Honeycomb, Google’s new Android tablet OS will be requiring a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor to be run correctly say Bobby Cha, the managing director of Korean consumer electronics firm Enspert. Unfortunately, this means that existing Android run tablets can’t upgrade to Honeycomb because they lack the processing strength to meet the required specs. Manufacturers are stating that they’ll be moving to the new processor architecture for 2011 but as it stands now, Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform is the only chipset on the market that includes a Cortex-A9. Some people are also saying that a 1280 x 720 screen will be necessary but Cha has confirmed that “Honeycomb does not require 10-inch [screens] … it’s going to go as small as 7 inch.”

A Motorola prototype device which runs on Honeycomb was introduced by Google last month, but the requirements for the hardware were kept very hush-hush. The Motorola tablet would be the first on the market to run Honeycomb according to Cha. Google would have 2 parallel software paths for tablets if the rumor is true. The Samsung Galaxy Tab line of Android tablets with Cortex-A8 processors and 1024 x 600 screens run the “Froyo” version of Android 2.2, can be upgraded to Gingerbread 2.3, but not to Honeycomb. It seems that initially that Honeycomb is being reserved for higher-end spec models such as the Motorola tablet, LG’s rumored tablet, and the new Toshiba tablet. If this is the case, then it leaves us wondering about the upcoming “fragments” API mentioned by Android head Andy Rubin in December. Supposedly, that will come to light in the next version of Android, -codenamed “Ice Cream”- but as for now, the name is the only fact we know about the upcoming version.

At CES 2011 we’re all expecting to see tons of different tabletsshown off this week. But very few of the mass amount of tablets have the true possibility of showing up running Honeycomb. Cha says that new OS will most likely be ready for manufacturers to install “towards the end of January”. Do you think a tablet showing up to CES running Honeycomb will steal the show or is it too early for the software to really grab the attention of consumers?”

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[Source: PC Mag]

Authors: V_Geek

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