Freescale seems bent on jumping the netbook gravy train and taking on Intel, and to some extent, VIA, in this lucrative and rapidly expanding market.

The chipmaker plans to introduce the MX515 CPU, based on the Cortex-A8 ARM core and designed for cheap, sub-$199 netbook. The new CPU promises not only to be cheap, but energy efficient as well, and Freescale claims MX515 based netbooks will feature battery life in excess of eight hours.

On the downside, Freescale based netbooks won't be able to run Windows, but if the low-end is the goal, most consumers won't mind having Linux on their midget lappie.

The CPU, and the first netbooks based on it, are expected to launch at CES in a few days.

More here.