Posted on Thursday, August 15 2013 @ 11:46 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
VR Zone
reports ASUS is developing a new mid-range tablet that relies on an SoC from Allwinner, a low-cost chip from a Chinese upstart. Not much is known about the tablet, other than that it appears to be a mid-range model.
What’s interesting about this tablet is that it won’t be powered by a mid-range SoC from the likes of an established player like Qualcomm. Instead Asus picked a relatively unknown chipmaker, which, very likely, can provide them the required chips at a fraction of the price. The kicker is, Allwinner has the same license for ARM technology — notably the Cortex A8 — that established chipmakers like Qualcomm have.
The tablet Asus is planning on releasing is unlikely to be very interesting. However, it’s very interesting that Asus has given the relatively unknown chipmaker a bill of confidence by using its chips in this upcoming tablet. The SoC business is one with low capital costs: all one needs is to buy a license from ARM, buy some time on a fabricator like TSMC and hire a few engineers. Presto, you have a company that can, hypothetically, compete with established giants.
