Intel Announces Three New PDA Processors

Posted By: Ryan Tuesday, March 25, 2003 9:24:23 AM

Intel has announced three new processors for handhelds. The new chips promise higher performance and longer battery life in less space than previous versions.

The announcement includes two additions to the smaller, Intel PXA26x family, including the Intel PXA263 processor, Intel's first stacked processor for PDAs and the Intel PXA260 processor, a "pin compatible" product that makes upgrading a PDA design easy and cost-effective for OEMs. The third product, the Intel PXA255 processor, is a replacement to the popular Intel PXA250 processor that extends the overall system performance and battery-life of PDAs.

PXA255
The Intel PXA255 processor extends the overall balance of system performance and power consumption of its predecessor, the Intel PXA250 processor. The PXA250 is used in Palm OS 5 Sony Clies. Intel has doubled the internal system bus speed to 200 MHz to improve application performance. In addition, Intel has lowered the voltage of the technology to 1.3 volts at 400 MHz through a variety of manufacturing techniques, resulting in more than 30 percent lower power consumption in run mode and more than 60 percent lower in idle mode.

PXA260
The Intel PXA260 processor (available in 200 MHz, 300 MHz, 400 MHz versions) is a standalone device that is nearly 53 percent smaller (13 mm by 13 mm by 1.4 mm) than prior standalone processors (17 mm by 17 mm by 1.75 mm). It is "pin-compatible" with the Intel PXA26x processor family, enabling the designer to build a single board that can easily stack flash memory and computing products without changing the design. This saves manufacturers significant time and cost associated with designing a family of PDAs ranging from thin and light to high-end, full-featured devices.

PXA263
Extending the industry's first family of innovative "stacked" processors, the Intel PXA263 processor brings memory and processor chips together for powerful computing and memory capabilities in a smaller, single system package. The Intel PXA263 processor (available in 200 MHz, 300 MHz, 400 MHz versions) stacks 32 MB of 32-bit Intel StrataFlash® memory with an Intel XScale technology based processor for up to 72 percent space savings over stand-alone products.

Stacking advanced computing and memory capabilities in a "system-in-a-package" design reduces the number of components in a PDA and enables manufacturers to create new and different capabilities and functionality, including a better ability to execute performance-intensive applications such as MPEG4 video decode, speech and handwriting recognition, and games.

The Intel PXA263 and Intel PXA260 processors are sampling today with production volumes expected in the second quarter of 2003. Products using the new processors will be available later this year. The Intel PXA263 processor (200 MHz) has a suggested list price of $42.35 (US) in 10,000 unit quantities, and the Intel PXA260 processor (200 MHz) is being sold at a list price of $22.85 (US) in 10,000 unit quantities. The Intel PXA255 processor is available in products now from leading OEMs. More information on the new processors can be found here.

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Which devices?

VisorMiser @ 3/25/2003 10:57:57 AM #

Any word as to what genre of devices (or companies) will use these processors? POS? PPC? All of the above?

the VisorMiser
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RE: Which devices?

Admin @ 3/25/2003 11:34:44 AM #

Sony uses the PAX250 in Palm OS 5 clies and you would expect them to most likely use the new 255 in future models. It's also rumored that Palm SG may use an intel chip in a future model.

RE: Which devices?

i2oadi2unnei2 @ 3/25/2003 11:59:52 AM #

Only if you could upgrade processor on these PDAs as easy as upgrading your PCs would be so nice... *sigh*

...|3eep |3eep!!...

RE: Which devices?

orol @ 3/25/2003 12:28:43 PM #

afaik PXA263 is supposed to be in the new samsung palm os 5 phone. furthermore this smartphone should have be embedded with 32mb ram what could also prove that it has PXA263 ..
but the best thing is the intel strataflash memory .. because it's basically ram but without power it acts like rom ..

RE: Which devices?

madmaxmedia @ 3/25/2003 12:32:14 PM #

Somone has successfully swapped the 255 for the 250 I believe in some PocketPC's (from reading some boards yesterday).

I also read that Dell has quietly substituted the 255 into their PDA's, there doesn't seem to be absolute confirmation of this though.

So perhaps you can pay some ridiculous amount to swap in your POS or PPC soon?

RE: Which devices?

stephen007 @ 3/25/2003 1:10:00 PM #

Hmmm... not sure I like "Palm OS" being shortened to POS. ;-)

Stephen

RE: Which devices?

big_raji @ 3/25/2003 1:16:21 PM #

> Hmmm... not sure I like "Palm OS" being shortened
> to POS. ;-)
>
> Stephen

Ouch! I'm sure it can be an abbreviation for many other things that are much nicer than what you're thinking...

Of course, I can't seem to think of any right now.

---
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By July

graph @ 3/25/2003 1:22:41 PM #

Do you think new pdas using these new processors will be available by july?

i know its a short time but maybe intel detailed announcements on this?

RE: By July

mikecane @ 3/25/2003 5:22:50 PM #

Well, duh. They just announced the PXA255 now -- and Toshiba's been shipping their PXA255-based e755 for over a week. So, yes, odds are Sony will plop it in a CLIE for this summer -- if only to help speed up that pathetic dog of their software, CLIE Viewer!