Xscale overclocker

[somas1]

There is a guy who just wrote a beta program that underclocks and overclocks the PXA250 200 Mhz Xscale processor that runs the PPC HP 1910.  I think this is the same processor as the NX so maybe he will port it to PalmOs.  The info can be found at:  http://brighthand.com/article/Overclocking_h1910  

[gunmetal]

Very interesting. Has anyone tried to contact the developer about a Palm version? 300mhz would be great for mpegs.

[fogg]

as far as i know, they put a strong arm processor into the nx70 - this is no xscale.

[Shogmaster]

Dude, it's Xscale. Get with the program. ;)

[somas1]

Originally posted by fogg
as far as i know, they put a strong arm processor into the nx70 - this is no xscale.

 

Do you have a source for this information?  Cliesource and most other sites knowledgeable about handhelds have stated its is a 200 Mhz Xscale

[Baloo]

Originally posted by somas1


 

Do you have a source for this information?  Cliesource and most other sites knowledgeable about handhelds have stated its is a 200 Mhz Xscale

As far as this program is concerned, it doesn't matter, the program won't even load unless you have the right device.

[somas1]

Originally posted by Baloo


As far as this program is concerned, it doesn't matter, the program won't even load unless you have the right device.

Why did you feel the need to post that reply.  PPC apps won't load on Palm OS devices.  I am pretty sure everyone knows that.

 

[Baloo]

Originally posted by somas1


Why did you feel the need to post that reply.  PPC apps won't load on Palm OS devices.  I am pretty sure everyone knows that.

 

Sorry. I'll clear the posts thru you next time.

[somas1]

Windows media player won't load on My Mac

[gunmetal]

Originally posted by Baloo


As far as this program is concerned, it doesn't matter, the program won't even load unless you have the right device.

I'm sure the program as written won't work on Palm OS but hopefully the same technique could be applied to the Clie. According to the developer Intel is only making two types of Xscale currently:

1) a 300Mhz version that can be slowed to 100, 200 or 300Mhz which is what we have in the NX series

2) a 400Mhz version that can run at 200, 300, or 400Mhz

Supposedly it's just a setting via software that controls the timings.

[somas1]

Originally posted by gunmetal


I'm sure the program as written won't work on Palm OS but hopefully the same technique could be applied to the Clie. According to the developer Intel is only making two types of Xscale currently:

1) a 300Mhz version that can be slowed to 100, 200 or 300Mhz which is what we have in the NX series

2) a 400Mhz version that can run at 200, 300, or 400Mhz

Supposedly it's just a setting via software that controls the timings.

Are you sure that the developer said that the low end Xscale could only be overclocked to 300Mhz?  My understanding was that the HP 1910 could not sufficiently power its Xscale processor beyond 300 Mhz but that may not be true of the low end Axim and some of the other Xscales on the market. 

 

P.S.  Baloo, I found out that my Playstation 2 games won't work on my nx. 

 

[gunmetal]

Originally posted by somas1


Are you sure that the developer said that the low end Xscale could only be overclocked to 300Mhz?  My understanding was that the HP 1910 could not sufficiently power its Xscale processor beyond 300 Mhz but that may not be true of the low end Axim and some of the other Xscales on the market. 

 

P.S.  Baloo, I found out that my Playstation 2 games won't work on my nx. 

 

That was the info I was given but I have no way of verifying it. It's possible the Axim may be using the 200-400 chip even on their cheaper model. No idea which is in the NX series. I'd love to see 400mhz but I'd settle for 300mhz

[DigitalDeath]

IF you start off with the speed you want, then there is no need to overclock.... Why risk the damage and loss of battery power?

[somas1]

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<TD vAlign=top noWrap width=175 bgColor=#b7b5db>DigitalDeath</TD>
<TD vAlign=top width="100%" bgColor=#b7b5db>IF you start off with the speed you want, then there is no need to overclock.... Why risk the damage and loss of battery power?</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>&nbsp;

I don't think any nx owner feels their clie is slow or sluggish the way that owners of High and low end PPCs feel, but if&nbsp;developer of a program for another system&nbsp;tells you that s/he won't develop program x for the nx because 200 Mhz is not enough then it would be nice if you can then say the nx can be overclocked to 300 Mhz.&nbsp; The developer of this overclocking software has said that he does not believe that a handheld will be damaged by the type of overclocking he is implementing.&nbsp; It's hard to believe that the nx is natively capable of 300 Mhz if sony did not turn that setting on by default though.&nbsp;

[foghead]

Technically this isn't overclocking. Overclocking usually assumes that the chip is already running at spec.

The XScale chips are all capable of running at either 100, 200, 300 and witht he right voltages and the better package, 400 Mhz.

All that the people are doing on the PPCs are reprogramming the CPU to run at a faster (or slower) speed, but to still run in spec.

The power used is not significant. One test that I saw showed less than half an hour difference in battery life for 50% higher performance (200 to 300 Mhz).

What is really cool is the ability to underclock. If you slow the processor down to 100 Mhz while doing things like reading books or other tasks that don't use the processor so heavily, you can increase the battery life.

But in no case is anybody doing anything that will harm the processor or affect the stability of the unit.

[somas1]

Originally posted by foghead
Technically this isn't overclocking. Overclocking usually assumes that the chip is already running at spec.

The XScale chips are all capable of running at either 100, 200, 300 and witht he right voltages and the better package, 400 Mhz.

All that the people are doing on the PPCs are reprogramming the CPU to run at a faster (or slower) speed, but to still run in spec.

The power used is not significant. One test that I saw showed less than half an hour difference in battery life for 50% higher performance (200 to 300 Mhz).

What is really cool is the ability to underclock. If you slow the processor down to 100 Mhz while doing things like reading books or other tasks that don't use the processor so heavily, you can increase the battery life.

But in no case is anybody doing anything that will harm the processor or affect the stability of the unit.

Thanks for the insight.&nbsp; I am a little confused about everything concerning Xscale, partly due to the fact that it was overly-hyped last year.&nbsp; The Xscale processor (according to last year's marketing hype) was supposed to know when to work at its maximum clock speed when someone was running cpu intensive apps and was supposed to know when to lower its clock speed when someone was using it for PIM and thus extend battery life.&nbsp; So far I have not seen any Xscale PPC that has significantly outperformed a Jornada or e310 strongarm based PPC in terms of performance or battery life.&nbsp; (By this I mean the e310 and Jornada strongarm based units have better battery lives than most of the new Xscales).&nbsp; I don't fully understand why the new PPCs are using Xscale since their OS is not optimized for these processors and I was beginning to wonder if the Xscale did really run at multiple speeds or not.&nbsp;

Are you saying that the software being released to tweak Xscale speeds is taking away the Xscale's ability to choose its clock speed?&nbsp; (that is if the Xscale does indeed change its clock speed depending on task)&nbsp; If that is the case, what would this software do for the clie if it can indeed be ported to the nx and nz?&nbsp; Palm Os is supposedly optimized for Xscale.&nbsp; If the chip in the nx is capable of reaching 300 Mhz, why is it not already doing so.&nbsp; I don't know why sony would leave it at 200 if they knew it was capable of 300 Mhz without detriment.&nbsp;

[gunmetal]

Souce code for the Pocket PC version (http://www.elevatedstudios.com/pocket/source.htm) has now been posted at one of the developers web sites. Anybody think this could be translated to a Clie version?