During this IDF Intel showed their next generation cell phone application CPU, codenamed Monahans. The prototype shown was running at an impressive 1,248 MHz clock rate. It is really amazing to think that a cell phone will be using a CPU clocked higher than desktop CPUs not so long ago.

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Figure 3: Monahans cell phone CPU running at 1,248 MHz.

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Figure 4: Monahans development board.

So, who needs a cell phone with a CPU running over 1 GHz? The only application that demands such performance level is video. So this is an application CPU targeted to high-end cell phones with big color displays, being able to play videos at 30 FPS (Frames Per Second) instead of 15 FPS, which the current rate for today’s high-end cell phones.