Intel Preps 540MHz XScale Chip

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/35187.html' target='_blank'>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/35187.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Intel will offer faster XScale PDA processors in May, according to one contributor on a Brighthand forum who claims to have seen "hardware vendor roadmaps". The author of the posting reckons the PXA263 will be extended from 300MHz and 400MHz to 412MHz and 540MHz. Certainly Intel is expected to launch its next-generation XScale, codenamed 'Bulverde', sometime this year. The chip maker announced Bulverde last September at Intel Developer Forum. The next IDF kicks off in the middle of February, and it's very possible that the company will use the event to fulfil its promise of revealing more about Bulverde's features sometime during the first half of 2004."<br /><br />Finally! More speed! :mrgreen:

[ricksfiona]

With just having purchased my IPaq 5550, I would have to wait until speeds were in the 600MHz to 800Mhz to justify the cost. Plus, you gotta figure battery life... I hope they have some technology to slow-down the CPU when it's not needed as much to resolve battery life issues.

[Falstaff]

I posted this yesterday afternoon in Just Chattin'. You can check out the Brighthand forum thread out here. (http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=d00df13b7ef128abf7dec7116b150a01&threadid=98934&perpage=10&pagenumber=5)

[MooseMaster]

Well it sounds like they're REPLACING the 300MHz with the 412MHz and REPLACING the 400MHz with the 540MHz, which would mean that they're equivalent in everything but speed, which would mean they've made such advancements.

That's the way I read the article: that these faster processors were replacing the older slower frequency processors.

[moaske]

If only MS would make an OS that can cope/keep up with these speed-demons :D As long as we stick to WM2003/.NET4.2 i guess it won't really show a major improvement. Apart from that; will a 25% speed increase be really noticable ???
Almost sounds like i'm already perfectly happy with my h4150's speed, eh ? ;) :D

[Jonathon Watkins]

Hmmm, odd numbers. Why not a round 450Mhz and 600MHz? Any speculation where they get those numbers from?

Any new tricks to 'Bulverde' that are worth knowing? Any new instruction set or power saving features?

Hey, more speed is always better. :mrgreen:

[arnage2]

my 4150 was very slow with my wifi. I think the processor held it back. (my clie is much faster with the internet) 450+mhz would be welcomed.

[EricMCarson]

my 4150 was very slow with my wifi. I think the processor held it back. (my clie is much faster with the internet) 450+mhz would be welcomed.
I haven't really experienced the 4150 slowdown with wi-fi. Maybe an issue with your ap compatability?

[Howard2k]

MAybe it's your configuration? I use a 4150 and the wifi flies!!

[rmasinag]

how bout fixin that alarm to go with that spankin new peocessor 8O

[yslee]

my 4150 was very slow with my wifi. I think the processor held it back. (my clie is much faster with the internet) 450+mhz would be welcomed.

Or is it the OS or your config? I'm pretty sure the CLIE uses similar hardware..

[jizmo]

Looks like we're going to have then these spanking fast devices - still with 3,5" screens and 4-year old QVGA display technology.

Give me VGA screen over this any time.

/jizmo

[Jonathon Watkins]

Personally I want both Jizmo - VGA & a faster processor. Lets just see what come out in the next wave of devices.

[Ed@Brighthand]

Well it sounds like they're REPLACING the 300MHz with the 412MHz and REPLACING the 400MHz with the 540MHz
Yes, these new chips will replace the old ones.

Any new tricks to 'Bulverde' that are worth knowing? Any new instruction set or power saving features?

These processors will offer Wireless Intel SpeedStep Technology, which dynamically adjusts the power and performance of the processor based on CPU demand. This can result in a significant decrease in power consumption for wireless handheld devices.

Next-generation XScale processors will also offer better multimedia capabilities through the inclusion of Intel's Wireless MMX technology and Quick Capture Technology.

After I posted an article (http://www.brighthand.com/article/RumorMill_Faster_XScale_Chips_in_May) on this a few days ago, someone in the handheld industry I trust wrote me to confirm much of the information.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Cheers - I was just going to post that I had just noticed it at the Register:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/35187.html

[R K]

Hmmm, odd numbers. Why not a round 450Mhz and 600MHz? Any speculation where they get those numbers from?

Well, remember the StrongArm processor? That was running at a speed of 206MHz, (103 x 2.0). I can only guess that the numbers are based off of StrongArm's bus and multiplier settings.
412 = 206 x 2 or 103 x 4

I don't know how they're coming up with the 540MHz though.

my 4150 was very slow with my wifi. I think the processor held it back. (my clie is much faster with the internet) 450+mhz would be welcomed.

Do you have the "Extended" WiFi Power Saving feature enaled?
This feature has a good probability of slowing WiFi speeds down.
Try disabling the Power Saver settings, and see if it makes a difference.

[JustinGTP]

About bloody time :roll:

[Jonathan1]

Give me VGA screen over this any time.

/jizmo

Pocket PC 2004 will have VGA and landscape support built in.

[tsb_hcy]

Give me VGA screen over this any time.

/jizmo

Pocket PC 2004 will have VGA and landscape support built in.

Won't do much good on a worthless QVGA screen though. ;)

[felixdd]

Now we can burn through our batteries even faster than ever before! :mrgreen:

[Kowalski]

do we actually need this speed boost?
i think that they have to concantrate on optimum cpu usage, not increasing the cpu speed. this yealds to
Now we can burn through our batteries even faster than ever befor
i dont want a faster cpu, i want a more optimized OS and compilers

[Ed@Brighthand]

Sadly, this is long been Win-tel's solution for the various operating systems. Rather than Microsoft making the code more optimized, it waits for Intel to put out faster procesors.

[Len M.]

What PocketPCs need more than faster CPUs is to have a DMA capability. DMA speeds up access to memory, peripherals and mass storage, and frees up the CPU for computation.

Our experiences show that a PDA with a 400 MHz XScale has worse disk write rate performance than an old 90 MHz Pentium PC, and most of that slowness is likely due to the lack of a DMA controller.

PDAs also need a floating point processor. Any application that does even a bit of number crunching simply dies on a PDA.


Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com

[Janak Parekh]

Sadly, this is long been Win-tel's solution for the various operating systems. Rather than Microsoft making the code more optimized, it waits for Intel to put out faster procesors.
I've gotta disagree there. WM2003 is quite a bit more optimized in several aspects than Pocket PC 2002. We've published benchmarks showing the same on devices ranging from StrongARMs to the latest XScales.

What PocketPCs need more than faster CPUs is to have a DMA capability. DMA speeds up access to memory, peripherals and mass storage, and frees up the CPU for computation.
Interesting point! I'd be curious to know how many DMA channels ARM chips have, and assuming it's not a tiny number, why people aren't using them...

Re floating-point: the problem is that an FPU will increase the die size and power consumption. How much, I don't know. ;)

--janak

[Len M.]

They have no DMA channels. There's a co-processor chip that has it but I'm not aware of any PDAs that use it. The iPAQs don't.


Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com

[Janak Parekh]

They have no DMA channels. There's a co-processor chip that has it but I'm not aware of any PDAs that use it.
I feared as much. Once again, I'm not sure how much complexity DMA channels would add to the die. I suspect we'll ultimately see the introduction as processors get faster, but it may take some time.

--janak

[Talon]

What PocketPCs need more than faster CPUs is to have a DMA capability. DMA speeds up access to memory, peripherals and mass storage, and frees up the CPU for computation.

Our experiences show that a PDA with a 400 MHz XScale has worse disk write rate performance than an old 90 MHz Pentium PC, and most of that slowness is likely due to the lack of a DMA controller.

PDAs also need a floating point processor. Any application that does even a bit of number crunching simply dies on a PDA.


So something like an OMAP processor then? TI build DSPs, in a DSP it's all about the memory bandwidth. Last time I looked the OMAP it had DMA everywhere. When you have DSPs that can do 6 memory accesses a clock you need a good memory architecture, the intel method of just adding more cache doesn't always work.
And if you want to number crunch DSPs are also the way to go not floating point units. Hardly anything needs floating point.

[Talon]

Interesting point! I'd be curious to know how many DMA channels ARM chips have, and assuming it's not a tiny number, why people aren't using them...


On the DMA, ARM is just he CPU core, it has no DMA because thats not part of the CPU. However the processors in a PDA are a lot more than just an ARM core. From Chapter 5 (page 151) of the PXA255 xscale developers manual on the intel website "The DMAC (DMA controller) has 16 DMA channels".
Since it's not a core part of the CPU using the DMA is not part of PPC, it's up to the vendor to write device drivers that make use of the DMA on the CPU they have chosen to use.

The same is true with any new instructions intel have added. They are not ARM instructions so to core OS can't use them without risking breaking it on some CPUs.

On the same issue, the XScale isn't actually an ARM core at all. It's an "ARM compatible core". Clock for clock the xscale is slower than a true arm core but it's been tweeked so that it can be clocked faster than normal arm cores. The same basic marketing trick that intel used on the P4.