AMD Shows OpenPDA at Linux World

[Andy Sjostrom]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~73131,00.html' target='_blank'>http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/...3~73131,00.html</a><br /><br /></div>Linux World has now ended. Most of media's attention has been focused around the SCO and Red Hat law suits, which I follow with great interest. However, AMD's demonstration of the Linux-based OpenPDA platform was picked up by some. AMD's reference kit sits on their Au1100 processor and the software platform and uses Trolltech's Qtopia user interface, esmertec’s Jeode Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and Opera's Web browser.<br /><br />"The Mobile Handheld RDK running OpenPDA provides designers an example of a powerful, multimedia PDA hardware and software solution with a host of standard applications including: multimedia player, games, voice recording, image viewer, synchronization, browsing, and Java technology. In addition, OpenPDA provides a full Personal Information Management (PIM) suite that includes calendar, contacts, to do list, e-mail, and text editor programs."

[maximus]

When reading 'AMD au1100 processor' ... I almost wish that it is a 1100mhz processor for PPC ...

[Andy Sjostrom]

When reading 'AMD au1100 processor' ... I almost wish that it is a 1100mhz processor for PPC ...

You'll be surprised! 8)

[Timothy Rapson]

This is mildly interesting, but AMD is playing tag and catch up, in a mature market where they would have to play leapfrog just to get a few sales. Their PDA doesn't do anything (hardwarewise) that Samsung's spec model shown last year did, and it is twice as big.

Linux has always fascinated me and this PDA and OPIE are worth considering if you don't already have a lot of $$$ wrapped up in legacy hardware and apps (as I do), or if you could get them now at a reasonable price.

If I had been AMD trying to sell this CPU, I would have shown it with a VGA OLED, 512 meg RAM, and some hacks that would allow it to benchmark with 20 hours of battery life.....something different to make it stand out. As it is, it appears to be bottom of the barrel in most specs (except raw CPU MZ).

Otherwise there is not much compelling here.

[Ed Hansberry]

Otherwise there is not much compelling here.
Agreed. AMD came up with this MIPS based chip last year but when both Palm and Microsoft have settled on the ARM processor and they are the overwhelming majority of PDAs, MIPS is just a third wheel. I give AMD 2 or 3 years before they abandon this chip, or accept the fact it will go into some embedded devices but nothing the consumer would really see.

[SmooveB]

Quite frankly I think amd made a mistake when buying out Alchemy and its mips processor. The whole world has gone the Arm route and I do't see developers really being interested in mips anymore.

Timothy is right amd is playing catchup and with the wrong cpu to boot.

[ctmagnus]

MIPS? :duh:

Unless they've already scoped out a "niche market".