XScale - The Untold Story!

[TomB]

Everyone has been speaking about the extended battery life of XScale without considering that this feature is partially a factor of the software scaling speeds as needed. That may actually result in LOWER battery life if media software isn't optimized and continuously operates at the highest processor setting. Having said this - does anyone know if the Microsoft Media Player shipping with XScale has been re-written to take advantage of the XScale media coprocessor (SIMD)? Under the "programs" listed with the new Fujitsu it mentions "Media Player" but no version.

[Jason Dunn]

You're right, the software does need to be optimized to take full advantage of the system. I've asked someone at Microsoft for an official statement, so I'll let you know what they say.

That said the 400 mhz Xscale is supposed to use slightly LESS power than a 206 mhz StrongARM - so I don't believe the battery life could get worse.

[TomB]

Jason, we won't know until we actually have a unit to test but my guess is any mpeg4 player without parallel processing will be a battery killer. Let's face it, this player will be one of the few apps that will lock at 412MHz to keep up with decompressing to the higher framerates it is capable of. Yes the chip design requires less current however a large part of the battery economy comes from an average speed less than peak NOT a 412MHz constant. It will be a major disappointment if the shipping MS Media Player doesn't support the media coprocessor in ROM. As far as whether it will or not, whatever is going to ship has to be finished by now so I am hoping SOMEONE has this information for those of us queuing up to buy a Fujitsu...