Next generation Intel XScale Processors

Intel announced a new family of processors based on Intel XScale® technology that can handle multiple forms of wireless broadband access with enough computing power to provide cell phones with full motion video conferencing capabilities and PDAs with DVD-quality video playback.

The Intel® PXA27x family of processors, formerly code-named “Bulverde,” adds a number of new technologies to address the needs of cell phone and PDA users. It is the first product to integrate the Intel Wireless MMX™ technology, providing additional performance for 3-D games and advanced video while improving battery-life. The new chip also utilizes Wireless Intel SpeedStep® technology, enabling significant power savings by intelligently managing voltage and frequency changes similar to the technology used in the company’s notebook processors.

Intel has also integrated security features to provide services such as trusted boot, secure storage of private information and cryptographic keys, and support for common security protocols. To help increase camera phone capabilities and quality, Intel has also incorporated Quick Capture technology to support cameras with resolution up to 4 megapixels.

The Intel PXA27x processor family will be offered in multiple configurations of clock speeds running from 312 up to 624 MHz, and with as much as 64 megabytes of stacked Intel StrataFlash® memory.

Picsel Browser for mobile devices

Picsel Technologies Ltd. announced Picsel Browser running on the Brew Plattform, the smartphone operating system from Qualcomm. It supports BREW V2.1 and beyond and allows users to display Flash, video, Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat files. This unique user interface enables even the smallest screen to show a full PC display, changing the way users interact with their mobile devices.

Losing the detail is the usual consequence with squeezing high-resolution sources into a few pixels. By giving the user a “zoom” control system, Picsel solves this problem. Users will be able to see any part of the big picture in close by simply drawing a diagonal stroke with the stylus. They just pick a spot on the screen, focus, and zoom; then zoom out and pick another spot to take a closer look.

The application can be used to create a Word document, play a game of Doom, show a live video or edit a .PDF Acrobat file. It is possible not just to view different files, but also to cut and paste one to the other.

Already available and shipping on Linux, Symbian (UIQ and Series 60), Palm, MicroITRON and the Microsoft platforms – Picsel software will now be available for the BREW platform. Picsel Browser on will be available in Q2 of this year.

Picsel is also introducing Link Navigator. “Allowing the user to quickly identify key areas of interest, Picsel’s Link Navigator is adaptable to multiple device form factors and various content formats.” It enables users to quickly scan through the content page, using intelligent sequential stepping of hyperlinks.

Intel outlines wireless strategy

Intel will this week announce designs for future mobile phones and key deals with big network operators and manufacturers in Europe and Taiwan, as it aims to unite the mobile industry with computer economics. “To think that phones are not subject to the laws of silicon is naive. They are just small computers,” Otellini told Reuters in an interview ahead of his speech at the 3GSM World Congress.

Otellini said Intel was in talks with all of the world’s top ten mobile phone makers on using its chips in future handsets. Motorola and Samsung are the only ones selling a small number of phones using Intel chips. In private meetings in Cannes, Intel is showing off designs for two generations of phones, one aimed to go on sale this year, and a second one that will go on the market in 2005, Otellini said. Intel officials said the company plans to differentiate its phones by embedding technology that has shipped in its computer chips for much of the last decade, which will make it far simpler to move computer data back and forth to mobile phones.