Worlds first Ice Cream Sandwich tablet hits the market, only $100

Ya, $100 is the correct price tag. We have all seen a plethora of inexpensive tablets in the past. Many of you have purchased them and later regretted spending the money and not saving it for something better. Many of the lesser expensive tablets all came with older version of Android, no Android market and seemed to be horrendous to use. I my self even picked up one that seemed OK, but was let down in a hurry. Now we have one that might just be good enough to buy with out breaking the bank.

MIPS Technology has recently release their latest Android tablet. Rocking a 7-inch capacitive screen, 1GHz single-core MIPS-based Xburst CPU, WiFi, Bluetooth, front and rear cameras, HDMI out and a Micro SD card slot. Just based solely on those specs and the $100 price tag makes it attractive. Toss in the fact that it is running Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) and you have a tablet that could compete easily with other entry level priced tablets. What about battery life though? According to their website the battery last 30 hours of standby, 6 hours of gaming, 25 hours of music, 8 hours of video and 7 hours of web browsing. On their site they even make mention of having Google apps authorized by Google and capable of playing genuine Gameloft games. If that still isn’t good enough for you, Andy Rubin threw down a comment about it. Which I don’t remember him doing in the past on any lower end tablet before –

I’m thrilled to see the entrance of MIPS-Based Android 4.0 tablets into the market. Low cost, high performance tablets are a big win for mobile consumers and a strong illustration of how Android’s openness drives innovation and competition for the benefit of consumers around the world

Sadly the tablet is only currently available in China. Although it is expected to land state side in the next few months from Leader International Inc. and OMG Electronics LTD. If you just can’t wait though you can still get one imported and spend about half the tablet price in shipping.

Below you can find a video of what seems to be the same tablet in action. It appears to be running pretty smooth even though it is labeled as beta testing.

MIPS Technologies and Ingenic Semiconductor Announce

Availability of World’s First Androidâ„¢ â€˜Ice Cream Sandwich’ Tablet

1GHz, Low-Power Tablet Sets New Market Standard at Sub-$100 Price Point

SUNNYVALE, Calif. â€“ December 5, 2011 â€“ MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS), a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications, and Ingenic Semiconductor, a leading China-based CPU provider for mobile multimedia applications, today announced worldwide availability of the world’s first tablet based on Android â„¢ 4.0, known as â€˜Ice Cream Sandwich’, that is retailing for less than $100 (U.S). The tablet is powered by Ingenic’s JZ4770 mobile applications processor, which leverages a MIPS-Basedâ„¢ XBurstâ„¢ CPU running at 1GHz.

According to Andy Rubin, senior vice president of mobile at Google, â€œI’m thrilled to see the entrance of MIPS-Based Android 4.0 tablets into the market. Low cost, high performance tablets are a big win for mobile consumers and a strong illustration of how Android’s openness drives innovation and competition for the benefit of consumers around the world.â€

The new Android 4.0 tablet is available in China and online through Ainol Electronics Co., Ltd. It will be available in the United States and other geographies within the next several months under brands from companies including Leader International Inc. and OMG Electronics Ltd.

The new tablet is available with a 7â€ capacitive multi-touch screen. 8â€ and 9â€ form factors will be available soon. All versions include support for WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, USB 2.0, HDMI 1.3 and microSD, as well as 3D graphics with the Vivante GC860 GPU, 1080p video decoding and dual front/rear cameras. The XBurst processor’s power-efficient architecture provides extended battery lifeâ€”the 7â€ tablet draws less than 400mA during active web browsing.

â€œWe are pleased to join with MIPS to announce these breakthrough high-performance, low-power, low-cost Android 4.0 tablets. Combining the elegance of the MIPS architecture and Ingenic’s innovation in processor design, we are bringing a new level of processor technology to mobile devices. As we continue to collaborate with MIPS to broaden the mobile ecosystem around the legendary MIPS architecture, we anticipate even broader proliferation of our devices worldwide. We believe the mobile world will be more versatile and colorful with another processor joining in,â€ said Qiang Liu, chairman and CEO, Ingenic Semiconductor.

â€œThe openness of Android is enabling a new level of connectedness and interaction between devices and between people across the globe. We are excited to be a part of the Android ecosystem delivering on that vision. We applaud Ingenic’s accomplishment in developing this new high-performance, feature-rich Android 4.0 tablet, and offering it at a price point that makes it widely accessible. We look forward to teaming with Ingenic as it continues to develop MIPS-Based mobile innovations,â€ said Sandeep Vij, president and CEO, MIPS Technologies.

Ingenic JZ4770 SoC

The Ingenic JZ4770 SoC inside of the new tablet is one of the first MIPS-Based systems-on-chips (SoCs) targeted for mobile devices that delivers 1GHz+ frequency, increasingly a requirement for tablets and other devices that incorporate rich multimedia and high-performance applications/functionality. The JZ4770 SoC is powered by a MIPS32 compatible XBurst CPU designed by Ingenic. The XBurst CPU core adopts an innovative ultra-low-power pipelining architecture which consumes less than 90mW in 1GHz (with L1 cache), and the entire SOC consumes ~250mW with the CPU and video engine operating under full load. In addition to the XBurst CPU, the JZ4770 SoC integrates an optimized 1080p video processing engine, OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics processing unit from Vivante Corp. and numerous on-chip analog and application blocks such as audio codecs and GPS.

Pricing and Availability

Ingenic’s JZ4770 SoC for Android 4.0 tablets is available now. The new Android 4.0 tablet is available in China and online through Ainol Electronics Co., Ltd. at www.ainovo.com. The 7â€ tablet retails for less than $100 (U.S.) non-subsidized. The tablet will be available in other geographies within the next several months. For more information, visit http://en.ingenic.cn/.