The New York Times’ coverage Aug. 16 of an Austin microprocessor startup that garnered $48 million in funding to develop low-power ARM derivatives, may have asked the wrong question.  The article examined ARM’s success in smartphones and handheld devices, and wondered if a RISC core intended for low-power embedded platforms would work in a multiprocessing cluster server environment.  The writer ignored the history of RISC in server architectures in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  Many system-level startups, as well as server giants of that era, such as Compaq and Sun, relied primarily on …

In May, Intel announced it was ready to make inroads into the smartphone sector with its new low power Atom Z6xx processors. Qualcomm countered last week by revealing plans to release a 1.5-GHz ARM-based Snapdragon processor targeting laptops in Q4, and now Nvidia is getting stuck in as well.

Speaking to CNet, Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of the graphics giant, said it would be focusing on ARM-based chipsets in future: “Our CPU strategy is ARM. ARM is the fastest growing processor architecture in the world today. ARM supports Android best. And Android is the …

We often fuss about when and whether Steve Jobs or Eric Schmidt might mean to do harm to the handheld computing world, all the while forgetting the executive whose very name evokes images of evil.  Yes, Oracle Corp.’s own Larry Ellison is back, and he’s off to take on Google, whom Oracle accuses of violating patents on Java in the creation of the Android OS.

Wait. Java, you say?  But didn’t Sun Microsystems Corp. create Java to be open-design  (not quite the same as royalty-free)?  Silly reader, your assumption only held when Sun …

As companies fall over themselves trying to build a rival to the iPad, the running order has become a little clearer…

The big news is arguably the most hyped of these – HP’s webOS-based PalmPad (codenamed Hurricane) – has apparently suffered severe delays. According to Engadget, it is “now hearing from several trusted sources that it’ll be calendar Q1 2011″. Despite any formal announcement, the product had been expected as soon as next month.

“We’re told Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley mentioned the date during an all-hands employee meeting yesterday,” claimed …

To say that Dell has the deck stacked against it with the upcoming Streak tablet, due this week, is a gross understatement. It’s not just that the company is following the release of Apple’s pioneering iPad by four months (Apple has sold more than 3 million) or that, regardless of how Dell positions the Streak, it will be compared down to the smallest detail to the iPad.

Dell’s biggest problem with the Streak is essentially the same problem it has had with all its consumer products – Dell’s brand has zero pizzazz. When it comes to …

When pundits started raising questions about Hewlett-Packard’s depressed valuation and potential period of turmoil, following last week’s resignation of CEO Mark Hurd in a sexual harassment allegation, the commentaries had a tempest-in-a-teapot flavor at first.  Could Hurd’s troubles really put HP product lines into question?  Judging by the delayed-reaction editorials this week from people like Eric Jackson at TheStreet.com, the answer is an unqualified “yes.”  The troubles could span handhelds, tablet computers, netbooks, and notebook computers.  HP must quickly reassert its goals in all categories.

Jackson echoes many other points of view in …

As if the competition for smartphone silicon supremacy weren’t heated enough, we now know that Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon, due in the fourth quarter, will be targeted toward low cost laptops as well as tablets and smartphones.

If that ain’t a shot across Intel’s bow, we don’t know what is.

Qualcomm’s VicePresident of CMDA product management, Mark Frankel, told PC World that he expects devices running the 1.5-GHz chip to start hitting the market as early as Christmas. The chip, he said, has better power management than its single-core predecessor …

While we have yet to see the influx of smartbooks this blog has its heart set on, looking at the big picture shows key driver Qualcomm to be in extremely good shape.

Digging through Qualcomm’s latest earnings report, Pocket-lint has discovered the company expects to sell more than one million phone chips per day during 2010. It derives this figure because:

“So far the company has sold almost 200 million phone processors to companies like BlackBerry and HTC, however it is estimating that it will ship a further 106 – 111 million chips, bringing the yearly …

We’ve often warned about the down side of treating smartbook and netbook pricing as the primary feature differentiator.  This is true when groups like OLPC or the Indian government try to design for developing nations, and also when little-known manufacturers boast of offering products at moving-target prices less than $200.

This week’s cautionary tale deserves the “blue light” moniker, because the relatively unknown Florida-based OEM Augen announced in late July that it would offer $150 Android tablet computers, $99 smartbooks, and $89 e-readers at Kmart retail outlets.  …

Could Texas Instruments be about to give smartbooks a shot in the arm?

Today Electronics Weekly reports TI has become the first licensee for ARM’s next generation Cortex-A series processor, codenamed ‘Eagle’. The processor will only be officially unveiled later this year.

“TI and ARM have a long history of collaboration and exchanging technical ideas to develop and define innovative technologies,” said ARM executive VP and general manager Mike Inglis in a statement which gave nothing away.

Despite this cautious comment, Electronics Weekly puts some more meat on these bare bones, saying TI “intends to use the …