IT Jobs
Sharp to launch Arm-powered mobile device
Third-way tool to be offered.
By Agam Shah
Published: 05:44 GMT, 31 August 09
Sharp Electronics has launched a netbook-like mobile device with a 5-inch touch screen. The company is positioning the PC-Z1 as a "third mobile tool following in the footsteps of notebook PCs and mobile phones to create a new market."
The PC-Z1 runs under Ubuntu, speeding up the boot-time to as little as three seconds, and also includesthe Firefox browser and Adobe Flash to play YouTube videos. The device also includes applications for users to create documents and spreadsheets, the company said.
The device has a 68-key keyboard for data input. It weighs about 409 grams and offers a 10-hour battery life.
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For Internet access, the device includes built-in IEEE 802.11 b/g wireless networking. It has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of flash storage. An additional 16GB of storage can be added through a Secure Digital memory card slot. The device can be used as an e-book reader, for which Sharp will provide content like novels and comics.
The PC-Z1 will go on sale in Japan on 25 September, but no price was immediately available. Sharp couldn't immediately be reached for comment on worldwide availability.
The device has similar attributes to netbooks, which are low-cost laptops characterised by small keyboards and screens between 7 and 12 inches. Most netbooks come with Intel-based Atom processors, but Sharp's device comes with Freescale's iMX515 processor, which is based on a reference architecture from chip design company Arm Holdings. The processor is based on Arm's Cortex-A8 core, which can scale in performance up to 1GHz. The chip supports 3D graphics and can play back high-definition video.
Freescale is shipping its chips for devices it calls "smartbooks," which it defines as low-cost laptops designed to do netbook-specific jobs such as accessing social networks and running productivity applications. This is the first device to hit the market with Freescale's chip, said a company spokesman.
At least one major PC maker has questioned the viability of smartbooks in the consumer space. Asustek Computer CEO Jerry Shen earlier this week said he saw no "clear market" for the Arm-based smartbooks and that his company had no plans to move forward in the segment. The company in June demonstrated a smartbook with Google's Android flavour of Linux at the Computex trade show. Asus was a netbook pioneer when it started selling Eee PCs in 2007. That line has sold millions of units since then.
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