Intel Announces Three New PDA Processors

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.