Marvell announces 1GHz processor for tiny things that need big power

Everyone's heard of the Atom and its 1.6GHz worth of ubiquity providing the oomph behind many a netbook, and, while not directly targeting Intel's frugal juggernaut, Marvell may have itself a contender with the PXA168. It's an upcoming processor intended for mobile devices that's aspiring to speeds in the 1GHz and beyond range. While we're expecting it'll be most commonly found in smartphones and the like (particularly those from Asus), there's a chance these could show up in some low(er) cost netbooks, too, possibly helping to keep that race to the bottom going for a few more laps yet.

[Via GadgetMix.com, thx Kamal]

[Tom Baker @ Jan 10th 2009 7:32PM]

This would make the iPhone even snappier. A good thing.

Oh, and those other smartphones.

[eggothewaffle @ Jan 10th 2009 7:41PM]

Maybe it'll give it the oomph it needs for multi-tasking, copy and paste, and Flash/Java.

Like on those other smartphones.

[John @ Jan 10th 2009 7:45PM]

it should strip away any excuses to not have flash: by their release, it brings "the processing capabilities of an entry level laptop to instant-on, digital consumer and embedded devices by enabling full-featured web browsing, Internet widgets, multi-format video, Adobe® Flash® based content playback, image processing, video conferencing, and sophisticated ultrafast graphical user interfaces (GUIs)"

And hey, multi-format video. Maybe we get some MKV love too.

[ipodrulz @ Jan 10th 2009 9:29PM]

In the iPhone world "snappier" only lasts 2 weeks.

[Ayle @ Jan 10th 2009 10:39PM]

The iphone doesn't need a faster cpu, it needs more ram!128mb just doesn't cut it...

[Knee to the Groin @ Jan 10th 2009 11:36PM]

QNAP uses Marvell in some of their Raid NAS servers

[p3ngwin @ Jan 11th 2009 2:01AM]

you will not find this chip (or probably anyone else's) in any iphones.

why?

Apple bought PA SEMI, a chip designer for mobile device chips. Apple now have the brains and means to design their OWN chips for devices without relying on outside help.

just as Apple cut out the scrollwheel maker "synaptics", and started making their own in-house scrollwheel.......they are doing the same with the chips.

so no Marvel, no Qualcomm, no Texas Instruments, no samsung....no other CPU's than what Apple designs and makes for their own devices.

[Charlie Calhoun @ Jan 11th 2009 6:10AM]

@ Knee.... groin

I think it's funny that you say that, and on the Engadget feed (non-Apple version), just 7 posts in the future, there's a post about QNAP releasing a RAID server that runs on an Intel 1.6 Ghz CPU... I wonder which CPU that would be...

[Wifiguy @ Jan 11th 2009 6:28AM]

Yes, Apple bought PA Semi, but it doesn't mean that that excludes other vendors from providing chips from them. What is does do is provide pricing leverage. If Apple is not happy with pricing it can design it's own chips. Brilliant!!!

[Rocketboy @ Jan 11th 2009 11:25AM]

Strangely enough, for the iFanboys, although copy/past on their iPhone is not as important as copy/paste on their home computer.

You know, because if it wasn't for copy/paste, they woudn't be able to fill out comment fields.

[rishi @ Jan 10th 2009 7:44PM]

Looking forward to HTC devices with this as WinMo will greatly benefit from the increased performance.

Compared to all the Smartphone OS out there winmo is the least responsive. I can only imagine what this would do to the next iphone (hint: Flash) and the android patform.

But how is the form factor for the PCB ?? small enough to create petite form factors?

I hope smartphones get sleeker and more ergonomic.

[Ray @ Jan 11th 2009 12:50AM]

I like the idea of winmo benefiting from better processors. I really hope that microsoft opens window 7 up and extends its functionality to winmo... Full office! Full IE! Full paint!.... maybe not so much paint, but just make a sandbox down scaled windows 7 and all should be well.

[Wolfticket @ Jan 10th 2009 7:50PM]

Asus certainly are showing the potential to make a phone that can give the iphone (and it's ilk) a run for it's money.

[220v @ Jan 10th 2009 8:36PM]

Read the press release folks. Not designed for phones. Thats whay PXA3xxis for.

[rudy @ Jan 10th 2009 9:04PM]

Maybe a MID that can double as pmp and play 720 content. That would be nice

[Wifiguy @ Jan 10th 2009 9:40PM]

It's about time Marvell gets some love. They make some great chips.

[Chip @ Jan 11th 2009 3:35AM]

Is this an ARM-based chip? MIPS? Something new? I find it odd that nobody mentions the architecture in the source article or even Marvell's own press release.

[loosely_coupled @ Jan 11th 2009 5:31AM]

it says it is based on Marvell's "Sheeva" technology which appears to be 100% compatible with ARMv5, but is NOT a regular ARM11 or StrongARM core.... It looks to be a custom job..

[loosely_coupled @ Jan 11th 2009 5:32AM]

Oh and yes I completely agree that the Engadget writer perhaps would want to actually mention what the ARCHITECTURE is in an article about a new processor....

BTW, anyone else know anything about this "Sheeva" ARM-esque technology?

[Wishmaster @ Jan 11th 2009 6:15AM]

It seems to be cortex A8 similar to freescales new processor, omap3 and snapdragon(which is a custom made cortex A8).
More and more devices will start to use cortex arm this year which is a good thing and with new windows mobile it should give a whole new level of experience. Lets just hope that tegra2 will start using cortex soon cause 600mhz ARM11 could be too little to compete with 1GHz ARMv7

[WhaDL @ Jan 12th 2009 10:06AM]

p3ngwin:

Apple designing their own processor chip ? Just like they did with the scrollwheel ? Um, I think a processor is just a tad more difficult. And by designing your own you don't get to have multiple customers helping to offset the cost. And what do they have running in the Macs ? Oh yeah, they had to switch to Intel, to their benefit. I don't know, but I think Apple probably bit off more than they can chew by picking up that processor company. Maybe they can pull it off, but I think they'd be smarter at focusing on their core strengths, which they do mostly better than anyone. They gotta watch that ego, it's the primary killer of companies and projects.

[randomguy94 @ Jan 12th 2009 3:04PM]

Put this in the PSP