Designed specifically for portable battery-based handheld devices, the MC68328 is a powerful microprocessor with a very low power consumption. In normal mode, in which all peripherals (or integrated controllers such as the LCD, UART, PWM) are turned on, the power consumption is only about 60 milliwatts. In sleep mode, all peripherals except the real-time clock are turned off and the power consumption is about 30 microwatts. Another operation mode of the microprocessor is the doze mode, in which some peripherals are turned off, and the processor clock is also periodically turned to save power. This important advantage of the MC68328 allows the PalmPilot to operate under normal usage for 8-10 weeks using only two AAA batteries. No other powerful PDA uses as little power as the PalmPilot.

Now and into the future
Many features of the MC68328 have helped the PalmPilot emerge as a winner in today's growing handheld computer market. The MC68328 is a handheld system solution in a single microprocessor, providing 3Com with optimum hardware features to design powerful PDAs and still maintain a small form-factor, low cost, and low power consumption. As microprocessors continue to evolve and integrate more functionality and communication capabilities, we will be seeing more and more handheld PDAs with integrated pager, cellular phone, GPS and wireless email in the very near future.

Perry Vo is an Embedded Software Engineer at Motorola Semiconductor. He can be reached at perry.vo@computer.org. Dragonball and Motorola are registered trademarks of Motorola Inc.