Expert: Werner "Menneisyys" Ruotsalainen

This CPU, as opposed to the earlier, PXA-270 series, is pretty much a step ahead. Now that I’ve praised (at least) the specs (3D acceleration, HSDPA, GPS etc.) of the new Qualcomm MSM7200 (SoC) chipset, let’s see what the competition (mostly Marvell (ex-Intel), but also Texas Instruments (TI)) offers.

You may already have read THIS PPCT thread and the highly recommended Marvell XScale PXA3xx Application Processors Tech Report, which is probably the best article on the new architecture. Therefore, I only elaborate on the news (read at least the latter article for a complete overview and background); what is planned and what new devices (will) have the new CPU’s (which isn't explained in the article).

While the new Monahan platform still doesn’t support 3D acceleration, GPS and built-in cellular phone support (unlike the Qualcomm chipset – and, of course, with TI’s CPU’s, phoning / non-3G cellular data capabilities), it has some great news; for example, in cases, much better performance and, what is even more important, hardware support for video decoding. The latter includes even support for H.264, the, without doubt, best, current, compressed video format. So far, this (except for hardware support for H.264 – the Intel 2700G doesn’t support H.264, which also means video players must use the far less efficient CPU to decode H.264 and can’t just rely on the 2700G to do this) has only been available to users of PDA’s based on Intel 2700G’s (that is, the Dell Axim x50v / x51v models and nothing else) – not even to users of the GoForce 5500-based PDA’s (the video acceleration capabilities of which, currently, isn’t supported by any video / multimedia player and it’s only later that it might receive support in CorePlayer as is also explained HERE); for example, the O2 XDA Flame.

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Q: Is it possible my new PDA (manufactured after 2003) still has a PXA 250 CPU?

A: Nope. It was back in early 2003 that the PXA250 (the first, very-very-very slow XScale CPU used in Pocket PC's) was last used in any PDA. Accordingly, it was only used in the first XScale devices, that is:

- Dell Axim x5 (later, when Intel didn't manufacture the PXA250 any more, they were shipped with PXA-255, resulting in a considerable speedup, especially if you then installed the WM2003 upgrade)
- iPAQ 39xx, 191x and 545x
- F-S Pocket Loox 600
- Asus MyPal 600
- Toshiba e740
(and, prolly, some less-known, really old models.)

All the other XScale PDA's use later CPU's - either the 255, the 26x or the 270/272, the latter ones being the most up-to-date. Note that the 272 isn't better than the 270.