First, there was ‘Kukui‘. Then, along came ‘Flapjack‘ which we believe could be the first MediaTek-powered Chrome OS tablets to hit the market. More recently, a third Octa-core MediaTek Chromebook showed up under the code name ‘Krane’ and we’re left here wondering what in the world is going on with Qualcomm.
More on that in a moment.
Now, we have a fourth Chromebook under development that will be powered by MediaTek’s still-unannounced eight-core ARM A73/A53 SoC.
Say hello to Professor Jacuzzi.
Okay, so the board name is actually just ‘Jacuzzi’ but it is keeping with the Pokemon professor theme that all of these MediaTek boards have in common. There isn’t much else to derive about this device at the moment as it was added to the repository just last week.
At this point, all we know is that it is a direct derivative of the original ‘Kukui’ baseboard that laid the groundwork for MediaTek’s latest chipset. We’re keeping an eye on these devices and hopefully, we’ll know soon who’s behind the MediaTek Chromebooks.
Back to Qualcomm.
A year and a half ago, we saw the first evidence of Snapdragon-powered Chromebooks. Fast forward to today and we know are seeing clues that the second generation of Qualcomm Chromebooks are already in the works.
So, where are these Snapdragon 845s we were promised? Qualcomm did say that there would be multiple devices when they were launched and that it would be the latter part of 2019. Still, Qualcomm may dominate other ARM SoC’s when they finally arrive but at this point, it feels as if they’re going to start behind the eight ball.
Source: Chromium
