"Palm to announce steps to ARM transition"
By Richard Shim
Special to CNET News.com
July 23, 2001, 10:20 a.m. PT
Palm will announce on Tuesday its initial steps to adapt its operating system to run on
ARM-based processors, CNET News.com has learned.
Sources familiar with the plan say the handheld maker will make public a collaborative
agreement with chip companies Intel, Motorola, Texas Instruments and ARM Holdings to
transition the Palm OS to chips with ARM technology.
A switch to ARM-based chips means that Palm OS-based handhelds will run at significantly
higher clock speeds than their current 33MHz. This means the devices will be able to handle
more complex applications, such as video streaming and digital-audio playback, and to match
the processing power of handhelds based on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system.
Devices using the Palm OS currently run Motorola Dragonball processors, but Palm
announced in December that future handhelds would use processors with ARM technology.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Palm maintains a huge lead in market share over its rivals, such as
Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Handspring and Sony. However, competitors have been
stealing some of the spotlight lately by adding more and more features.
"The next generation of (handheld) products will use higher performing capabilities, such as
wireless, MP3 playback and streaming video, but the platform is maxed out," said Matt
Sargent, an ARS analyst. "That's why they are revising their platform--to grow room for the
future."
Motorola, TI and Intel will use Palm's software developer kit to build processors using ARM
technology, sources say. The announcement is expected to come at the sixth annual ARM
Partner meeting in Cambridge, England, for licensees of the ARM technology.
Intel, Motorola, TI and a slew of other chipmakers license technology from Cambridge-based
ARM Holdings. Handhelds using Microsoft's Pocket PC OS, such as Compaq's iPaq, use
Intel's StrongARM SA-1110, which has ARM technology at its core.
Intel and Motorola are two of the biggest chipmakers for handheld devices. Intel already has
processors that use ARM technology, and Motorola announced in June it would incorporate
ARM technology into processors due out in the first quarter of 2002. New processor speeds
are expected to reach up to 200MHz.
Intel also plans to release its next-generation processors, called XScale, later this year. Intel's
XScale processors will run faster than its current StrongARM processors, which run in the
200MHz range. Although speeds have not been announced, the company has demonstrated
the upcoming chips at 1GHz.
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