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Apple Netbooks to Utilize ARM Cortex Architecture?

Computerworld’s Seth Weintraub sat down with Bob Morris, the Director of Patform Enablement for ARM’s Mobile Processor Group. While no specific information about Apple could be shared, the interview does reveal some interesting information pertaining to the possible future of Apple’s netbook/tablet PC offerings.

During Apple’s recent fourth quarter earnings conference call, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made it clear that Apple’s entry into the netbook market was the iPhone. Even though this was directly addressed, speculation continues to fly surrounding the heavily anticipated product. Weintraub, like many other well-informed analysts, believes Jobs’ statements during the quarterly conference call directly imply a future netbook/tablet pc.

Computerworld: The reasons Apple will choose the ARM platform for their upcoming Netbook/Tablets:
1. Apple has an internal PA Semi team working on future ARM chips for the iPhone/iPod Touch
2. ARM chips cost an order of magnitude less (to license) than Intel equivalents
3. ARM chips take up less space on a motherboard
4. ARM chips use many times less power, enabling much longer battery life and much sleeker design.
5. You won’t need to virtualize Windows on these types of devices. Most other Apple applications can be easily ported between chips.
6. Apple wants more control over the processors, which it can’t have with Intel.
7. While a variant of the iPhone version of OSX is the most likely of candidates, Snow Leopard’s optimization release might also be for ARM as well.

ARM’s internal Powerpoints, courtesy of Computerworld.

With Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi, it’s safe to correlate custom chip design efforts with the future of Apple’s products. Specifically in the mobile market (iPhone), and rippling out to lower powered notebooks (netbook/tablet), Apple’s custom designed chips could prove essential to the company’s offerings, especially with how focused they are on power consumption and battery life.

Unless the market makes a radical shift towards power, an Apple netbook will eventually happen. Currently, Apple does not have an OS that is setup to fully support a multi-touch tablet device, so a low-powered notebook seems a bit more realistic. Apple also seems to care less about footprint, and more about thickness, rightly so. Those interested in purchasing either a tablet or netbook should be more concerned with how the device feels amongst a stack of books and papers. They should also be relieved that Apple is focusing on implementing full-size input on most of their devices. Which means, no tiny keyboards that are impossible to use.

Check out Weintraub’s full article for more graphs, analysis and a video comparing the ARM Cortex to Intel’s Atom processors.