A recent CNET article indicates that Palm is aiming towards their devices becoming wireless "communications devices" and that along the way, will switch over from the current Motorola DragonBall EZ processor (with a 68EC000 core) to a much more powerful unit designed by ARM (England's Advancd RISC Machines) and sold by Intel and others. As many of us are aware, the Newton MessagePad was the first handheld to use one of ARM's powerful RISC CPU's, the best of the lot MP2x00 using the impressive 162MHz "StrongARM" SA-110 processor, giving it the power needed for rapid, accurate handwriting recognition, voice recognition (tho' the Newton was killed before that left beta), etc. If the rumors of Apple releasing a PalmOS-based unit are true, it would seem to be only a matter of time before there's an ARM processor sitting under an Apple logo. This could be particularly interesting considering that Intel acquired the design and fabrications rights to the StrongARM processor a while back.
(Another recently anounced handheld, the Compaq iPAQ is driven by a 206MHz StrongARM SA-1110.)
