Notebook makers mull Intel and ARM hybrids
IT’S NO SECRET that ARM has wanted to get one up on Intel in the netbook market, but it seems now that makers of little lappies might be willing to accommodate, with talk of hybrid ARM/Intel netbooks just around the corner.
A Hybrid netbook including both an Intel CPU and an ARM-based processor would be a major coup for the British chip firm and would also give punters something of an ideal balance of performance and power saving in a single system.
Lower power, more energy efficient ARM processors would be able to provide great access to the Internet and applications like Email, without the system having to actually boot up completely, thereby saving a ton of battery life. The Intel processor would kick in for more power-intensive apps, meaning that theoretically, battery life could be extended to around 15 hours.
The hybrid system is a similar notion to the hybrid graphics model being used by several notebook makers recently, whereby Intel’s integrated graphics work alongside more powerful discrete GPUs, switching between themselves for various tasks to maximise energy savings vs performance.
Back in August, Dell announced a sort of cross-breed between a smartphone using a low-voltage ARM sub-processor and a notebook. But while the product may be great for things like e-mail and Internet browsing, it still isn’t as convenient as a notebook, especially in terms of the ease of data input.
The problem is that a hybrid notebook would probably have to use a dual-OS, something not exactly ideal in terms of usability. But ARM is pushing ahead on its software development, hoping to release Ubuntu Linux and Adobe Flash 10 for ARM-based processors at some point next year.
So notebooks could be developing split personalities very soon indeed. µ
L'Inq
DodgyTimes
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What OS would run on such a beast? Seems to me we'd need both ARM and x86 binaries.
"The Intel processor would kick in for more power-intensive apps, meaning that theoretically, battery life could be extended to around 15 hours."

Where is this theory? What numbers are you using? Where did you come up with 15 hours?

hoohoo,

One possibility is Ubuntu, since it has been compiled for both, and beyond that is has a special version for netbooks.
two devices in one case : a pda + a notebook, sharing the display, keyboard and speakers.
RISC ( ARM ) and x86 ( Intel ) architectures are pretty much different and I don't see how you can put them on a single board ... and what happened with the speedstep tech from Intel ? Not good enough ?
Ahem, the HTC Shift?

Runs both Windows Mobile (on a Qualcomm Processor) and Vista (on an Intel Processor) and you can switch between the two at the touch of a button.

Ok, so the Windows Mobile side is a slightly crippled version called "SnapVue", but you can liberate the device to get full Windows Mobile.

It's a flawed implementation due to insufficient memory/storage on the WM side and an insistance on supplying Vista on a machine that only has 1gb memory, but it is essentially the device mooted here.
This is *almost* what I submitted to the Intel-Asus sponsored website (WePC) asking about what future technologies you would like in your notebook except that I suggested that Intel does a double chip - Atom + Core 2 Duo- in a MCM. All x86 so no need to worry about cross platform OS and binaires. Atom is sufficient for email,browsing, and basic tasks. If a filter in Photoshop is selected or if Photoshop is opened, it automatically 'wakes up' the Core 2 and uses it instead.
It really doesn't matter what OS they use as long as the apps use on the ARM look the same as the ones on the Linux/Windows main OS.

Firefox and Thunderbird could be easily compiled for the ARMs OS and the average User just wouldn't care.
Yoggie already has the HyPC which is a Linux on ARM11 inside a laptop, based on Express card form factor.
see:
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=107270&blogid=18