Garmin Selects DragonBall MXL to Power OS 5 GPS Device
Motorola has announced it's second-generation DragonBall™ MXL applications processor. Current Palm OS licensee, Garmin, plans to incorporate the processor into a family of GPS-enabled products, including those that will run the Palm OS 5 platform.
"We selected the DragonBall MXL chip because of its strong capability for real-time applications enabled by the ARM9 microprocessor core and the rich set of peripherals and features integrated by the Motorola design team," stated Cliff Pemble, director of engineering for Garmin International.
The DragonBall MXL architecture integrates system components on a chip to achieve the lowest power consumption for consumer applications in a wireless environment. A powerful additional feature of the DragonBall MXL processor is its state-of-the-art LCD controller that lowers the overall system cost and the clock frequency, leading to longer battery life and improved display performance.
"The new DragonBall MXL processor is a great addition to the full DragonBall portfolio, enabling Motorola to provide developers and manufacturers with a growing range of options to help tailor their designs and meet different feature needs at different price points," said Pete Shinyeda, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's Wireless and Broadband Systems Group. "Ultimately, we think power performance is the best way to measure applications processor capabilities."
The DragonBall MXL device is expected to sell at a suggested price for low volumes of $10.30 (USD) each. Application development boards from Metrowerks are expected to be available by the end of the year, and full volume production is planned for the first quarter of 2003.
MC9328MXL Features
A summary of the MC9328MXL's benefits includes the following:- Sixth generation of industry-standard DragonBall family for the personal, portable product market, second generation ARM-based processor
- High level of on-chip integration
- Very low-power system design without compromised performance
- Optimized for multimedia applications
- Optimized for cost sensitive, yet rich feature set devices
MC9328MXL Parametrics
|
Processor Speed (MHz) |
Voltage (V) |
Performance (MIPS) |
Bus Interface (Bits) |
Package |
| 150 | 2.7 - 3.3 | 150 max | 25 addr / 32 data | 256 MAP BGA |
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RE: I'll believe it when I see it.
Talk about vaporware...
RE: I'll believe it when I see it.
Cool... I look forward to seeing an integrated GPS/Palm OS device on the market. I could see a custom device with GPS, a SD card slot, high-res screen, and a good software bundle being really useful for lots of different tasks.
--
Ben Combee, CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead
Programming help at www.palmoswerks.com
RE: I'll believe it when I see it.
The new DB MSL sounds like a very interesting processor -- more info here: http://makeashorterlink.com/?B22E22772
RE: I'll believe it when I see it.
No doubt about that, Ben, but we've been hearing about the Garmin relationship (again, mostly from Palm) for a long, long while with nary a peep out of Garmin. This Motorola announcement is only another voice singing the same ol' song.
Personally, I'm chomping at the bit. My software sales opportunities would explode if there was a Palm OS device with integrated GPS on the market. But if you don't mind, I will check my optimism at the door until Garmin makes a specific device announcement.
RE: I'll believe it when I see it.
There will be two options, one with inbuild GPS and one without inbuild GPS to fit to existing Garmin GPS.
They will have OS 5, high res color and SD Card slot.
Georg
price of OS 5/6
An old news item is that Motorala paid for an ARM architecture license, not just a ARM CPU use license. That means they can design their own compatible CPU implementations, not just use ARM9 cores like TI. There's also an ARM group somewhere in Texas working on the ARM10. I wonder when these designs will be out, to give the Intel XScale a good run for the money.
RE: price of OS 5/6
Of course, one shouldn't expect that in this given scenario this would translate into the lowering of the cost of the device in itself from the consumer's point of view. The OEMs, needing revenue and profits, would keep the prices as high or almost as high as before, while pocketing the couple hundred dollar difference between the actual cost and retail price. Unless Dell or a Dell-like company moved in to hyper-commoditize the PDA market, of course. Then it would devolve into a price war with the same benefits and drawbacks we see in the PC industry today.
RE: price of OS 5/6
--
Ben Combee, CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead
Programming help at www.palmoswerks.com
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I'll believe it when I see it.
From years of writing navigation/GIS software, I've learned two things about Garmin - they are very slow to introduce new models, and they play their cards close to the vest. It's entirely possible that they are seriously working on OS 5-based products, but like I said the Garmin licensing of Palm OS is old, old, OLD news... too old.
An old saying about "getting off the pot" comes to mind here. :-/