The 2 things to take into consideration first should be R&D budget & planned release date for a hardware project like P2.
Realistically speaking we're probably looking at a release date of Q1 2015 at the earliest, a plan may be made for an earlier release but based on how these things go and the necessity to be super careful with money my gut feel is it would be hard to bring a P2 to market earlier than Q1 2015.
I've no idea what the R&D budget for P2 is but if ED could give some order of magnitude then it would help with threads like this.
As part of the examination into the suitability of x86 the first thing I'd do is buy one of the forthcoming tablets which are based upon a SoC which can be bought 'off the shelf'.
Actual use of the tablet will give a pretty good indication of battery life & CPU /GPU power for something in a P2 form factor. In my eyes this would be vastly preferable to relying on reviews / benchmarks.
There are two approaches of project scoping.
1. get the product out first then collect feedback and make improvements on the next product.
2. maintain close touch with their consumer base and try to push out the most demanded product in a timely manner.
The first approach is traditional, and usually easier to pull off. However, it also causes manufacturers to lose touch and thus become A-holes of the biggest caliber.
The second approach seems to be the future of product scoping and quality control. However, it needs the contractor to know its business very well and can make adjusts rather than blindly following traditions.
We don't know much about what we can get our hands on at the moment.
However, we do need to have a vague idea about what x86 P2 should be about. What's its selling point and how to make that stand out.
We do need to keep a set of assessment criterias in mind.
720p 4 to 5 inch ips screen, better wifi and blue tooth support, a new keyboard layout, a new case and possibly prettier colour scheme, usb support and so on.
This is our short term goal, we need to get a set of important criterias, no need to specify how much score x86 p2 needs to achieve, just a set of criterias that we all acknowledge.
This is not only crucial for us to proceed to the next stage, but also will forcus the power of our community. Say even if intel or AMD would not happily give ED their chips, we can start a partition and strive for that.
After conducting the feasibility study on both ARM and x86, we would then have a clear direction on where to go next.
Just as a side note, Even though Mediatek is infamous for its closeness, it has provided its full documentation and drivers to sony. Just as I predicted (no one believes me at that time), they want to enter into the mid to high level of consumer electronic market. If we want sourcecodes, documentations, we can start a partition and tell them how many people are willing to use their chips in a $600 umpc rather than some $120 android knock-off. That would potentially send them a stronge message. However, that's after we can present them a decent business case to make them understand our seriousness.
