ABOUT NETBOOK
Hardware
Netbook users typically rely on online applications and services which do not require powerful hardware on the local computer. Some netbooks do not even have a conventional hard drive. Such netbooks use solid-state storage devices instead, as these require less power, are lighter and generally more shock-resistant, but with much less storage capacity. They also can be much smaller than an average 2.5″ laptop hard-disk, as they do not have to resemble a hard-disk, they can be in the form of a small chip, or several small chips, comparable to what is inside an USB memory stick. On netbooks, which generally have no optical disk drive, application software is typically transferred over a network or read from a USB device. An external hard disk drive can be used with a USB port.
Netbooks typically do not contain premium features of fully-fledged notebooks, such as support for 64-bit operating systems, virtualisation technology, Trusted Platform Modules and Intel Active Management Technology.
All netbooks on the market today support Wi-Fi wireless networking and many can be used on mobile telephone networks with data capability (for example, 3G). Mobile data plans are supplied under contract in the same way as mobile telephones. Some also include ethernet and/or modem ports, for broadband or dial-up Internet access, respectively.
Processor architectures
X86
Most netbooks use the Intel Atom notebook processor, but the x86-compatible VIA Technologies C7 processor is also powering netbooks from many different manufacturers like HP and Samsung.VIA has also designed the Nano, a new x86-64-compatible architecture targeting lower priced, mobile applications like netbooks. Some very low cost netbooks use a System-on-a-chip Vortex86 processor meant for embedded systems, just to be “Windows compatible”, but with very low performance.
ARM
ARM Holdings designs and licenses microprocessor technology with relatively low power requirements. Despite this, ARM so far (as of mid-2009) has had very little success in establishing a market for their chips in netbooks, likely because of the incompatibility between their ARM architecture and the established x86 software ecosystem (primarily the dominant Microsoft Windows operating system, Linux is fully compatible). Freescale, a manufacturer of ARM chips, has projected that, by 2012, half of all netbooks will run on ARM. Google has announced they will release a netbook-specific Linux-based operating system called Chrome OS in 2010 that will support both the x86 and the ARM architectures , and there has been speculation in the press about to a version of Windows 7 compatible with ARM.In June 2009 nVidia announced a dozen mobile Internet devices running Tegra, some of which will be netbooks.
MIPS
Some netbooks use MIPS architecture-compatible processors. These include the Skytone Alpha 400, based on an Ingenic system on chip, and the Gdium netbooks, which uses the 64-bit Loongson processor capable of 400 million instructions per second. While these systems are relatively inexpensive, the MIPS processing power usually compares unfavorably with the x86-architecture netbooks
