"Texas Instruments wants to ditch smartphones, switch focus to embedded processors"?

[Andy Tai]

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/26/texas-instruments-dumping-mobile/

What does this mean?
--
Andy Tai, at...@atai.org, Skype: licheng.tai
Year 2012 民國101年
自動的精神力是信仰與覺悟
自動的行為力是勞動與技能

[Tom Mitchell]

On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 10:31 AM, Andy Tai <at...@atai.org> wrote:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/26/texas-instruments-dumping-mobile/

What does this mean?

I think the answer for us mortals is a don't care... this is 

just big dogs barking. 

Who knows what or why they made the announcement.

In terms of heavy footsteps thumping behind you I think the

recent FUD from Intel could be part of it.  The Samsung and

Apple parts are serious competition.  Looking at the OMAP 

parts there is a lot of IP glued together.  Some is TI owned

some not and we do not know the cost of these logic blocks. 

I suspect dumping is a bit strong.  They may have looked at

the OMAP5 and the market and crafted a road map of 

process shrinks and clock speed improvements that 

will keep the tablet and phone folk happy for a generation

or two. 

For me the interesting big improvement bits will not be CPU but display and radios

for the next generation or two. 

Do look for forks in the road map.

It is a game of jumping frogs, the front runner keeps changing

and it could be that the OMAP5  feedback is that the 5 is a

prize and a 6 is not as interesting as less expensive spins of

the 5.

I do recall the Intel Itanium release process and the uncertainty

that Intel brings is expensive and unsettling.   Players like TI

are smart to dial back a little or a lot to make sure their frog jumps at the 

right time.

Again, I think the answer for us mortals is a don't care... this is 

just big dogs barking.

 

--
  T o m   M i t c h e l l

[David Anders]

Andy,

it simply means that TI is not going to spend all their time marketing the OMAP4/5/6 line to JUST smartphone and tablet makers. it means that TI will be trying to sell the OMAP4/5/6 to a wider audience as well as make it easier to purchase smaller quantities(i.e. less than 500k pieces)......

Dave

[Bill Fleming]

Dave,

Does this mean that the average person would be able to buy some to make their own boards?
Of course it would take a lot of time and money, designing an OMAP5 board is about the same complexity of a LGA 775 mobo probably.

Bill

[haunma]

That's great news.  Maybe a Beagleboard 5 will happen after all.

Does this imply we might see OMAP5 variants in slightly less-exotic packaging (increased ball pitch)?

[David Anders]

Bill,

i think the possibility exists that you will see more SoM vendors poping up with lower cost boards....

Dave

[Nipuna Gunasekera]

TI remains committed to the OMAP platform and to delivering a roadmap of products designed for a broad variety of applications (not just mobile).  PandaBoard is a low-cost development platform that gives thousands of customers/community members access to the OMAP platform, and we plan on supporting the PandaBoard project over the long term.

Best Regards -Nipuna

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 1:25 AM, <dane...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dave,

Does this decision in anyway impact the Pandaboard community? Since the goal of the pandaboard is to provide a low cost platform for mobile development, I'm wondering if the project is at risk of being shutdown?

Thanks,

Danesh.