New OS
Nice... means I can install a real OS on it.
Samsung are about to announce a Galaxy tablet running Android but with Intel inside. And while it is a victory for the US chip goliath, it's also one which could prove pyrrhic given the large amount of cash Intel will have to cough. Samsung has booked a London launch for 20 June, with new Windows tablets expected but not …
I assume you're referring to installing Windows? Not sure what you find to be a problem about Android in tablet form factor compared to Windows really.
I wouldn't hold your breath anyway. You're assuming this has a conventional kind of BIOS or UEFI that would allow you to install an OS like that, which I doubt.
Android supports multi-user by partitioning the whole machine up. That 32GB tablet becomes 2x16GB tablets, basically, or 4x8GB. You have to install apps multiple times for each account and the DRM ensures that you can't run a paid app on the wrong account, even if it's on the same device. Not really a good solution.
This isn't a huge issue, most apps use the Dalvik VM to run so hardware platform isn't that relevent. With the exception of the relatively small number of JNI based apps.
Plus I'm assuming this will have the on-the-fly binary translation to cover those apps, rather like on the Orange San Diego android phone.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/04/orange_san_diego_intel_based_android_smartphone_review/page3.html
I'm assuming this will have the on-the-fly binary translation
'cept where this doesn't work. I'm typing this on my San Diego, but I'm having to use Dolphin instead of Chrome because G00gle borked Chrome on Intel Android with their last release and it hasn't worked since, and the iPlayer app has never worked at all...
Nice phone though, and a corker for £100 PAYG.
R&D and production costs for ARM and Intel based tablets is too high, so building one generic base, upon which you install the relevant OS, like they and HTC did with smartphones for years (the early htc and Samsung phones were effectively the same hardware, with slightly different cases and either WIndows Mobile, Android or Windows Phone installed.
Android needs to fix the NDK so devs can output LLVM bitcode binaries as well as those targeted to ARM, Intel or MIPS architectures. That way a single app can target all platforms instead of just some of them.
I really don't understand why they haven't done this. LLVM has crept into Android 3.0+ via RenderScript so some of the prerequisite framework for this is already there and it would be hugely beneficial for game development.
The ATIV SmartPC is available in the 700 form, with Core i5 processor or in the 500 form, which is much thinner, using the current generation Clovertrail Atom.
It is a very nice machine, nippy enough for most things (even working as a desktop replacement), yet offering silent running (no fans) and over 9 hours battery life. I'm very happy with mine.
Samsung offer Intel a major in for putting Atom into such products as smart TVs, set-top boxes, etc., and I bet Intel is taking the view that those sixty engineers are driving the tablet as the thin edge of the wedge into as many Samsung product ranges as Intel can manage.