Coming soon: the gamer's mobile phone

The growth of specialist games PCs will be mirrored in the mobile sector with specific gamer-targeted phones selling at a price premium, according to Intel.

Intel believes games phones are a rapidly developing sector, and used its Developers' Forum in San Jose this week to discuss new XScale processors that can be used in PDAs and phones.

"We already see that in Japan with the i-mode service, and the same is happening over here," said Ronald Smith, senior vice president and general manger of Intel's wireless communications and computing group.

"They may cost a little more but they'll have the ability to bring arcade games to the mobile."

Codenamed 'Bulverde', the new XScale processor will be available in the first half 2004 and will feature advanced imaging and power management. It will be the company's most powerful XScale processor to date.

Both Palm and Pocket PCs, as well as mobile phone manufacturers, use the processor range.

The new processor will have Intel's image capture technology built in to capitalise on the popularity of multimedia message services.

This will allow high-quality images of up to 4MB to be taken, as well as smaller preview pictures and full motion video.

Power management will also be included by transferring the SpeedStep technology currently used on Intel's laptop processors. This reduces processor activity during times of low use to conserve power.

With the XScale processor specific applications will have specific power settings, and the device will be able to switch dynamically to fit the task.