ARM Community: Playing with the Cortex-A8 based Palm Pre - ARM Community

Today I received a Palm Pre to evaluate as one of the first phones to employ the ARM Cortex-A8 processor core (Breakdown showing the Cortex-A8 based TI OMAP3430 in the Palm Pre). The Pre is a very exciting device for a number of reasons, including its WebOS and also because it is Cortex-A8 based.

ARM Cortex-A8 delivering performance never seen in your hand before.

So why is the Cortex-A8 such a leap forward for the mobile handset? If you want full details, you can refer to in-depth technical manuals for the Cortex-A8 and the TI OMAP3430. But in one simple sentence the Cortex-A8 delivers over 2x the performance that you have seen in a cell phone before, while not sacrificing battery life. When designing the Cortex-A8 we had to adhere to the Golden design rule of not exceeding 300mW, almost 10x lower than what you see from other mainstream processor architectures today. One of the ways that the Cortex-A8 delivers this 2x performance increase is that it is “superscalar” in that in can execute two instructions in parallel. TI have then added their secret sauce around the processor core by adding H/W video and an OpenGLES 2.0 graphics core

Palm Pre a Good Start

Just from the unboxing you can see that the Pre has been well designed and feels great in your hands. Though I would not normally rave about USB cables, the Pre uses little mirrors so you know which way the cables plug in, way better than the normal black on black hieroglyphics.


After quickly setting up the Palm Pre for exchange and gmail, and downloading my iTunes library I started playing with the Pre. The first thing you notice is how responsive the Pre is in opening up applications, and switching between them.

iTunes Library Syncing




A8 Showing It’s Power

The real benefit of having an Cortex-A8 in your phone is really demonstrated in the Pre, as one of the major benefits is the ability to do many things well at once, the ability to render web pages quickly, while still being able to switch to your email, calendar, music player etc with just a swipe of your finger. I will go into more detail on these great features in my next blog.

“Which great phone to choose today”


James Bruce, Mobile Marketing, ARM, is based in Silicon Valley. James is without doubt a gadget guy who is continuously looking at the latest devices and services on them. Working for ARM allows James to see what technology will be on your mobile device in 3 to 5 years time. This view of the future combined with being based in Silicon Valley and having worked on mobile for the last 9 years allows James to have a unique view of mobile technology. At the moment James is deciding which Cortex-A8 phone he will buy this year, and which dual core Cortex-A9 phone he will buy next year.

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