Palm to Release XScale Powered Handheld in 2003

Posted By: Ed Tuesday, June 18, 2002 9:01:30 AM

According to DigiTimes, Palm Inc. is going to release a handheld that runs the new Palm OS 5 on an Intel PXA250 microprocessor, part of the company's XScale line. This microprocessor can operate at up to 400 MHz. Palm's XScale powered handhelds will be available early next year, which means they won't be the company's first devices to run Palm OS 5.

This news is a bit surprising as Palm has announced that its first generation of OS 5 handhelds will use processors made by Texas Instruments. However, the models with the TI chips are expected to be out this year, while the Intel ones won't be out until 2003.

Palm's CEO said last week that his company will release an OS 5 smartphone this fall which will use TI chips.

The XScale handhelds will be produced by Asustek Computer, a Taiwanese manufacturer. Pilot production is scheduled to begin later this year and the company plans to make 200,000 units during the first quarter of next year.

Palm has the flexibility to use chips from different processors because of the Palm OS Ready Program. This got the processor manufacturers to create a Device Abstraction Layer (DAL) for their own processors. This is sort of a translation layer between the hardware and the OS, intended to remove any incompatibilities between, say, Intel and Motorola chips. This saves the Palm OS licensees a tremendous amount of work and allows them to choose the processor they like without having to write a DAL of their own.

At this point, of the Palm OS licensees only Palm has announced who will make the chips for their OS 5 devices.

About the Intel PXA 250 Microprocessor
The PXA 250 microprocessor is a 32-bit Intel XScale core-based CPU with 200, 300 and 400 MHz versions. It can run at 400 MHz while using the same amount of power as a 206 MHz StrongARM chip. The PXA250 has both Low Power and Turbo modes for improved battery life. It also has an integrated LCD controller and SD/MMC Card Support. It is fully ARM architecture compliant

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Woo Hoo!

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 9:33:59 AM #
Woo Hoo!
RE: Woo Hoo!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 10:52:47 AM #
Sony or Handspring will p-rob release one b4 palm does
RE: Woo Hoo!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 9:23:32 AM #
Woo hoo what? Palm will screw this up like they do evrerything else and you didn't notice that they are late???

OK, time to decide

sandbuck @ 6/18/2002 9:37:51 AM #
First of all this is HUGE news! I can't wait till next year, so I've got to figure out how force myself to sell the first OS 5 device that I will surely buy this fall, and resist the urge to "collect" <-- :/.

My stack of old PDAs is getting a little bit to big:

Pilot Pro
Visor Plat
M505 (current)

Must sell OS 5 M5xx in January....must...sell.....

Good news

sub_tex @ 6/18/2002 9:55:08 AM #
It's going to be an interesting end of the year this year and going into next year as well.

Who knows what new things will be added to Palm OS?

I know it'll be weird to start thinking about video and other multimedia thins on a Palm, not a PPC.

Good stuff.

:)

Why!

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 10:05:11 AM #
Why! Palm better make some apps to take advantage of this processor! How about some video! Some audio! They have said it before! I hope os 5 is what they say it will be! Time will tell!
RE: Why!
mtg101 @ 6/18/2002 10:09:01 AM #
Why should a hardware company make video / audio software???

Assuming you meant PalmSource - I think you'll find that they consider Video Players and MP3 players the domain of the application develper - not the OS.

PalmOS applications already provide video and audio apps - mainly for the Clie at the moment - but once OS5 comes out I'm sure there will be many more.

---
russ@russb.fsnet.co.uk

RE: Why!
sandbuck @ 6/18/2002 10:15:25 AM #
It's pretty tricky to write software before the hardware comes out.

RE: Why!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 10:20:42 AM #
This is an example of what I call "The Microsoft Attitude". For so long Microsoft has made the operating system and been the major developer of applications that people expect all the companies who make an OS to also develop most of the apps. That isn't the way Palm does things. It is going to release the hardware and let third party developers make the applications.
RE: Why!
mtg101 @ 6/18/2002 11:00:45 AM #
>It's pretty tricky to write software before
>the hardware comes out.

Not really - you just use the PalmOS 5 Simulator available from www.palmos.com/dev

This is hos many PalmOS developers are checking their applications work with the news OS - and writing upgrades to take advantgaes to the extra speed or extra funcionaltiy.

---
russ@russb.fsnet.co.uk

RE: Why!
sandbuck @ 6/18/2002 12:18:53 PM #
For multimedia or game apps, how do you compensate for the speed differences between POSE and an actual device?

RE: Why!
Altema @ 6/18/2002 12:40:55 PM #
"For multimedia or game apps, how do you compensate for the speed differences between POSE and an actual device?"

Both multimedia apps and games can check the clock speed in Palm OS and adjust themselves accordingly. If the emulator is running at a slower equivalent speed, then the app can compensate... to a point. This is how TealMovie and Kinoma Player can sync the video and audio and play them at the correct speed. Zap!2000 will adjust your scoring based on overclocking or underclocking. If you want to have some fun with one of the movie players and FastCPU, launch the application with the processor overclocked, then turn FastCPU off and play a movie. Slow motion!

RE: Why!
mtg101 @ 6/18/2002 12:42:50 PM #
I'm no multimedia / games developer guru (aaron if you're listeneing - help me out here!) - but from what I understand you don't just try and get a game / media app to run as fast as possible. If you did then the game / media app would go faster when there's less to process than when there's lots to process.

So a game or media app will try and perform it's updates a set amount of times a second. The PalmOS provides the SysTicksPerSecond() function which gives for any given device the number of 'ticks' (sort of quantum time particles for the application developer) per second. Using this you can use the emulator / simulator quite well to create games and media apps.

Obviously you'll still need to test on real devices eventually - but most of the development can be done without real devices.



---
russ@russb.fsnet.co.uk

Asus

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 10:14:38 AM #
Actually the most exciting thing to me is that they will be built by ASUS. ASUS has a reputation for making outstanding products. Their motherboards have long been considered some of the best around. Half my PC is ASUS components.
RE: Asus
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 11:01:34 AM #
As I said before, they will be OEM by Taiwan.
RE: Asus
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 11:45:25 AM #
Like I said, built by Asus for Palm.
RE: Asus
popko @ 6/18/2002 12:58:04 PM #
Hummm ... Asus has their own line of PPCs you know.

RE: Asus
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 1:42:50 PM #
Its all rather interesting. Their Pocket PCs will carry the ASUS name and use the same XScale processor and an SD/MMC slot, same as the new Palms, plus they are close to Palm m5xx series in size.

They will be OEM for Palm so they can esentially play both sides of the fence. Asus will be the one company that is certain to win the PPC vs. Palm battle. They win either way! Brilliant.

RE: Asus
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 5:17:52 PM #
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1639&p=2

-- ASUS's PPC looks like a CLIE! Oh, the irony!

RE: Asus
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 8:20:37 PM #
I came from Taiwan, and I know Asus is a nice and big company there. They not only produce motherboards for desktop PC, but also make nice video cards and even a PockPC as well. It is very natural for a big company to have a lot of different products. I personally used some Asus motherboards and a notebook, the quality is very nice and reliable. I will expected to buy a Palm OEM by Asus.

Pilot production?

Scott R @ 6/18/2002 11:02:07 AM #
"Pilot production is scheduled to begin later this year and the company plans to make 200,000 units during the first quarter of next year."

Wow, they're bringing back the Palm Pilot! ;)

Scott

RE: Pilot production?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 11:07:07 AM #
pilot means precursor or experimental in this case
RE: Pilot production?
Scott R @ 6/18/2002 11:47:35 AM #
You must have missed the wink: ;)

Scott

Sai Yo Na Na , Micro$oft !

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 11:02:30 AM #
PPC will be history soon, thanks GOD...
RE: Sai Yo Na Na , Micro$oft !
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 11:15:09 AM #
Pretty typical posting by a Palm zealot.
RE: Sai Yo Na Na , Micro$oft !
Scott R @ 6/18/2002 12:39:06 PM #
Pretty typical of the sort of nonsense that occurs often at PIC. :(

Scott

RE: Sai Yo Na Na , Micro$oft !
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 4:25:04 PM #
yeah everyone else assumes Microsoft will simply buy off the market just like they did with xbox hehe

That pounding sound you hear

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 11:04:15 AM #
is another nail being driven into the Pocket PC coffin. This time next year, the ENTIRE handheld market--low, middle, high--will be CLEARLY dominated by PalmOS handhelds, whether they're manufactured by Palm, Sony, Handspring, or even HandEra. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING PocketPC has as a so-called "feature" will be unique to PPC. PalmOS will be able to do everything PPC does. What's more, those who don't crave all those features will be able to purchase a nice, inexpensive PalmOS model that will be that much easier, and more stable, to use.

iPaq? Buh-bye.
Casio? Buh-bye.
Toshiba? On the way out, but probably the last survivor.

RE: That pounding sound you hear
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 12:20:34 PM #
Get a life. Palm will never more dominate the handheld market.
RE: That pounding sound you hear
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 12:50:40 PM #
But I don't want video, movies, animation, or videogames on my PDA. I just want the ZEN OF PALM.
And neither do I want to pay $599 for a PALM either.

We all know PALM is going to milk the market by charging as much as it can bear. Expect $599 from PALM for the ARM-based PDAs.

Frankly, I'll stick with my Palm Vx which does everything I want it to do.


RE: That pounding sound you hear
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 1:03:18 PM #
>>Get a life. Palm will never more dominate the handheld market.

But Palm already dominates the market. It has more than 85% of the market.

RE: That pounding sound you hear
taxus @ 6/18/2002 1:24:03 PM #
Well, I can already see one of Palm's slogans next year: "the fastest PDA on the market".

While PPCs won't be able to run the X-Scale at more than 206MHz, Palms will.

RE: That pounding sound you hear
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 4:35:54 PM #
> But Palm already dominates the market. It has more than 85% of the market.

Their current marketshare is about 60%

RE: That pounding sound you hear
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 6:00:42 PM #
wrong, palm os handhelds currently hold about 85% of the market...
RE: That pounding sound you hear
Kesh @ 6/18/2002 6:27:03 PM #
>While PPCs won't be able to run the X-Scale at more than 206MHz, Palms will.

Uh, not quite. Toshiba just released the e740, which has a 400MHz XScale PXA250 processor.

Now, the PPC2002 OS doesn't take full advantage of XScale, but it does support the faster processors.

RE: That pounding sound you hear
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 7:20:18 PM #
Sheesh, 90% of statistics are made up! 23% of people know that!

Im more inclined to believe the lower figure. As Im involved in handheld retail, We sell about 50/50 PPC and PalmOS devices.

RE: That pounding sound you hear
JimBob @ 6/18/2002 9:47:42 PM #
> PPC2002 OS doesn't take full advantage of XScale, but it does support the
> faster processors.

Not really. PPC2002 has to take full advantage of XScale in order for it to run at 400 MHz. Otherwise it runs at about 200 MHz.

Read this:
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3676

RE: That pounding sound you hear
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 10:05:57 PM #
"As Im involved in handheld retail, We sell about 50/50 PPC and PalmOS devices."

According to NPDTechworld, the Palm OS now has 87.2% of the U.S. retail market, growing 10 percentage points in the last two months.

www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3459

I know you said you don't believe this but some things aren't opinions, they're facts.

RE: That pounding sound you hear
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 3:09:01 AM #
Simply means SONY will now dominate the high-end Palm market since they can actually get the OS to DO things now. They don't need extra chips for multimedia.

PPC won't go anywhere -- they've still got a better file system and a more open architecture. Palm folk tend to become rather over optimistic with Palm and always spin the PPC side in the worst light. That usually translates into dissapointment and whining when the 'PPC killer' turns out to be vaporware.

Look to SONY to do anything with XScale and the multimedia possibilities. Palm will simply rehash the m515 with a 320 x 320 screen -- i.e. T-615.

RE: That pounding sound you hear
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 3:11:34 AM #
And the simple fact is (that is constantly ignored by Palm zealots) is that their world wide marketshare is drastically lower than the US retail figures (around 50% now) AND FALLING. That's why you keep running back to the US retail figures everytime marketshare is mentioned. It makes all that sand around your head feel nicer...
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