Intel Announce New Mobile Multimedia Processor

Intel has announced a new processor for the mobile phone industry – the PXA27x, previously codenamed “Bulverde”.

With clock speeds from 312MHz up to 624MHz, the processor is geared towards high quality video playback for next generation mobile phones. This new chip can encode 30 frames per second at 320×240, or 15 fps at 640×480.

The new processor also includes the option of a new security subsystem, the Wireless Trusted Platform, allowing users to access their corporate networks via VPNs. The security system also enables sophisticated media DRM on phone. Content providers can specify exactly how music and movies are used on phones featuring the processor.

Intel has also adapted their SpeedStep technology for the new mobile processors, enabling phones to get more out of their batteries by underclocking the chip where appropriate to save power. Figures from Intel imply that the chip can use 50% less power than their previous offerings.

Factory door prices for the PXA27x are $32, should you require them in quantities of 10,000.

Intel’s product briefing

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Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?