Interest in high-performance mobile processors is heating up. After several years of working with Motorola's relatively tame DragonBall chips (which top out at just 33 MHz and are viable only because of the Palm's highly efficient operating system), Palm has embraced a broader range of CPUs for handhelds that will run the forthcoming Palm OS 5. This new OS will support a wide range of processors, including Intel's StrongARM family, which currently run as fast as 206 MHz and today are most commonly found in Pocket PC devices.xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

            Those existing StrongARM chips are getting old, however. Intel recently announced their successors: a pair of processors called the PXA250 and the PXA210. The first official members of Intel's XScale family, these chips are fully compliant with both the existing ARM architecture and the Palm OS Ready Program. Since Intel claims that the chips will be available in quantity by mid-year, these processors could appear in Palm OS devices later this year, after Palm finalizes OS 5. The chips should be adopted quickly into Pocket PC devices because they're compatible with existing StrongARM software.

            Intel initiated the XScale family of processors to fill a void in the handheld market. Specifically, the XScale specification was written to deliver high performance chips that are optimized for very small mobile devices, e.g., PDAs, that rely on extremely compact, cell phone-like batteries. XScale chips are based on RISC technology and are intended to have both low power requirements and a low thermal profile. That's important when you consider the current options available to PDA vendors.

            DragonBall processors, for instance, have very low power requirements but offer relatively low clock speeds and no multimedia capabilities. ARM processors, which Intel acquired from Digital Equipment several years ago, have a lot of processing muscle, but are power hogs, draining the batteries in Pocket PC devices far too quickly to satisfy many mobile users.

            For many manufacturers, better power management will be the key feature for these new processors. Both chips include a Turbo mode that enables them to step their clock speed up or down in a single clock cycle. That capability will let the chip better accommodate on-the-fly performance demands in a manner that conserves battery power. The result is that Intel estimates these processors consume about half the power of comparable StrongARM chips running at the same clock speed.

Multimedia Support

The XScale chips offer manufacturers more than just better power management. As important as battery life is, what's more exciting is that the XScale chips are engineered with more advanced multimedia capabilities, increasing manufacturers' ability to integrate Internet, video, and gaming capabilities into handheld devices.

            In releasing two chips simultaneously, Intel is delivering both performance and value options for mobile-device makers. The PXA250 is available in a number of speeds: 200 MHz, 300 MHz, and 400 MHz. The chips will cost no more than about $40 in volume, and will appeal to manufacturers designing handheld devices like the Palm and Pocket PC. The PXA210, on the other hand, runs at either 133 MHz or 200 MHz and is priced at $19 in volume for the 200-MHz version. These slower processors will no doubt find their way into entry-level handhelds and cellular phones.

            Users should see more pricing stratification among handheld devices as manufacturers use XScale processors to better define the low and high ends of their handheld-product lines. Both processors are manufactured using Intel's .18-micron process.

            The PXA210 and PXA250 are the first major enhancements to handheld processor technology in several years, and they are getting a lot of attention. Don't expect Intel to have exclusive control of the handheld high end for long, though. AMD has purchased Alchemy Semiconductors, a company that specializes in MIPS-based mobile processors, and it's easy to see that they intend to invade this same territory.

            By combining high performance, multimedia support, and low power consumption in a single package, the new XScale chips are poised to change the kinds of features and capabilities PDAs deliver. In the process, they may change the way people interact with handheld devices.

Intel Corp.

(800) 538-3373

www.intel.com