http://liliputing.com/2014/06/allwinner-a33-chips-could-arrive-in-cheap-table...

Rockchip has them a new ARM A-17 "low end" chipset that actually was the new bottom end of the A53-A57 generation of chipsets.  

Rockchip used to have the low end of the market all sewed up tight with their RK 3188 and then they were supposed to place the RK 3288 as a middle weight middle cost chipset that would devolve into being the low end chipset over time.

Then Rockchip got all distracted by Intel offering to give them all Intel's tech secrets if Rockchip will just put Intel's name on all their production chipsets
(if any were built using any of that tech in them that is).

Meanwhile, "Boom"  "Boom"  goes Allwinner's main guns, bracketing the USS Rockchip with two actually shipping "in production" ARM shots off of the USS Rockchip's bow and the stern.

Octacore A-15 off the bow, Quad core A7 off the stern ....

So, now both Mediatek and Allwinner are in production with quad core A7 chipsets with greatly improved Mali graphics, which renders Rockchip's bread and butter RK3188 actually sort of totally obsolete at this point in time.  

Plus, get this, the Allwinner A33 will drop right into last year's A23 phone and tablet motherboards (completely ball solder joint compatible).   That is a BIG BIG cost and time savings for the various phone and tablet device makers .....  no delay to market while making up a new motherboard design, they can buy last year's board and matching components at last year's lower prices, etc. etc.

Both Mediatek and Allwinner are also swinging Octacore A-7 / A-15 big/LITTLE chipsets with VASTLY improved graphics to hit the upper half of the market (and the lower end of the laptop market and the Chromebook market).

Rockchip's new RK 3288 A-17 chipset isn't really burning up the road because Rockchip has been costing it up at the $45 per chipset price point while the bracket shots from Allwinner are $5 a chipset on the low end and $35 upper end chipset for the Octacore.    The Octacore from Allwinner is both compute power, energy and graphics superior to the Rockchip RK 3288 and is currently $10 cheaper.

Rockchip has priced themselves right out of their new market, in other words.   This obviously will change, ASAP, but it will put Rockchip lean on profit margin when they do that.

We are awaiting Intel/Microsoft/Rockchip's first real moves since we have seen MS just now starting trying hard to get their OS into the marketplace based upon bootlegging it in through the Chinese software pirates ....

The good ship USS Rockchip is really in a good bit of trouble right now, because both of its new buddies are really really SLOW to go about doing anything and its native Chinese competitors are not slow at all.  

Hindsight says that burning their bridges with ARM and Open Source may have not have been the smartest thing for Rockchip to do.

MS still does not have a compelling or desirable OS product at all for a small tablet  (MS actually had to scrap out their own small tablet effort because MS Office won't fit in the smaller <8" real estate very well at all).

If the MS/Intel/Rockchip alliance do act to flood the 8"/10" tablet market this fall with really cheap Chinese rip offs, then Acer/Lenovo/Asus etc will have to abandon that market completely and go find something else to do.

And the sad part is the MS/Intel/Rockchip alliance won't make any money off of this flooding effort since the Chinese pirates are ripping them all off right now and THEY will be the ones to make whatever profit there is to be made by the flooding.

This may serve to chivvy ARM into releasing a new wave of specifically aimed chipsets with greatly improved graphics though.   This will be a useful thing as the aimed ARM chipsets seem to be upwards compatible and able to handle 64 bit instructions and make big/Little parings with the full 64 bit chipsets.

Considering the glacial speed at which Intel and MS actually move, there is plenty of time for ARM to put a plug in whatever hole Wintelrock is aiming at ....  and since Wintelrock is going to alienate Acer/Lenovo/Asus etc with their current shenanigans then Acer/Lenovo/Asus etc will be eager to pick up on the new stronger ARM whatever it is to be when it comes out.

Folks out in the cold, Samsung and Qualcomm (unless they get their new home built 64 bit stuff going really really soon).

Dead man walking right now is HP who just now actually shipped their brand new Chromebook product -- like nearly a full year out of date when it first shipped.

The only Chromebook product that is slower than the brand new just shipped HP Chromebook is the original Samsung Chromebook from 2 years ago (that uses the exact same chipset as the HP does today).   HP is coming across as sort of me-too pitiful, actually.

Here is a good fact to remember, Intel's latest generation of Haswell quad core mobile based chipsets REALLY ARE a very good match up to a Chromebook or Chromebox.   They actually do fit that product group better than anybody else's stuff does right now.

ARM has got to go drop the dime on their next generation of stuff right smartly now, or else they may get lapped by Intel's flood of "buddy built" chipset products.

Intel certainly intends to try to woo away just as many as they can of ARM's lesser compatriots by just plain giving away Intel 22nm technology freely, knowing full well that their 14nm technology will be a safe harbor for Intel when they roll over to it next year and that they will not be sharing it freely with the crew when that happens.

Intel will then be back in the game, finally.    MS looks to roll back into the game when Intel does, riding along on the x86 compatibility that Intel still has in their quad core Haswell chipsets.


 


.... that is if they can just figure out a 7" or 8"  tablet interface for MS Office that is ....