DigiTimes is reporting that Qualcomm and Freescale will both be launching ARM-based netbooks/ultraportables at the upcoming Computex Taipei.
As recently as January of this year (CES 2009), Freescale was showcasing it’s netbook platform.
Back in November, it was reported that ARM was working with Canonical on an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution for ARMv7 platforms, using the ARM Cortex-A8 and A9. The press release from ARM stated that this distribution would be available next month (April 2009). At the time, LAPTOP Magazine mentioend they were interested in 8.9-inch and 10-inch netbooks.
One of the two models will be utilizing Freescale’s i.MX51 which is based on an ARM Coretex A8 CPU, with manufacturing provided by Pegatron Technology. The other will be based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, with manufacturing of the device handled by Winstron.
Whether these will be branded as Qualcomm or Freescale machines remains to be seen – Asustek has already been looking at Qualcomm-manufactured devices, as well as Micro-Star International (MSI). The report from DigiTimes seems to imply that they will be branded as Freescale and Qualcomm, at least for demonstration purposes.
Read: DigiTimes