Intel vs. AMD: competition moves to the embedded market

Yesterday at Computex 2004 Intel announced three new embedded processors: two Pentium M (745 and Celeron M) designed for telecomm segment and PXA270 designed for PDAs, etc. Pentium M 745 and Celeron M should also be used in industrial PCs and retail sales systems, while PXA270 is the base for portable media players and navigation systems.

As you know, the new Pentium M processors on 90nm Dothan core with 2MB L2 cache were introduced on May 10, while PXA27x — on April 12. Pentium M continues the Centrino mobile family with integrated (mostly) wireless features, and PXA27x is designed for pocket PCs and mobile handsets.

The newly introduced versions will be used in narrowly specialized computing systems that usually enter the market seven or eight months after processor announcements. With this Intel alludes to speeding up the promotion of its processor architectures into the embedded market. According to the company, Pentium M 745 processors will be used together with AdvancedTCA motherboards, Celeron M won´t require any cooling fans, and PXA270 systems will support Intel Wireless MMX for 3D graphics, fullscreen video and integrated multi-megapixel cameras. The market will see three versions of PXA270: 312MHz, 416MHz, 520MHz.

Embedded 1.8GHz Intel Pentium M 745 will cost $415 in over 10,000-unit quantities. 600MHz ULV Intel Celeron M will cost $127, and 312MHz PXA270 — $32.

Meanwhile AMD, also urging to conquer the embedded market announced a thin client RDK for recently announced AMD Geode GX. The RDK is also designed to provide fast product development for various markets, including enterprise, blade servers, sales terminals and educational systems.

The offered kit bases on AMD Geode GX 533@1.1W processor (if you remember, AMD processor names now include dissipated heat amount that is equal to 1.1W in this model) located on 4.7x5.3" (119x135mm) board and also includes:

• 2D accelerator: 1280x1024 @ 24-bit/100Hz, 1600x1200 @ 16-bit/85Hz, DAC (3x8 bits RGB)
• 3D Now! and MMX support
• Access to older I/O subsystems via daughterboards
• Demos supporting RDP, ICA, JAVA, Flash, HTML and local multimedia content

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