The saga of the frequency of the processors in Archos continues: the pre-announcement several months ago talked of processors at 1.6 GHz. The announcement last June was "limited" to 1.5 GHz (which is above the competition). A few days ago we learned that the entry-level tablets work at 1 GHz and 1.5 GHz (Turbo) range top models, with output in October. And the latest information, in an official press release the company indicates that available since yesterday shelves are well timed to 1 GHz, expected in October will be timed to 1.2 GHz and 1.5 GHz models will be available only in 2012.
The first thing is that Archos was awaiting a series 4460 OMAP4: a chip with two Cortex A9 at 1.5 GHz and a PowerVR SGX540 384 MHz. This chip was not available for the announcement and does not always seem to be present, in any case not in mass. The other chip used by Archos on the "classic" versions, it is the OMAP4430. This SoC (smart all-in-one) is compatible with the 4460 pine pine but works less quickly: both at the level of the processor - 1.2 GHz maximum - and at the level of the GPU, running at 304 MHz. In view of the "Turbo" to 1.2 GHz, is the chip that is used in the range.
If Archos highlights problems of Texas Instrument on its chip - which seems clear-, there is another problem that society overshadows a little: Ice Cream Sandwich, the next version of Android, will offer a platform of reference based on the OMAP4 (such as Honeycomb uses Tegra 2). From there to think that Texas Instrument retains its chips for "large" manufacturers and Android tablets, there is will not take that one not... that us not.
