CUPP's original prototype wasn't exactly gorgeous, but the premise was sound -- couple an ARM platform with an x86 CPU in order to give consumers the ability to run a desktop OS and a low-power OS such as Chrome OS or Android. It's a tactic that has far-reaching potential. Imagine this: you're on a flight attempting to finish up a document, but you only have ten percent of your battery remaining. On a standard desktop OS (like Window 7 or OS X), that'll get you around 15 to 20 minutes of life; if you were instantly able to sleep that OS after saving your most recent copy on the hard drive, boot up Chrome OS and finish it there, you'd magically have at least an hour of usage time remaining. The fact is that ARM platforms require a fraction of the power that standard x86 systems do, with a demo unit here at MWC proving that a sleeping Windows 7 machine actually consumed more power than a typical ARM system that's running. The company has shown off a beast of a machine before in order to prove that it's concept was legit, but here at Barcelona's mobile extravaganza, it brought something special: a modified MacBook Pro with a TI OMAP-based daughter-board module sitting in place of the optical drive. In theory, a battery similar to that found in the machine above could power an instance of Chrome OS or Android for 20 to 30 hours, just to give you some numbers to nibble on. Care to see how it all panned out? Hop on past the break for a few impressions along with a video.
CUPP crams ARM inside of a MacBook Pro, makes it run Android with a button press (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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