|
XScale
By: Dave
- January 31, 2002
With the recent news item
from Fujitsu about their entry in the PDA market, I feel it is time to go
talk about the core of the PDA, the processor. I have a technical
overview of all the processors, but I think it could be a good idea to
talk about little bit about the next big processor, the Intel XScale.
This chip has been talked about for some time, but it isn't until now that
we are finally going to start hearing about it and actually seeing it in
some devices.
Intel's XScale is their
second generation of ARM based processors. The first ARM based
processors, StongARM, are used in many devices including all Pocket PC
2002 devices. They have been the fastest chips for handhelds and in
many other embedded systems and devices. For the last year, Intel
has been preparing the market for XScale with specifications and charts
with one of the most important things for a PDA, power consumption
statistics. The XScale processor is an extremely economical chip,
using sometimes as little as half the power as similar StrongARM
chips. Why should you care about power consumption? Battery
life. Though by far the processor does not require the most power,
the processor always requires power when your device is running. The
less power it uses, the more power the device has to power expansion cards
and the display.
XScale will also bring fast
processors to your device (or should I say new device since your processor
is not upgradeable). Intel estimates that XScale will be able to
reach the 1GHz mark, if not go higher. Now, just because XScale is
going to be 1GHz one day, don't think that day is coming soon. There
are two things you should think about in this area. First, it takes
time to develop various chips and you can't just start at the top
speed. Developing various chips can give companies time to refine
their processes and make future chips better. The second reason 1GHz
isn't going to be here soon is marketing. Why do you think that we
saw so many Pentium chips? The difference between a 800MHz PIII and
a 833MHz PIII is, well, 33MHz (basically a Palm OS device). That
really isn't a huge help to your PC, but people that want the fastest,
newest, and best, might consider upgrading. The initial rumor was
that the new XScale chips would start at 412MHz (twice 206Mhz, the fastest
StrongARM). Frankly, that makes little sense. Mobile processor
speeds in the last couple years have never exactly doubled (except in the
case of the DrangonBall chips). It is more likely that (like in the
case of the Fujitsu device) we will see 300MHz chips first and speeds will
slowly trickle up from there. If Intel is smart (which they usually
are), the speeds will vary slightly between different manufactures.
This could also help shape the whole PDA market by causing manufactures to
find more ways to make their device better then just by a faster
processor.
What will XScale mean for
you? It depends on what you own or plan to own. If you are in
the market for a PDA now, and want one now, you aren't probably going to
want to wait another couple months for the possibility of an XScale
device. If you recently bought a device (like a new Pocket PC 2002
device), this probably won't affect you either because you have a reality
new device. As for the people with Compaq iPAQ 3600's, 3100's, or
other older PDA's, this will apply to you. You have a device that
can keep you running for now, but in the near future there will be a great
new product for you to upgrade to. Keep a watch, because no matter
what, XScale is going to make an impact on the market and how you use your
PDA.
|
