One of the main reasons we’re hearing so much about touch tablet these days is not because users are interested in them but because the cost of manufacturing is low enough for powerful hardware to be put inside tablets to make them worthwhile. Marvel is one of the big manufacturers of ARM architecture CPUs, used in most of the smartphones we buy today.

    Recently they’ve presented during Future of Publishing Summit a working prototype of the Armada ARM architecture, a low cost and low power (consumption that is) next gen alternative that will bring 1080p video playback out of the box without penalty on battery life (I say without ‘much’ impact as I don’t believe all the marketing mumbo jumbo companies are pulling today).

    Marvell Armada prototype

    Marvell Armada prototype

    The prototype was running Android OS 1.6 but there’s no reason not to believe the final tablets (not manufactured by Marvell of course) will be fitted with the final Android version or other additional chips. It all depends on the price of devices, which was not even speculated, but expected by Marvell to be substantially lower than that of the iPad that starts at 499$. That’s good news folks!

    Source: Technologizer