Why there could be more than one new Kompanio Ultra Chromebook Tablet

Just yesterday, we were thrilled to uncover evidence of ‘Tanjiro’: a new Chromebook tablet in development with the incredible MediaTek Kompanio Ultra chip inside. The prospect of a single device with that amazing processor in a tablet form factor was exciting enough. But as I’ve continued to dig through the commits, I’ve found one small but incredibly significant detail that makes this news even bigger.

It turns out ‘Tanjiro’ is not just a standalone device; it’s a new reference board. And that small distinction could mean that we’re not just looking at one new tablet, but potentially a whole new family of them.

Why being a reference board is a big deal

For those who don’t follow the nitty-gritty of Chromebook development, let’s break this down. A “development board” or “variant” is a specific device being built by a manufacturer like Acer or Lenovo. A “reference board” (or baseboard), however, is the foundational blueprint generally created by the chipmaker (in this case, MediaTek) and Google. This blueprint is then used by multiple manufacturers as a starting point to build their own unique devices.

We’ve seen this play out in a huge way recently with the ‘Skywalker’ and ‘Jedi’ reference boards for the upcoming MediaTek MT8189, which have already spawned a combined nine unique development boards between them.

The exciting possibility of a new tablet family

Since ‘Tanjiro’ is a reference board for the high-end Kompanio Ultra, it’s highly likely that it will be used by multiple manufacturers to create their own unique, premium tablets.

Now, there’s always a chance that a reference board only ever spawns a single device. But the fact that a dedicated reference design now exists specifically for a Kompanio Ultra-powered tablet is a huge signal of intent from Google and MediaTek. It shows they believe in this product category and are actively encouraging their hardware partners to build for it.

The discovery of ‘Tanjiro’ was already huge news that I’m beyond excited about; but learning that it’s a reference board makes it even more exciting. We may not be just getting one new super-fast, long-lasting Chromebook tablet; we could be on the cusp of a whole new family of them from a variety of manufacturers. As always, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the development of ‘Tanjiro’ and will let you know as soon as the first variant boards begin to appear.