Digital Home Thoughts: Gizmodo Explains Mobile Chipsets

"Low-power processors aren't just for netbooks: These computers-on-a-chip are going to be powering our smartphones and other diminutive gadgets in the forseeable future. So what's the difference between the Atoms, Snapdragons and Tegras of the world?"

With the exploding popularity of netbooks, nettops and smartphones, you've probably seen the words Atom, Snapdragon and Tegra tossed around. Gizmodo is kind enough to give us the quick rundown on what each mobile chipset is and what it is capable of. While I am still partial to the Atom myself, mostly because it is the closest to providing a full Internet browsing experience, the Snapdragon and Tegra put ARM based chipsets much closer to that bar. Fortunately, ARM does have some room to get there, since the likelihood of an Atom being put into a smartphone would probably draw so much power the battery life would be just enough to boot up the device. This is definately the battlefield where ARM and x86 will duke it out and if ARM wins, it might even have a chance to taking over the netbook market if not more.