Motorola Readying Dragonball-ARM Chips
Motorola, who makes the Dragonball microprocessors used in all Palm OS handhelds, is continuing to develop the chips, including its plans to integrate them with processor designs from ARM.
Sometime in the second half of this year, the company will release the 68K code M68SZ328 DragonBall. This is simply the next generation of the Dragonball made with an 0.18-micron process, meaning it should have a higher speed with lower battery requirements. If Palm were to release speed-bumped versions of its current handhelds later this year, they would probably run this microprocessor.
At the same time, Motorola is releasing the first generation of its new line that integrates the Dragonball designs with ones from ARM, named logically enough the Dragonball-ARM. This microprocessor will also be manufactured with an 0.18-micron process.
Next year, the company will introduce two more microprocessors, the DragonBall-ARM+ and DragonBall-Arm2. Both will be made with a 0.13-micron process.
These processors will be 32-bit, as opposed to the 16-bit of current Dragonball processors. ARM cores are noted for their excellent combination of high performance, small die size, low power consumption, and tight code density.
Palm has already demoed OS 4.0 running on chips with ARM designs. While Palm hasn't yet announced who will manufacture the microprocessors for their next generation products, Motorola is clearly working hard to keep all PalmOS-based handheld manufactures as customers.
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RE: Too late for the M68SZ328 DragonBall
Palming away.....
RE: Too late for the M68SZ328 DragonBall
Peace Out
Alan
hitbox sux!
RE: hitbox sux!
RE: hitbox sux!
RE: hitbox sux!
http://www.palminfocenter.com/forum/link.asp?TOPIC_ID=257
I would appreciate it if we continued the conversation over there.
------
Ryan
PalmInfocenter webmaster
webmaster@palminfocenter.com
Speed of the DragonARMS
Will speeds enter the triple digits?
RE: Speed of the DragonARMS
RE: Speed of the DragonARMS
OK now. How about the screens? If we do have such fast processors, can we now have QuakeIII played in our handhelds? It's saddening to note that (handheld) developments are focused on the processors, OSs, screen color depth only -- not minding the screen display speed.
Nevertheless, I'd be observing ARM processors evolve.
RE: Speed of the DragonARMS
RE: Speed of the DragonARMS
Palming away.....
RE: Speed of the DragonARMS
RE: Speed of the DragonARMS
RE: Speed of the DragonARMS
Palm *never* said they were working on PalmOS for XScale platforms. They said they were working on PalmOS for ARM-based devices. "ARM" encompasses many reference designs from ARM, including StrongARM/XScale, the new Dragonball-ARM, and several other designs (http://www.arm.com).
Will Dragonball-ARM be better than StrongARM/XScale? I don't think enough specifics are public now to take a guess. It seems logical to assume the new Dragonball-ARM chips' clock speeds will be well into triple digits, but how that will compare to other processors isn't clear. Plus, current PalmOS (and presumably PalmOS 5 for ARM) doesn't take nearly the resources to run as WinCE. Even if Dragonball-ARMs are slower than StrongARMs, PalmOS could provide a speed advantage over WinCE anyway.
RE: Speed of the DragonARMS
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Too late for the M68SZ328 DragonBall