12-28-2020, 07:32 AM
(12-21-2020, 10:45 AM)Arwen Wrote: ...
This is one of the problems associated with ARM devices. Intel & AMD both make tablet and laptop focused CPUs & SoCs. Their are ZERO focused ARM laptop processors, today. We have ones that are very close and usable as laptop processors. But, their original design was for media players, IoT, (Internet of Things), etc... Even the newer RK3588 is not quite laptop focused, (dual Gigabit Ethernet in a laptop???).
I think that's a bit exaggerated. ARM has been used in Chromebooks for a couple of years and recently even in Windows laptops. I don't know if Google ever did any optimizations to the RK3399 to call it the OP1, but the Samsung Chromebook Plus with that chip is perfectly usable as a laptop. If only the Pinebook Pro was as smooth as the Samsung Chromebook Plus, it would have been a difference between night and day. I can even connect the the Samsung Chromebook Plus to my 4K TV and play 4K YouTube videos.
Just because a SoC can also be used for a SBC, doesn't mean that it isn't laptop focused. This idea that you should use a certain chip only for a specific device is long gone.
Laptop chips end up in mini PCs and (low power) desktop class chips end up in laptops. And I think that's also where Apple is heading: one chip to rule them all!