Inside the Pixi Processor

Posted By: Tim Carroll Tuesday, September 8, 2009 10:47:59 PM

Corrected:With the announcement of the Palm Pixi's full spec sheet, intrepid Googlers such as your correspondent now have a whole raft of new hardware to familiarize themselves with. First cab off the rank is the heart of the beast: the Qualcomm MSM7627 chipset, which takes the place of the Texas Instruments OMAP processor which powers its older sibling, the Palm Pre.

The 7627's close relative, the MSM7227 was first announced by Qualcomm back in February of this year, where the company touted that they were targeting "sub-$150" smartphones. (A hint at Pixi's as-yet-unannouced price?) The chipset has a 600 MHz processor with FPU, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, integrated Bluetooth 2.1 and GPS, can support up to an 8 megapixel camera (although this is obviously not the case with Pixi) and 30fps WVGA video encoding/decoding (WVGA being 'X' x 480). The same Palm employee who revealed the secret behind the "Zepfloyd" has noted on IRC that the chipset is "pretty comparable" to the OMAP in the Pre and "quite fast", featuring an L2 cache.

All in all, it seems that anyone who was worried the Pixi would be significantly underspecced in comparison to the Pre can rest easy - unless you really, really wanted Wi-Fi...

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No wifi = dealbreaker

cstamper @ 9/9/2009 6:46:30 AM #

Seriously, this is like 2009. Where's the wifi?

Meh. At least the Pre is only $150 now.

RE: No wifi = dealbreaker

Tim_Carroll @ 9/9/2009 7:06:22 AM #

Where's the wifi? In the Pre! :P

Seems obvious to me anyway that it's all about not cannibalizing the Pre, which is targeted at those who want a premium smartphone with all the bells and whistles and a bit more muscle for media functions. Pixi is obviously targeted at the lower end, seeking to hook texting addicts and Blackberry users.

RE: No wifi = dealbreaker

LiveFaith @ 9/9/2009 12:44:29 PM #

From Palm's own blog concerning the price ...
"And here's some good news about the older sibling in the family: You can now purchase a Palm Pre from Sprint for as low as $149.99 with contract.
Jon Zilber"

http://blog.palm.com/

With Pre rebates, I cannot for the life of me see why anyone would want the Pixi w/out WiFi and the even smaller screen. Thinness and more ergonomic keyboard aside.
Pat Horne