The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week will see the launch of new silicon for notebooks - Freescale Semiconductor's ARM chip architecture-based i. MX51 processor, for netbooks that would cost less than $200.

With its reference design featuring the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system, the chip is intended for a range of mobile devices. Other features include the 1GHz ARM Cortex A8-based processor, Adobe's Flash Player software, the SGTL5000 ultra low-power audio codec, and a new power management chip.

According to company claims, the chip would allow a netbook, having an 8.9-inch display, to receive battery life for eight hours.

The Intel-based Netbooks, which run the Windows XP operating system, use the Atom processor that offers better performance than ARM-based devices; however, the latter are more economical with power consumption and run the Linux operating system.

As such, Glen Burchers, director global marketing for Freescale's consumer products group, opines that ARM does not compete directly with Intel Atom processors, because the target netbook segments of the two are different. Burchers said: "We don't believe ARM processor will replace x86, but will augment them for a certain segment of the market."

The latest netbook offering from Freescale - a company that spun off from Motorola Inc in 2004 - has apparently received "significant interest" from Taiwan's contract computer makers. Henri Richard, chief sales and marketing officer Freescale, said: "Since those guys never develop anything unless they have customers behind them, that must mean that some large market players are looking at the technology."