Notion Ink ditches NVIDIA and embraces Texas Instruments for their Adam II tablet
Posted on 21. Jan, 2012 by Albert Madison in Tablets
Let’s take a trip down memory lane for a brief moment. Think back to 2010 after the Apple iPad had proved itself in the market and tech fans were on the look-out for the first major challenger for Apple’s 9.7-inch tablet. During the summer of 2010 there was a lot of chatter about an upcoming tablet from a new India-based company called Notion Ink. Notion Ink was supposed to be launching a large screen tablet with a totally new operating system, the tablet was named Adam late in 2010.
Among the many anti-iPad features that were detailed by Notion Ink the 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 ARM processing chip was the most intriguing for the press. With the Tegra 2 Notion Ink was planning to launch the first dual-core tablet computer, the iPad only featured a single-core processor with it’s 1GHz Apple A4 chip.
Coming back to the present the Notion Ink Adam tablet has been on the market for about a year and it’s nothing more than an after though for most. Apple has already had their second generation iPad on the market for close to one year and it’s sold like hot cakes and remains the benchmark for most other tablets. Notion Ink the company lost much of the fanfare it had in it’s 2010 run, but the company still exists and they’re planning to release the Adam II tablet computer soon.
However according to a press release that was published today by Notion Ink the company is steering clear of NVIDIA for the Adam II tablets chip needs. Notion Ink announced a new partnership with Texas Instruments (TI) who makes processing chips that compete with NVIDIA’s Tegra line as well as Wi-Fi chips that are in a new class of their own.
The new Notion Ink Adam II is going to be launched with a TI OMAP44xx processor, a Wi-Link 7.0 chip that controls wireless technologies like Wi-Fi and GPS, and a Phoenix Audio Power Amplifier –all from TI.
New bad decisions
Notion Ink is really excited about their partnership with TI, but their decision in which particular parts they will get from TI isn’t without fault. For example the ARM processor choice isn’t the best because the TI OMAP44xx processors are last years chips. Going forward the Adam II could be in a severe disadvantage when it comes to processing power in comparison to tablets like the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime which has a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip.
Another potential area of weakness for the Adam II is in graphics, which aren’t provided directly from TI but come from GPU designer Imagination Technologies. The Adam II is said in today’s press release to feature the PowerVR SGX5xx GPU which is a class of mobile GPU that was debuted a year ago. Imagination Technologies is readying their PowerVR SGX6xx GPUs right now and those GPUs should perform better than the SGX5xx GPUs.
However Notion Ink could have optimization plans in store for the Adam II’s operating system, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich at launch, that will make any hardware limitations invisible for users.
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2 Responses to “Notion Ink ditches NVIDIA and embraces Texas Instruments for their Adam II tablet”
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thea
25. Jan, 2012
Is this tablet only availble in the US? I cant find it in dutch stores
TabletMan
25. Jan, 2012
Hello thea,
Notion Ink hasn’t announced any release dates yet, and as far as I know they haven’t begun shipping the Adam II tablet at all to anyone. (nobody has really seen the Adam II tablet as a matter of fact)