hardware in the form factor of their model known as the i.MX51. The video shows some locally cached video playback in HTML5:

This is just an observation, but it seems to me that other tablets are going to have a hard time competing against a tablet product that is only a couple of hundred dollars. But let’s face it: this is just a tablet, and there is only so much you can do with them. I’m not even sure how comfortable one would even be to use. Of course I have to admit I have never actually used one.

But in the demo you see that the Freescale product manager is using a mouse and a keyboard. Probably because the touch capabilities and interface for Chrome OS on tablets is not nearly complete. Earlier today I wrote about the business Chrome OS coming out and I explored the concept of Google having several different versions of their operating system. I feel like this demo gives more proof to that concept. The device itself is capable of touch, as they also showed a tablet running some variation of Linux that had capacitive input.

But for a couple of bills and with an ARM processor, how could you go wrong? It even appears to have a camera. That explains the large bezel.

Shout out to Armdevices.net.