AMD's upcoming mobile chip codenamed Hondo will happily run inside Windows 8 tablets but those hoping to add Android support for dual-booting goodness are out of luck. Steve Belt, corporate VP of ultra low power products for AMD, recently told The Inquirer that Hondo will be a Windows 8-only product although there isn't anything spotting users from running Linux on the APU.
The executive specifically said AMD made a conscious decision not to target Android with this platform. They feel that Windows 8 has a ton of potential and they don't want to spread themselves into multiple markets. Belt didn't rule out the possibility of expanding to Android at some point in the future but as of now, it's not in the cards.
AMD is expecting Windows 8 to occupy up to 20 percent of the tablet market and as the publication highlights, if they could capture a majority of that, they'd be in good shape. Support for Linux is noteworthy, however, as Intel says Clover Trail won't support the open source operating system.
ASUS first demonstrated the possibility of dual-booting Android alongside Windows 8 on their Transformer all-in-one during Computex earlier this year. An 18.4-inch desktop probably isn't the best form factor to demo such a versatile operating environment but it at least gave those in the community a glimpse of what is feasible.
Intel's Clover Trail and AMD's Hondo APU are gearing up to make Windows RT tablets a bit more interesting than most initially anticipated. We'll know what each platform is capable of in just over a month's time.