While it’s very exciting to be thinking about OMAP 4 and Sparrow, they are a long, long way away from being a reality in a device. More interesting today are the Cortex A8-based products. Texas Instruments have the OMAP3 platform which includes a Cortex A8 core and you can find it in a number of leading-edge computing products like Open Pandora, the BeagleBoard and, when it launches, the Palm Pre. As these and other OMAP34xx devices reach the market, Ti will be feeding in a new range of OMAP3 platforms known as the OMAP36xx series. The platform doesn’t change much in terms of building blocks but there are important incremental improvements all round. The platforms will be available for sampling in Q3 2009 which probably means 2010 production and products.

Most important are the improvements brought by moving to a 45nm process (as the Intel Atom uses) which are said to improve efficiency by up to 25%.  An extra 30 minutes mobile browsing time here and there is never a bad thing! Key features reported on the press release are shown below.

• 45 nm CMOS process technology delivers higher performance with lower power consumption versus the OMAP34x family, including an approximately 25% reduction in power and 75% improvement in graphics performance.
• Robust multi-tasking platform that supports running multiple applications in parallel by simultaneously exercising the CPU, multimedia performance and 2D/3D graphics engines.
• Dedicated 2D/3D graphics hardware accelerator, enabling more immersive user interfaces and compelling graphics for applications like realistic 3D gaming.
• Smart pixel technology via OpenGL ES 2.0 delivers stunning imaging capabilities through advanced reflection effects and life-like facial features.
• Supports multi-standard 720p HD functionality for HD video recording and playback.
• Integrated image signal processor (ISP) supporting up to 12 megapixel (MP) imaging for enhanced photographic image quality and fast shot-to-shot camera performance.
• Pre-integrated support for mobile connectivity, including TI’s current and future combo WiLink^TM Wi-Fi solutions, NaviLink^TM GPS solutions, and BlueLink^TM Bluetooth(r) solutions.

More details on the Ti product pages

Maybe its just something that Intel said but it looks like the Atom vs Cortex (ARM V7) fight is continuing into the next round at MWC. ARM have just send out a press release highlighting that there will be a Cortex-A8 processor vs Intel Atom power comparison on the stand at MWC!

Note that it say’s ‘power’ comparison. Well it’s not exactly hard to demo that one. The best Intel Atom device takes 3-4W. The best Cortex based devices take about 2W under similar usage scenarios. Simple. The problem is, it could take twice as long to do something on a Cortex device. I hope they demo web pages rather than the mostly irrelevant video playback comparison that most companies fall back on. Lets see decoding of a full-screen YouTube SD video in CPU and running 5 tabs of flash-enabled web pages, constantly refreshing!

Other highlights include a Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha release, Cortex A9 demo, Pegatron Netbook.

• first public demonstration of two new technologies working together that will be key to the future of the mobile industry: The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore™ multicore processor delivering notebook performance with the power footprint of mobile, and Symbian OS SMP capability
• Launch of wide range of innovative devices including the G1 handset and the first Cortex™-A8 processor-powered mobile phones.
• Cortex-A8 processor vs Intel Atom power comparison
• Pegatron Netbook running Ubuntu
• Hybrid Notebook
• Ubuntu with Firefox 3
• Phoenix Technologies™ Hyperspace™ running on Cortex-A8 processor
• Thinkfree™ office suite with Sun’s Java SE on Qualcomm SnapDragon™-powered Inventec Netbook
• TI® OMAP™ Zoom2 reference design running Android.
• Alpha release of Ubuntu 9.04 for ARM will be shown running on Cortex-A8 processor-based systems. Ubuntu 9.04 is scheduled for full release in April 2009.

No hint of a new Nokia Tablet there but maybe Nokia want to keep it to themselves! Don’t get you’re hopes up too high though. We’re not expecting a new tablet to be available until the summer.

Press release here.

It’s so funny. One of the last comments I wrote last night was that I thought the next Nokia Tablet would be based on Omap 3. Today, its confirmed. Dan (Thoughtfix) is out in Berlin and has just started live blogging. The other thing I wrote in my comment was ‘I’ll be extremely interested to see it, how fast it is, whether they include 3G/4G’ That seems to be happening too.

However, there has been no device announcement. It appears that Nokia are just giving details of the platform. The three previous tablets were seriously lacking in processing power and connectivity but this should fix all that. I just hope it doesn’t take so long.

Keep tuned to TabletBlog.com where Dan is updating.

See yesterdays news item about Ti OMAP for more info and links.

Update: InternetTabletTalk also have a brief news item

It seems we’re giving a lot of airtime to ARM-based architectures today. And why not; The evolution of the smartphone into the MID and netbook sectors is one that we should all be aware of. In this, largely promotional video from Texas Instruments, Seshu Madhavapeddy, General Manager, Mobile Internet Devices talks about the MID segment, their OMAP 3 platform (as used in the new Archos)  and mentions a 1-watt MID. That is, 1-watt at full power including connectivity and screen. Wow! My N82 smartphone with its tiny screen and highly integrated silicon takes more than double that at full internet-connected tilt so I wonder what timeframe Ti are talking about here.