If you haven't heard of Google's Chrome OS, it's an operating system designed to run on PCs with 86-bit or ARM-based CPUs. Many Chromeboxes and Chromebooks that have been released so far come with Intel processors, while some models, which includes Samsung and HP Chromebook 11, sport Samsung Exynos processor based on ARM architecture.

While Samsung has been dominating for making ARM-based CPUs for Chrome OS, Rockchip has also displayed a Chromebook prototype that runs on RK328 chip. Apparently MediaTek is now aiming to also have its processors be supported by Chrome OS.

According to Google's François Beaufort, the developers at MediaTek have submitted their code for an experimental board with an ARM Cortex-A7 processor to the open source Chromium OS project.

ARM Cortex-A7 chips are processors known to have lower power consumption. They are often used to run Android phones or tablets than in laptops. They also cost cheaper, so it is thought that if an existing Chromebooks sell for as little as $200, a model based on MediaTek's new board may be cheaper. The only disadvantage though is that it's not as fast as the HP Chromebook 11 and Samsung Series 3 Chromebook, which both have ARM Cortex-A15 dual-core processors. While these Chromebooks can handle most basic tasks, they can still be sluggish when compared to a model like the Acer C720 Chromebook with a faster Intel Celeron 2955U Haswell processor.

Overall, the idea of selling Chrome devices with ARM-based CPUs is not siutable for powerPC users. However, this concept can be quite appealing to consumers who have a tight budget.

There is no certain date, as of now, on when Chrome OS devices based on MediaTek's processors will be out. In the meantime MediaTek has been testing some of its chips with Chromium OS and contributing code to open source project.