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Motorola unveils 200MHz ARM-based Palm processor

Dragonball MX1 has built-in Bluetooth too

Motorola has officially announced the ARM-based addition to its Palm-powering Dragonball processor family.

The Dragonball MX1 is based on the ARM209T core and will be capable of running at up to 200MHz, considerably faster than existing Dragonballs based on Motorola's old 680x0 CPU family, which currently maxes out at 33MHz.

The MX1 also integrates Bluetooth wireless connectivity onto the core, which should facilitate wireless HotSyncing and an end to fumbling about with PDA cradles. Motorola licensed the Bluetooth core from Digianswer AS.

As announced previously, the MX1 will also integrate support for Sony's Memory Stick 'solid-state floppy disk' technology on the core. Dragonball already has on-core support for USB; the Multimedia Card format and its successor, the Secure Digital card; and colour LCD screens.

Motorola announced its decision to license ARM's processor technology last December. The first CPU based on that alliance, despite today's announcement, won't sample until "early Q4". However, Motorola hopes to ramp up to volume production "quickly".

Ditto the Super VZ, the latest 680x0-based Dragonball, which Motorola also announced today. The Super VZ runs at 66MHz, twice the clock speed of the current top-end model, the regular VZ.

The Dragonball MX1 is priced at $19 in batches of 10,000 processors. The Super VZ will cost $14 in the same quantities. ®

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