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Texas Instruments has developed five new OMAP processors that are significantly better than current ones at handling graphics and multimedia. They also use less power.

TI's OMAP processors are ARM-compliant and can be used with Palm OS, Symbian, Microsoft's Pocket PC and Smartphone, and others. Some companies already use OMAP processors in their handhelds. The Palm Tungsten T runs an OMAP1510 processor, and the HP Jornada 928 WDA Phone Edition runs an OMAP710.

TI has emphasized wireless capabilities in these new chips. Three of the new processors, the OMAP1610, OMAP1611 and OMAP1612, can work in tandem with chipsets for any cellular standard. The other two, the OMAP730 and OMAP732, integrate a TI GSM/GPRS modem baseband subsystem with a dedicated application processor on a single chip.

Using these new processors, applications with 2D graphics run up to 2.5 times faster. Multimedia Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) extensions provide up to a 1.7x performance gain for audio applications such as digital audio playback.

The new OMAP processors are the first to feature comprehensive wireless security hardware, enabling much stronger protection and faster security services for protecting the ownership rights of creative content or software, guarding confidential information, and securing sensitive information during transmission.

These chips save power by greatly reducing the amount of current used while in standby mode. While in their "extreme deep sleep mode," less than 10 micro-Amperes (uA) of current are drained, a tenth of the standby power drain of TI's previous generation processors.

The new OMAP chips are software-compatible with the previous OMAP1510, OMAP310, and OMAP710 processors.

Samples of the OMAP1610, OMAP1611 and OMAP730 are expected to be available before the end of March. The OMAP1612 and OMAP732, which feature stacked memory, are scheduled to sample in the second quarter of this year. The new processors are based on TI's 0.13-micron process technology.

Swimming Against the Current?

While Palm uses an OMAP processor in the Tungsten T, most other handheld makers are using Intel XScale processors in their latest devices, including HP, Sony, and Toshiba. There have even been calls for Microsoft to optimize future Pocket PC versions for the XScale processor.

It's possible Palm will soon switch from OMAP to XScale. Last June, DigiTimes, a very reliable Taiwanese website, reported that Palm had awarded a contract to a Taiwanese company to make handhelds based on Intel processors. These are expected to be available in the first three months of this year.

However, this isn't an indication that no one is using OMAP chips. Two devices running Microsoft's Smartphone 2002 use them, the Orange SPV/HTC Canary and the Compal SMP 2002.