TI Announces New OMAP Processor

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pmn.co.uk/20031211ti.shtml' target='_blank'>http://www.pmn.co.uk/20031211ti.shtml</a><br /><br /></div>"Texas Instruments (TI) has announced its next generation ARM-based OMAP 1710 processor, claiming that it offers a 40 percent performance improvement over previous version but with less than half the power consumption. OMAP processors are used in a range of smartphone and handheld products to support multimedia and wireless data features. <br /><br />The 1710 is the first mobile processor to use 90 nm technology. It also maintains backwards software compatibility with previous OMAP processors, allowing TI's existing development community to easily port their applications to the new chip. There is a dedicated DSP for handling full-motion video and audio."<br /><br />40 percent performance increase at half the power? Bring it on TI, bring it on! I wonder if we'll see a processor like this in a phone edition device?

[ricksfiona]

Very cool. We could see PPC's getting 12 hour run times on a single charge AND be faster? Very cool indeed.

[corphack]

will it be as compatible with Windows Mobile 2k3, as the XScale was with Pocket PC 2002? I'm not looking forwards to another 40% performance reduction because the hardware and OS are out-of-sync again.

[Jason Dunn]

will it be as compatible with Windows Mobile 2k3, as the XScale was with Pocket PC 2002? I'm not looking forwards to another 40% performance reduction because the hardware and OS are out-of-sync again.

The performance loss you saw was due to the sluggish performance of the Xscale PXA250 CPU, not anything to do with the OS. Intel has vastly sub-standard ARM4 performance, which was part of the problem (the hardware cache was the other). If TI does a good job on how they process ARM4 and ARM5 instructions, there will be no issues.

[Ed Hansberry]

OMAP is ARM based. Recall the PPC2002 Jornada 928 used a TI OMAP processor.

[SandersP]

Show me the benchmark, then I'll believe it. hah!

40%, 200%, 40,000%.... big deal, numbers made for PR, not a real hanheld performance.

[ShivShanks]

Show me the benchmark, then I'll believe it. hah!

40%, 200%, 40,000%.... big deal, numbers made for PR, not a real hanheld performance.

Exactly. Lies, damn lies and benchmarks. 40% better performance doing what and how? Could be something totally synthetic having no relation to real world performance. I've seen a tendency by embedded device mfrs to use metrics like MIPS for heavens sake when talking about performance. You might as well use the MHz rating in that case.

[Timothy Rapson]

If I recall correctly the Jornado phone edition that used this TI also had a Intel ARM. The OMAP was used for the phone calling work as it has a very powerful DSP function. The Intel ARM ran the basic PDA work. Am I right about this?

Anyway, the OMAPs are featured in most Palm OS 5 models from the $99 Zire to the Tungsten II. They already have good battery life and fair speed. With this kind of improvement they would make it into a lot of PDAs. I expect that TI really REALLY bargains on price, but then with Samsung, Motorola and TI all fighting Intel for the PDA processor business I expect PDA manufacturers are demanding low prices from everyone. Looking forward to TI getting their Wanda prototype technology on an actual store shelf somewhere with this new performance/battery life/price point.

[Ed Hansberry]

If I recall correctly the Jornado phone edition that used this TI also had a Intel ARM. The OMAP was used for the phone calling work as it has a very powerful DSP function. The Intel ARM ran the basic PDA work. Am I right about this?
No, pure TI. http://www.tekguru.co.uk/PPC_Reviews/Jornada928/Part02.htm