Intel shows off next-gen XScale phone chip

Code-named Bulverde, the chip will feature a bunch of new technologies, Ron Smith senior veep and of Intel's Wireless Comms Group told the gathering of the faithful in today's opening keynote session, as he outlined Wireless MMX, QuickCapture for camera and video phones and Wireless speedstep for power management in handhelds.

Ron introduced wireless techie Kyle Fox to demo a game -- Moto GP -- ported from X-box to the Bulverde platform , "Hey, show me the Xbox on the phone," he enthused, and Kyle dutifully did so. And pretty cool it looked too, thanks, of course, to the Wireless MMX, we imagine. But it's not all about gaming, we were told. The QuickCapture technology also unveiled allows the user to snap 4 Megapixel photos and video at 40 frames per second.

With Bulverde, Intel will also introduce a Wireless Speedstep technology. Smith said that users will demand similar battery life from a multimedia handset as they cutrrently get from todays' standard mobiles. We were treated to a demo of the technology dynamically adusting the power and performance of the processor depending on the applications running. The processor will use three low-power modes Smith said and allows the voltage and the frequency of the processor to be adjusted on the fly.

Intel said it would deliver the Bulverde XScale chip during 2004. µ