Intel launches first XScale product

Intel has launched the first single-chip products in its XScale range of microprocessors, the ARM-based chip architecture for embedded systems such as handheld notebooks and routers.

The company unveiled the first XScale-based processor over a year ago, but today's family of products are the first systems to be built on a single chip, according to an Intel spokesman.

XScale is one of Intel's three core processor lines, along with the IA-32 family which includes Pentium and Xeon, and the IA64 line, to which the Itanium chips belong.

XScale is based on the ARM's RISC instruction set. It will eventually replace the company's family of StrongARM chips, which appear in a wide range of devices such as handheld computers.

XScale is designed to fit into as wide a range of embedded applications as possible, from networking switches to handheld devices.

Intel launched two networking processors, the IXP2800, codenamed Castine, for ultrahigh speed switches and the IXP2400, codenamed Sausalito, for lower-powered switches. They will ship in the first quarter of next year. The IXP2800 is also Intel's first communications chip built on 0.13 micron technology.

The company also announced the IOP321 I/O processor for networked storage devices such as RAID on motherboard applications.