Intel To Reveal Mobile PC Roadmap Oct. 9-13
Sep 22, 2000 --- Intel Corp. will unveil its mobile PC processor technology roadmap at the Microprocessor Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 10. Intel’s presentation will be during the morning session on PC processors. Speaking on behalf of Intel will be Bob Jackson, a principal engineer with Intel's Mobile Platforms Group.
“Intel's planned announcement intensifies the latest split in the PC-processor battleground, with the opening up of a new low-power PC processor front,” said Steve Leibson, Microprocessor Report editor in chief and director of Microprocessor Forum and Embedded Processor Forum. “Microprocessor vendors are hotly competing for design wins in notebooks, subnotebooks, handheld PCs, PDAs, and information appliances based on the low-power requirements of their offerings.”
Low-power processors allow battery-powered computers, PDAs, and other electronic products to run for longer periods of time before recharging. Typically, these systems must provide a critical level of processing power while maximizing battery life, running from a trickle of current off of a PC's keyboard connector, or otherwise dropping system-level power dissipation to extremely low levels.
The Microprocessor Forum will be held Oct. 9-13 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Featured speakers at the five-day event will include industry experts Michael Slater, Robert Morris, Linley Gwennap, Bob Wheeler, and Jeff Bier.
Intel Announces New Internet Client Architecture for Wireless Devices
TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2000--
Designed to Accelerate Hardware and Software Development and Advance Processing Capabilities of
Next-Generation Personal Internet Clients Intel Corporation today introduced a new architecture designed to accelerate the development of next-generation Internet applications for wireless devices.
The Intel(R) Personal Internet Client Architecture (Intel(R) PCA) defines specifications for building new wireless client solutions capable of processing advanced Internet applications such as those envisioned for next-generation, Internet-ready cell phones and handheld devices.
Ron Smith, vice president and general manager of Intel's Wireless Communications and Computing Group, unveiled the new architecture at the Intel Developer Forum Conference in Japan. A preliminary specification detailing the architecture has been distributed to key wireless companies, and a final specification and software developers kit will be available to the industry by the end of the year.
Designed to allow the industry to focus on the demands of next-generation Internet applications for wireless devices, the new architecture is a development blueprint that entails independent hardware and software development cycles for computing and communications subsystems to allow wireless applications to be brought to market more quickly.
"Today's application development environment for wireless devices is a serial and slow process," said Smith. "To help keep pace with the advent of next-generation wireless devices, hardware and software must be allowed to develop in parallel. The Intel Personal Internet Client Architecture has been designed with this objective in mind."
Intel PCA also provides manufacturers the necessary processing power to run next-generation wireless Internet applications. Wireless clients increasingly must handle data-rich applications and Internet content such as streaming audio, video and data that put intense demands on the data processing capabilities of handheld devices. However, current handheld device designs rely on microcontrollers and digital signal processors (DSPs) that are designed to manage the communication signal path, not to carry out advanced computing functions. Intel's Personal Internet Client Architecture will allow applications to be written to reprogrammable microprocessors, such as those built on the low-power, high-performance Intel(R) XScale(TM) microarchitecture design.
"Application developers know that applications written to a microprocessor will scale in performance as the microprocessor scales upward," said Smith. "There's a large base of developers who know how to write to microprocessors. By adopting the Intel PCA, developers can use the Intel XScale microarchitecture to stimulate new and exciting content and make the Internet a reality on personal wireless clients."
A Standards-Based Architecture for Broadly Interchangeable Designs
Intel PCA is a standards-based architecture supporting leading operating systems and global wireless standards between major components for easy integration and expansion.
The architecture also scales to allow device manufacturers to modify hardware performance and software content configurations all using the same architecture. This results in manufacturers adopting Intel PCA to build flexible, low-cost product lines that span multiple market segments and reuse applications across various products.
Additionally, the parallel hardware and software development environment accelerates product time-to-market and maximizes engineering resources by allowing applications to be written to a general-purpose processor.
Intel's Wireless Components for the Intel Personal Internet Client Architecture
Intel's wireless building block components can also be used to develop handheld devices taking advantage of Intel PCA. The Intel(R) StrongARM(1) processor and future processors using the Intel XScale microarchitecture are ideal processing solutions featuring high performance and low power capabilities. Intel also offers cellular baseband chipsets and high-speed flash memory. Finally, Intel delivers Intel(R) Integrated Performance Primitives for Intel StrongARM and Intel XScale processors that enables designers to quickly develop applications that can be ported to run on any Intel processor, and Flash Data Integrator Software, Intel(R) FDI 3.0 that helps designers enable handheld devices to handle the complex features and demands of Internet storage data. This combination allows highly optimized platforms for wireless handheld devices that incorporate all the benefits of Intel PCA.
"Intel's engineers have designed Intel PCA with a complete platform perspective for all hardware and software components," said Smith. "The end result for wireless device manufacturers is an extremely flexible product line that offers ideal price-performance."
About IDF
The Intel Developer Forum Conference is Intel's premier technical forum, attracting thousands of hardware and software developers worldwide. The semi-annual conference provides hardware OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), IHVs (independent hardware vendors), and ISVs (independent software vendors) with in-depth information on Intel technologies and initiatives. More information on the Intel Developer Forum can be found at developer.intel.com. Updated information is available between Intel Developer Forums by subscribing to the Intel Developer Update Magazine at developer.intel.com.
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom
Embedded CPUs break out baseband functions for 3G apps
By Anthony Cataldo EE Times
(09/22/00, 11:41 a.m. EST)
TOKYO — Semiconductor makers are racing to develop a class of general-purpose embedded processors geared for third-generation wireless systems and separate from traditional baseband components. The "application processors" aim to stake out new turf in wireless silicon, powering smart cellular phones and an emerging class of Internet appliances.
Intel Corp., NEC Electron Devices, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and the duo of Hitachi Ltd. and STMicroelectronics are all developing high-performance, low-power processors that could play a role in that emerging market. But a top technologist from Texas Instruments Inc. said the architectures are playing catch-up with the hybrid DSP/RISC architecture that TI defined last year.
Intel, the most vocal evangelist for the application processor, rolled out its StrongARM-based XScale processor in Japan this past week as the archetype of the standalone application processor.
In Japan, where 3G services are set to launch next spring, the idea appears to be catching.
At least two Japanese cellular phone makers — Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and NEC Corp. — have announced their intentions to use Intel's current StrongARM in 3G phones. Now both companies' chip divisions are developing their own application processors for next-generation handsets.
Japan's chip makers sense a silicon opportunity brewing in the second-generation cellular data services popularized by NTT Docomo's widely used i-Mode service here. Docomo expects to roll out 3G services using wideband CDMA technology next spring.
"In Japan, we have an advantage because of i-Mode," said Keiichi Shimakura, deputy vice president of NEC Electron Devices. "We have the know-how, and we can see new applications coming, like movies and sound. Our mobile division is a major supplier in Japan, and we can develop that chip."
Shimakura wouldn't say when the processor might be introduced, but the functional components he described herald a class of wireless Internet appliances that will be heavy in multimedia content and connectivity.
The processor will have either an ARM or the company's proprietary V850 bit processor at the core, depending on the customer's request, and will include peripherals supporting IEEE 1394, USB, MPEG-4 acceleration and Bluetooth, Shimakura said. That breaks with NEC's conventional approach to cell phone design, in which the CPU is tightly coupled with the digital signal processor in the baseband. The conventional baseband design will continue, but there will be a separate design for an application processor and middleware.
Intel drafts PDA blueprint
Semiconductor industry experts say Intel's XScale is the perfect scalable engine for handhelds.But other companies are way out in front.
By Martin Veitch, ZDNet (UK)
September 22, 2000 1:22 PM PT
Intel Corp. has released a new specification for handheld devices in a move that could lower prices and accelerate production of Symbian smart phone systems. As part of the announcement, Intel said it is porting Symbian to its XScale processor.
The world's largest chipmaker released its "Personal Internet Client Architecture" last week, providing developers with a reference design for building wireless tablet devices that can be used to store personal information, access e-mail and browse the Web. Intel's draft specification has already been distributed to some wireless developers, with a final spec due by yearend.
For licensees, the attraction is that Intel has succeeded as a building-block developer several times before in I/O and graphics subsystems as well as in chipsets for server and workstation motherboards.
Although Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) has had more modest success in other areas, such as digital cameras, it is seen by the industry as a powerful partner that can drive new markets forward by providing a fast track for developing products and grabbing software and peripheral developer support. It also has the marketing budget to increase awareness.
Intel's pillar for PDAs is its XScale processor an extension to the current StrongArm. XScale is seen by many semiconductor experts as the perfect scalable engine for handheld products.
Palm has a head start
Intel argues that only microprocessors can handle complex applications, such as streaming video, and there is already a huge base of programmers who understand how to write to microprocessors. Many PDAs today rely heavily on digital signal processor chips that require specialized programmer skills, slowing the development process. |
