{"id":377163,"date":"2010-03-01T13:22:14","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T18:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"Gizmodo-5482886"},"modified":"2010-03-01T13:22:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-01T18:22:14","slug":"freescales-i-mx508-chip-will-make-e-ink-readers-way-cheaper-and-turn-pages-4x-faster-guts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/377163","title":{"rendered":"Freescale&#8217;s i.MX508 Chip Will Make E-Ink Readers Way Cheaper and Turn Pages 4X Faster [Guts]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"lytebox\" href=\"http:\/\/cache.gawkerassets.com\/assets\/images\/4\/2010\/03\/nook_kindle_side.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cache.gawkerassets.com\/assets\/images\/4\/2010\/03\/500x_nook_kindle_side.jpg\" class=\"left image500\" width=\"500\" \/><\/a>The silicon inside 90 percent of ereaders out there is made by Freescale, and their new chip, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freescale.com\/webapp\/sps\/site\/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX508\">the i.MX508<\/a>&mdash;based on a ARM Cortex A8 (<a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/5482584\/whats-inside-the-ipads-a4\">sorta like the iPad<\/a>!)&mdash;will make them cheaper, and page turns 4x faster.<\/p>\n<p>The chip&#8217;s a custom SoC that integrates the functions from multiple chips into one&mdash;specifically, the E-Ink hardware display controller&mdash;along with that Cortex A8, which gives the readers enough juice to turn pages in half a second, versus the two seconds that&#8217;s typical now. As the first chip expressly designed for ereaders, it also strips out unnecessary features, so the net result for the ereader is that it&#8217;s $30 cheaper a unit. Freescale wagers that with the cost savings, it could drive ereaders to under $150 by the end of the year. (Though that in part depends on how much the E-Ink displays themselves are going to continue to cost.)<\/p>\n<p>An E-Ink reader that costs $150 would definitely look more attractive as a dedicated long-reading device against an iPad that does lots of things on top of reading&mdash;and has those fancy digital magazines&mdash;than the ones that more like $260 today. Then again, Amazon&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/5466859\/amazons-working-on-a-full+color-multitouch-kindle-with-wi+fi\">working on a full-color multitouch Kindle<\/a> with Wi-Fi, if that tells you anything about <a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/5443895\/e+ink-is-dead-pixel-qis-amazing-transflective-lcd-just-killed-it\">the future of E-Ink readers<\/a>. In the meantime, I&#8217;m all for cheaper. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freescale.com\/webapp\/sps\/site\/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX508\">Freescale<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/apps\/news?pid=newsarchive&#038;sid=aA9h6gBiu5aU\">Bloomberg<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/digitaldaily.allthingsd.com\/20100301\/new-freescale-chip-could-price-kindles-to-move\/\">Digital Daily<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><br clear=\"both\" style=\"clear: both;\"\/><br \/>\n<br clear=\"both\" style=\"clear: both;\"\/><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/ads.pheedo.com\/click.phdo?s=d7f84190963b608da4c6f7c15b735192&#038;p=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" style=\"border: 0;\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/ads.pheedo.com\/img.phdo?s=d7f84190963b608da4c6f7c15b735192&#038;p=1\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"0\" width=\"0\" border=\"0\" style=\"display:none\" src=\"http:\/\/a.rfihub.com\/eus.gif?eui=2226\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?a=KaPmwYHWAgk:eRteoHrFhMw:H0mrP-F8Qgo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?a=KaPmwYHWAgk:eRteoHrFhMw:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?a=KaPmwYHWAgk:eRteoHrFhMw:D7DqB2pKExk\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?i=KaPmwYHWAgk:eRteoHrFhMw:D7DqB2pKExk\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?a=KaPmwYHWAgk:eRteoHrFhMw:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/gizmodo\/full?i=KaPmwYHWAgk:eRteoHrFhMw:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/gizmodo\/full\/~4\/KaPmwYHWAgk\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The silicon inside 90 percent of ereaders out there is made by Freescale, and their new chip, the i.MX508&mdash;based on a ARM Cortex A8 (sorta like the iPad!)&mdash;will make them cheaper, and page turns 4x faster. The chip&#8217;s a custom SoC that integrates the functions from multiple chips into one&mdash;specifically, the E-Ink hardware display controller&mdash;along [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1718,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1718"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}