Engadget are reporting about the Compal UMD that Kornel posted about here the other day. I don’t know what to think because, as a design, its very nice. The processor is also a fairly capable number. The RAM available is also really good. The only problem we’ve got here is WM5.
4.3″ and 800×480. Possibly pocketable!
Interestingly its a 5W device which kind of proves that when you smother high end ARM processors in the same clothing as a UMPC, you end up with very little gain in the energy efficiency department. The Intel Menlow x86 version of this prototype is said to be targeting a sub 4W power drain level!
Like the Sharp EM-One, this is an interesting hardware platform. I would have liked to see the Nokia N800 in that format. If Opera’s next browser pulls out all the stops, (or if Firefox’s Minimo gets a full release) then maybe we’ll see the first ARM-based device worthy of being called a UMPC.
Are there any ARM experts out there that can tell be exactly how powerful the Freescale processor is? Are we looking at advanced ARM architectures here? Built-in co-processors/accelerators?
