SAN JOSE, Calif.-Intel Corp., the world’s biggest chip company, last week announced a new chip architecture designed to benefit a wide variety of wireless Internet and networking infrastructure applications.
Intel said the XScale microarchitecture has the flexibility to handle requirements for both ultra-low power and high performance devices ranging from Internet-ready handsets to wireless Internet infrastructure.
Ron Smith, vice president and general manager of Intel’s wireless computing and communications group, said the new architecture extends Intel’s role as a building block supplier to the worldwide Internet market.
“There’s a constant need to increase performance while keeping low power,” Smith told attendees of last week’s Intel Developer Forum. “The most important aspect is that the XScale microarchitecture can be used in every piece of the equation, from Internet devices to infrastructure.”
This means handheld device manufacturers could use the technology to build devices that combine personal management and calendar functions, wireless Internet access and wireless video. The technology also can increase the processing power of next-generation wireless infrastructure equipment, such as routers and switches.
The low power capability could allow vendors to develop handsets that use AA batteries or run for weeks on rechargeable batteries, said Smith. Building on Intel’s StrongARM technology, the new XScale microarchitecture core is manufactured on Intel’s 0.18-micron process technology. It offers low power operation ranging from one ten-thousandth of a watt to 1.6 watts, and performance that allows it to operate at close speeds approaching 1 GHz, said the company. The low power capabilities are further enhanced through technologies that enable developers to scale the clock frequency and voltage to adjust performance to application needs while maintaining battery life.
PacketVideo Corp. and ARM announced their support for the new microarchitecture. PacketVideo intends to optimize its wireless streaming software for the XScale to provide wireless device manufacturers with advanced multimedia capabilities. ARM said Intel’s microarchitecture strengthens its role as the embedded microprocessor architecture choice for handheld wireless Internet devices and Internet infrastructure applications.
Intel already has made significant investments in the wireless Internet economy, teaming with companies in the wireless market. The company has a joint engineering project with Analog Devices to develop low power digital signal processing technology. Intel and L.M. Ericsson have aligned to define flash memory products that store Web pages, e-mail, voice and music data. The company also has teamed with Mitsubishi Electric to build wideband CDMA chipsets.
Intel also announced a new version of the Flash Data Integrator Software, Intel FDI 3.0. The software helps designers develop handheld devices that handle complex features and demands of Internet data storage such as Java applets, files transferred over Bluetooth, microbrowser cache and voice-recognition technology.
