Motorola doubling Palm megahertz
New 33MHz DragonBall chip boosts Palm OS's multimedia ability. Is a color Palm next?
By John G. Spooner, ZDNN
October 18, 1999 12:16 PM PT
Motorola Inc. is offering a boost for Palm handhelds.
Motorola's Austin, Texas, semiconductor operation Monday announced a pair of speedier new DragonBall processors -- a 33MHz DragonBall VZ and a 20MHz DragonBall EZ. The DragonBall, in its current incarnation as the 16MHz DragonBall EZ, serves as the processor for Palm Computing's line of handheld devices, as well as other handheld devices based the company's Palm operating system.
The new chips are important to Palm Computing and Palm OS licensees, such as Handspring Inc., because they offer higher clock speed and improved support for color displays. Higher clock speeds should help speed up Palm handhelds and offer greater multimedia abilities for applications such as MP3 players. my ed. note..or whatever.
At the same time, the new chips are code-compatible with the current generation DragonBall EZ. That means developers -- Palm Computing included -- should be able to support the chips with minimum fuss or reprogramming. Palm Computing is a subsidiary of 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq:COMS).
January shipping date
Motorola's new DragonBall VZ chip will run at 33MHz. It will offer on-chip support for color LCD displays with up to 256 colors. It will also support synchronous dynamic RAM. It will ship in January.
Motorola (NYSE:MOT) also bumped up the speed of its DragonBall EZ processor to 20MHz. The EZ chip can support color as well, but requires additional external components. The chip is available now.
Handspring officials said the company is evaluating the new chips for use in its products.
What about color?
The DragonBall VZ chip, with its color capabilities, brings up the question of whether or not Palm Computing and Handspring will utilize it in color device.
"We're not ignoring (color)," said Handspring spokesman Allen Bush. But Handspring won't offer it just because it's cool, either, he said. Instead, the company will offer color "when it can be done the right way."
Palm Computing has expressed a similar sentiment numerous times. The company, however, has stated that it plans to support color in a future version of its Palm OS. It is unclear when it will show up in Palm handhelds.
The 33MHz DragonBall VZ will cost $11, while the 20MHz EZ will be priced at$10 in quantities larger than 10,000, Motorola officials said.
The DragonBall, first introduced in 1995, is based on Motorola's 68000 processor family.
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