Mobile Processors

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In the past, mobile processors have run at no more than 30 MHz for Palm OS PDAs, 80 MHz for cellular phones, and 200 MHz for devices that run Microsoft's Pocket PC. However, many mobile users now want and will pay for advanced features like wireless Web access and location-oriented services, such as finding a nearby restaurant. This requires more processor power than basic cell phones or simple PDAs have.

SoC (System-on-Chip) Approaches
The key challenge that mobile processor designers face is providing low power consumption, high integration, and low cost in a package small enough to fit in a handheld device. To keep mobile processors small, vendors have adopted smaller feature sizes, and SoC approaches: integrating many system functions on a single chip. SoC designs can lower prices, increase reliability by reducing the number of system components, lower power consumption, and increase performance by reducing the distance over which data must travel.

ARM
Traditionally, numerous companies have designed and sold mobile processors. Now, wireless-device vendors are focusing on just few chip architectures, and they are increasingly licensing cores and architectures predesigned by ARM Holdings, which provides 32-bit embedded RISC microprocessors with almost 75% of the market.

ARM does not make chips itself but instead develops instruction sets and processor core architectures that have begun to dominate the market. Its licensees include Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments. ARM focuses on maximizing performance while creating cores and a development environment that make it easy for chip vendors to implement the technology.