Intel X-Scale fuels mobile enterprise
Intel has launched its X-Scale architecture for multimedia phones and advanced PDAs with the launch of two X-Scale chips
The samples, boards, and software of the Intel PXA250 and PXA210 processors are now available. Products powered by the chips are expected by mid-2002.
David Rogers, communications manager of X-Scale technology at Intel said the X-Scale chips represent a new level of performance for embedded Intel processors. He said the performance boost would enable a new generation of rich applications for handhelds.
"Wireless data networks are coming, [and] the carriers are implementing them now," Rogers said. "And as that happens, we believe that a lot of applications are going to drop into this space, [so] there will be very rich applications that are going to require a lot of performance."
Built to 0.18-micron architecture and designed for advanced PDAs, the PXA250 is available at speeds of 200MHz, 300MHz, and 400MHz. Despite being designed for low power, the PXA250 offers a Turbo Mode for application acceleration and multimedia acceleration with Intel Media Processing technology.
The main features of the new chip technology are:
- Richer wireless data nets running multimedia and enterprise services
- More processing power for apps using Java, browser plug-ins, and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)
- Enhanced security via improved encryption processing
Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, believes enterprise enterprise users will benefit from the technology X-Scale provides.
"If you had a PDA with more processing power that can handle larger chunks of data, then there is more potential for these devices," Bajarin said.
