Comments on: Motorola MX1 First Certified CPU for Palm OS 5

The Motorola Dragonball MX1 is the first microprocessor certified by PalmSource to work with the just released Palm OS 5. This means that any licensee can easily use this processor at the heart of a handheld that runs the new operating system. The DragonBall MX1 is an ARM core-based microprocessor which offers speeds up to 200 MHz.

Certification of the processors of the Palm OS Ready Program members couldn't happen until the final version of Palm OS 5 was available, which wasn't until earlier this month. There should be similar announcements coming from the other chip makers in the near future.

Return to Story - Permalink

Article Comments

 (72 comments)

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.

Comments Closed Comments Closed
This article is no longer accepting new comments.

Down

$19 each

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 10:26:28 AM #
Hmm, so the retail price is $19 each in quantities of 10,000 huh? I'm in for two. I just need 9,998 others. Anyone know of a good place to get those new Sony Clie screens? I'm building me a Palm OS 5 ARM PDA!
RE: $19 each
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 10:38:27 AM #
Hehe... build me one too
RE: $19 each
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 10:47:43 AM #
I'm sure I could dig up a few dozen takers from us peeps at AusPUG.org! :-)


Gavin.

RE: $19 each
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 11:25:20 AM #
Oh darn, I just found out that the little jog dial wheels cost $299 each. Oh well, I'll just wait for the new models from Palm or Sony, then.
RE: $19 each
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 4:26:33 PM #
Count me in. Would pay $100-150 extra for a big f... off fast CPU that will let me do ANYTHING I want with my PDA.
RE: $19 each
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 4:54:11 PM #
Palm is being ahead of things nowadays. The fact that they announced a new processor to be incorporated in their new devices, just when they released to new models, m130 and m515, hold up a tons of users to buy their products. And now, with the announce of the Xscales processors from Intel in the new year, that would not be politically profesional of their side. Just my opinion.
RE: $19 each
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/30/2002 4:00:03 AM #
For PCs, a $1 component cost usually comes to about $5 for the consumer, due to markups in the distribution chain.

Anyone have any figures for PDAs?

Time Table?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 10:51:31 AM #
When Motorola announces a new 68000 chip it generally takes 6 months until the chips ship in an actual product. I expect this will be more complicated, but there is a lot more to gain in getting it ready fast and there has been a lot more work done to make sure this chip change comes off well.

This announcement almost certainly means that there will be high end OS 5 PDAs on the shelves at Christmas.

But a model with a built-in video/still camera? WOW.

RE: Time Table?
Ed @ 6/27/2002 11:02:39 AM #
Good news, you've made a small mistake with the date. The MX1 wasn't announced in June of this year, it was announced in June of last year. You are correct about the six month delay but fortunately that delay is already over.

---
News Editor
RE: Time Table?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 11:09:57 AM #
If Motorola played their cards right, I would suspect, that they have worked together with Sony (Palm already picked their CPU provider, if I recall correctly - Intel) for month now, hence the Memory Stick support on the chip.
Looking at Sony's aggressive release schedule I would not be surprised to see a device based on this CPU in fall.
I just hope its going to be a T-series device, I just love the form factor and the screen (except for the red colors). And Sony, please, get the Bluetooth support in this device. I think the MX1 has on-chip bluetooth support.
RE: Time Table?
Ed @ 6/27/2002 11:24:48 AM #
> I think the MX1 has on-chip bluetooth support.

Yes, it does.

---
News Editor

RE: Time Table?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 11:28:55 AM #
>>(Palm already picked their CPU provider, if I recall correctly - Intel)

Not to nit-pick, but if you read the article (or several on this topic in the last few months), you'd know that Palm has chosen Texas Instruments OMAP ARM processors for their first OS 5 handhelds. They will use Intel (xscale), but not until next year.

RE: Time Table?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 12:35:56 PM #
ok but who will use MediaQ's Katana? It has a ARM 9 core, 2D graphics acceleration, MPEG-4 engine, Java acceleration, and embedded SRAM with a special memory-interface unit.

RE: Time Table?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 1:01:00 PM #
so OMAP is not even certified for OS 5 yet?
RE: Time Table?
Ed @ 6/27/2002 1:58:55 PM #
No processors could get final certification until PalmSource released the final version of the operating system. You can't get a final certification on a beta.

---
News Editor
OMAP - Not your average CPU
Token User @ 6/27/2002 3:21:49 PM #
FWIW - The TI OMAP CPU is optimised for wireless devices (2.5G/3G cellular networks), not mainstream PDA's. Can we then assume that the first OS5 device(s) released by Palm will be wireless (or perhaps wireless capable via an expansion option)? Hopefully replacements for the i705 and Palm VII series (still a lot of them in use) will be arriving as soon as PalmSource approves the CPU.

Interesting that PalmSource are sticking to their story about not favouring Palm devices, and certifying a CPU that is not one of the ones people have been talking about (TI OMAP, Intel XScale), first.

Token.

RE: Time Table?
Ed @ 6/27/2002 3:44:14 PM #
> Can we then assume that the first OS5 device(s) released by Palm will be wireless

Fortunately, we don't have to assume this; Palm has said since February their first OS 5 device will have some kind of wireless capabilities.

Plus, earlier this month the company's interim CEO Eric Benhamou said Palm would release sometime this fall a smartphone that runs OS 5.
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3647

---
News Editor

Bluetooth support = embedded Bluetooth radio?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 4:48:12 PM #
I see previous comments in this thread mention built-in Bluetooth support, but does this mean it already has a Bluetooth transceiver? If so, it would help increase the pervasiveness of Bluetooth technology.
RE: Time Table?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 7:40:02 PM #
No, it's only got the baseband controller form memory...
RE: Time Table?
Palm_Otaku @ 6/28/2002 12:33:00 PM #
Interesting that PalmSource are sticking to their story about not favouring Palm devices, and certifying a CPU that is not one of the ones people have been talking about (TI OMAP, Intel XScale), first.

I don't think this has ANYTHING to do with PalmSource favoritism - it's the performance of the silicon vendor. Motorola has finished work on their DAL layer, submitted it to PalmSource for approval and got it. Congratulations to them ":-) Hopefully the other "PalmOS Ready" vendors are fairly far along in the process.

RE: Time Table?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 7:37:34 PM #
Does tht mean Intel and TI haven't finish submitting their DAL layer for OS 5.0 to Palm? the OMAP adoption was announced almost a year ago, TI/PALM was so chummy, with $50 million investment + engineering help. They sure takes their time compare to Moto team.

X-Scale from Palm

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 11:20:41 AM #
So much for the people who say "well PPC will still be better because they are moving to X-Scale processors".

You have to wonder at this point why putting Palm OS and an ARM processor in high-end digital photo and video equipment would'nt be a good idea.

RE: X-Scale from Palm
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 11:32:13 AM #
not only digital media, you can also (theoretically of course) have palmos-based products for anything portable like mp3 players, cellular phones (not pda smartpones like the treo, plain regular cellphones with maybe a bit of multimedia added), gps receivers and so on.

We have here the potential for a standardized "embedded" platform, same os on your pda, your cellphone, your microwave oven and so on, all connected via bluetooth, all sharing the same programs.

I know it is quite a wild (ok, really wild) prediction, but at least there's the possibility to that.

ps: btw, isn't exactly what microsoft is trying to do with its wince thingy? more os wars to come ? :)

pps: all of this is IMHO, just wild guesses of the moment, do not flame me to much about this :)

RE: X-Scale from Palm
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 12:47:37 PM #
well you need a seperate version of WinCE for pocketpc's, handhelds with akeyboard and smartphones while palmOS and its apps will run fine on a treo, Clie NR70 or a kyocera smartphone even though they are all completely different devices.
RE: X-Scale from Palm
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 12:51:19 PM #
www.palminfocenter.com/images/img_PS_Future_1_L.JPG
RE: X-Scale from Palm
cyruski @ 6/27/2002 5:47:34 PM #
the thing is, many devices will run the same palm os. that's what they call DIVERSITY.

cyruski
RE: X-Scale from Palm
jjsoh @ 6/28/2002 12:30:05 AM #
: ps: btw, isn't exactly what microsoft is trying to do
: with its wince thingy? more os wars to come ? :)

Yup. Now that Palm is announcing bigger plans that may influence the future of embedded OS devices, Microsoft is definitely doing its _wincing_ thingy.

Oh wait.. you meant WinCE thingy?! Silly me.

(Sorry, couldn't resist. Now that's what I call a pun not intended. :)


Jim

PalmOS is completely unsuitable for that
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 3:31:11 PM #
PalmOS's image handling and real-time capabilities are lousy. Addressing large amounts of memory or doing megabytes file I/O for images is very difficult. And PalmOS is hardly highly optimized. Even PalmOS5 doesn't fix any of these. Let's hope that its successor does. PalmOS is just about the worst OS imaginable for imaging and real-time applications.

PocketPC is a little better--at least it can deal more easily with large amounts of memory and data, but even PocketPC is not a good choice for camera operating systems.

Why do we have to have one size that fits all? PalmOS has was built for giving you reasonable productivity applications on low-power handheld devices. Isn't that enough?

RE: X-Scale from Palm
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 5:54:58 PM #
I agree with Mr. or Ms. Anonymous. Digital cameras and camcorders and such often use tested, mature Real-Time OS'es from Wind River or QSSL. Sometimes, the company will also write their own OS. PalmOS 5 is too new and, for that matter, was not designed exclusively for multimedia. On the other hand, if later versions become more and more like the late, lamented BeOS, then we can return to this topic with a better answer. Still, PalmOS 5 will be nice, 6 I hope will be very spiffy.
RE: X-Scale from Palm
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/30/2002 9:37:13 PM #
"PalmOS's image handling and real-time capabilities are lousy. Addressing large amounts of memory or doing megabytes file I/O for images is very difficult."

Are you a programmer for Palm OS? Just curious if you are speaking from inside knowledge or opinion. Streaming 25 FPS at 720K per second from a 40Mb file stored on external media is pretty adequate for most handhelds. No lapse in framerate on playback either; keeps perfect sync with my pentium laptop, and just as smooth too. Major difference is that my laptop can only show 20 minutes on battery power, as opposed to 4 hours on the Palm.

Now if that Margi Presenter-to-go can also do video, and I hook it up to video glasses... :)


(rats, the Presenter needs AC,.. oh well)

RE: X-Scale from Palm
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/6/2002 2:52:30 AM #
Are you a programmer for Palm OS? Just curious if you are speaking from inside knowledge or opinion.

Yes, I develop handheld applications. We have done some stuff for Palm, but we have been putting off implementing more complex features until Palm OS 6, which will hopefully support native ARM applications. It could probably be done on curent Palms or OS5, but it just isn't worth the effort for us.

Streaming 25 FPS at 720K per second from a 40Mb file stored on external media is pretty adequate for most handhelds.

Sure, with enough hacking, you can get Palms to do lots of neat things (up to whatever the hardware is capable of). But not only does Palm OS have very little support, it actually gets in the way in many places.

(Streaming video actually seems easier than other applications because it can be done naturally with sequential rendering of small chunks of data. Digital images require random access to large chunks of memory.)

Watch for Sony

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 12:48:40 PM #
This CPU has been around. 6 month lead-time is overstated.

MX1 waiting for final OS5 so to get certified.

Who is first with the 66Mhz chip? Sony.
Who will be first with this one? Who do you think?

RE: Watch for Sony
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 12:54:28 PM #
I'm sure they'll also be first to discontinue a device based on it :)
RE: Watch for Sony
bobes @ 6/27/2002 1:11:50 PM #
nah... I think they will keep their existing product line and make this their top of the line @ $599

RE: Watch for Sony
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 2:04:06 PM #
They'll probably make a low end Xscale model first (bigger but cheaper), then later move on high end ones (similiar to NR series)
RE: Watch for Sony
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/30/2002 2:05:56 AM #
I think Sony will use Motorola's ARM cpu because of the memory stick support. We also know that Motorola is working with Sega on the Palm gaming API. Sony is probably working on a Gameboy Advance killer perhaps to complement PS2
RE: Xscale
abosco @ 6/27/2002 2:02:15 PM #
Haha to the last post. To the first guy in this thread- "soar at Xscale speeds" -what exactly does that mean to you? The PPCs can go up to 400 mhz and still be slower than a Palm m100? Because that's what it looks like from here. I don't know what they are teaching you at the University of BS but you better drop out and find a better college. Toshiba has two devices that run on the X-Scale processor that have been rarely seen in stores have problems with its processor. Have fun dishing out your $700 bucks for it.
"Palms crawl with the obsolete ARM processors" -hahahahahahahahaha!!!! You are calling PPC's current devices' processor obsolete. If this new X-Scale technology was so great how come it was sent back to Intel for some restructuring??? The PPCs that run X-Scale will probably be out by August and the Palms with ARM will be coming out around September.
"the Jornada for 13 hours"- Jornada? What's a Jornada? Ohhh, you mean those PPCs from HP that sold horribly? What ever happenned to them? Oh yeah, they were discontinued.
"The Toshiba runs for 8 hours or a month stadn by"
"The Clie T665 runs for a mere 3 hours or four days stand by."
Obviously you are comparing apples to oranges if this is the case. If the Toshiba can get 8 hours (at the most while turned off) or a month (blatant lie) then the Clie T665 should be able to get at least a week and a half if they are compared fairly. And I don't think you can compare a crappy Toshiba to the Clie T665. The Clie is infinitely quicker and has so many more apps for the same amount of money ($400).

•Bosco

Waiting for ARMed Palm Smartphone

Troll Post

abosco @ 6/27/2002 2:32:28 PM #
Thanks for taking out that comment from that Troll from the University of BS. He obviously didn't know what he was talking about!

Viva Ed!
Viva PIC!
Viva Palm!

•Bosco

Waiting for ARMed Palm Smartphone

RE: Troll Post
Ed @ 6/27/2002 3:40:03 PM #
Apparently some people don't believe us when we say, "Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments may be moderated/deleted." When a troll post gets removed, all the replies do too so don't waste your time responding to them.

---
News Editor
RE: Troll Post
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 6:33:49 AM #
What does PIC has against educational institutions like the popular University of Puerto Rico?
RE: Troll Post
abosco @ 6/30/2002 8:49:21 PM #
I guarantee PIC doesn't have an issue with that university. I do have an issue with their comments and am glad Ed is on the same side as me with that. I've read around ten posts from people of the University of Puerto Rico and it seems that it is just one person that keeps posting because he likes his Ipaq. His comments just seem to be pro-PPC and says it is better than Palm for reasons that have already been proven to be not the case. There is no need for troll posts on PIC and am happy Ed deletes them.

•Bosco

Waiting for ARMed Palm Smartphone

Novice question for all you pros

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 2:36:46 PM #
I just had a thought about the new palm OS5: Couldn't this run on a desktop PC and replace windows? Or if it can't now, could it be done sometime in the future? For me, the thought of having a non-bloated (ie very fast) desktop OS would be great and with the amount of software available for the palm os, it would be super.

I appreciate any comments.

RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 3:04:11 PM #
Sure, just get an external keyboard, external hard drive, external monitor, a mouse, modem/network card, and voilla! A fast PC (USB port, CD ROM, power supply, desktop operating system not included).
RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 3:05:50 PM #
That OS existed (in many flavors) the latest incarnation to fade away was BeOS from Be, Inc. (Which was bought by Palm)
RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 3:21:04 PM #
yup BeOS was bout by Palm to take over Palmsource .. :P
isn't that fun
RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 4:35:23 PM #
Hmmmm makes you wonder about Palms long range plan, with all those BEos people at Palmsource. Wouldnt it be ironic if rather than MS leveraging windows to get a foothold in the PDA market, Palm used its handheld name recognition to ressurect BEOS and this time really challenge MS.

Might not work, but I wonder if that is what the aim is nevertheles?.

RE: Novice question for all you pros
nuopus @ 6/27/2002 5:03:52 PM #
Why not concider running a Linux OS? If its a more modern machine, the new KDE3 or the recently released GNOME 2.0 sure is VERY good. For slower machines, how about WindowMaker for your Window manage? or BlackBox? It is a very nice trim window manager ... and looks nice too.

Linux is the best Windows alternative out there .... only real disadvantage is the fact that most of the games in windows wont run on it. openOffice 1.0 or StarOffice 6.0 is a very welcome replacement for MS Office.

RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 5:40:34 PM #
nuopus: I agree linux is definitely a choice for such a machine, also the porting would not be too difficult (there's already an arm port running on ipaqs), but gnome or kde are too heavy for such a cpu, even windowmaker or blackbox are "wasted" for such a device.
however there are already two desktop evinronments (opie and qtopia) for handheld device, with the plus they're already optimized for a small, touch.sensitive screen.

btw, blackbox is really a nice wm, but you have to click on an empty space on the desktop for a lot of things, it would be quite impratical with such a small screen

ps: I was forgetting, there are also 3 o so netbsd ports for various arm platforms in the list (and be sure someone is already looking for a palmos 5 device for the nth port :)

RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 6:45:37 PM #
Want something done quick and fast and nice and sleek and not bloated?

You have it... it's called Disk Operating System. Alias? DOS.

It worked great, and it STILL does... don't believe me? You can easily download freedos or Opendos or something of that sort... or easier yet... just open a command prompt, hit CTRL-ENTER. If you have Wordperfect for DOS or Quattro for DOS, you will see that it is way usable... and does everything people need. Just without the bloat.

Well, my 2 cents. Palm OS really isn't too different. It's essentially single-tasking (real-time multitasking only to use one processor for LCD, sound, etc. control). The wordprocessors are far from WYSIWYG, and worse than WordPerfect for DOS for that matter.

RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 2:14:42 AM #
Wordsmith is pretty darn close
http://bluenomad.com/ws/prod_wordsmith_screenshots.html
RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 7:21:42 AM #
No DOS every written by the Bill Gates company was ever truely stable until the Windows Unix clones NT, and XP, That includes DOS 3.0, 6.0, all of them. They were just as much an unprotected mess as ME is on my current machine.

At one time I wondered if OS 5 might not be Linux with a special emulator that allowed it to run older Palm OS programs. Too bad it wasn't. That would have been gutsy, but I didn't really expect it.

If you look at Sharps plans, you may see that a year from now they may have a desktop, laptop, game console, cameras, and all the rest. All with a stable, open, lisence free OS; Linux. They already have a model that runs a 200 MZ X-Scale, is smaller and lighter than an M515, with better battery life than any current PPC. The PPC, Sharps, and Palm OS models are headed for a battel royale! This is going to be so good.

RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/29/2002 2:15:54 AM #
Guys - i luv linux - but you do realize it is never going to break past %15 of the desktop right?
RE: Novice question for all you pros
cyruski @ 6/29/2002 7:25:50 PM #
>is smaller and lighter than an M515

??

cyruski

RE: Novice question for all you pros
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/30/2002 9:51:25 PM #
Why not go middle of the road between Windows and DOS. Anyone out there remember Apple's S.O.S.? It ran on the old Apple /// (when it was not overheating) and had quite a performance edge when combined with Selector /// and the Desktop Manager. It was not until the 486 came along that you could get a spreadsheet on an IBM to match performance. That machine was killed by Apple in 1984, but software development continued another decade, and resulted in a new OS for the /// called BOS in 1994. It had print spooling, built in menus, disk caching, etc. The first public installation was at a computer show in Washington DC. The took a volunteer's Apple ///, loaded it in 5 minutes and it worked perfectly.

SUPPORT for ARM?!?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 7:33:22 PM #
Why on earth do people insist on saying 'Palm OS5 has SUPPORT for ARM"

IT ONLY RUNS ON FRIKKEN ARM!!!!!!!!

That's like saying my cdplayer has support for playing cds.
My printer has support for paper..

Welcome to the Department of redundancy department.

RE: SUPPORT for ARM?!?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 7:42:36 PM #
Redundancy is the corner-stone of journalism...
RE: SUPPORT for ARM?!?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 8:32:28 PM #
> IT ONLY RUNS ON FRIKKEN ARM!!!!!!!!

Well, funny... I also have a version of Palm OS5
compiled for and running on my Pentium III (i.e.,
Intel 386 architecture): the Palm OS5 simulator.
As far as I know, it's the real OS code, just
compiled for a different processor architecture
(the simulator does NOT contain an ARM emulator
to run the ARM instructions on).


RE: SUPPORT for ARM?!?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 12:08:03 AM #
"My printer has support for paper.."

Guess what? Printers have support for envelopes, and transparency's, and banner paper... Get a life, kid, you obviously don't know what you are talking about.

RE: SUPPORT for ARM?!?
jjsoh @ 6/28/2002 12:41:03 AM #
: Why on earth do people insist on saying 'Palm OS5 has
: SUPPORT for ARM"

I agree. I mean.. why should LEG be alienated? Or HEAD for that matter. How unprofessional and incomplete of them. Let's demand that they rewrite their statements for clarify to effect of:

'Palm OS5 has SUPPORT for ARM, LEG, AND MANY, MANY OTHER PARTS'


Jim

RE: SUPPORT for ARM?!?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 2:03:34 AM #
PalmOS 5 supports ARM whether it is Intel, Motorola, TI, MediaQ or some other implementation thanks to its Device Abstraction Layer (DAL). Without the DAL you would be tied to only one or 2 ARM implementations such as only Intel.
RE: SUPPORT for ARM?!?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 2:43:54 PM #
Actually, if I understand it correctly the DAL allows abstraction to basically any processor type you want. The OS is interestingly portable in that regard.. just as long as someone supplies the DAL layer for that particular processor.
RE: SUPPORT for ARM?!?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/29/2002 2:18:16 AM #
>>Without the DAL you would be tied to only one or 2 ARM implementations such as only Intel.

Exactly - just like PPC/PPC2002 - as PPC fans have dicovered as of late.

RE: SUPPORT for ARM?!?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/30/2002 12:04:16 PM #
we have Palm, HAND(spring), and ARM. will we also have SHOULDER, LEG, etc.?
RE: SUPPORT for ARM?!?
abosco @ 6/30/2002 9:41:53 PM #
"we have Palm, HAND(spring), and ARM. will we also have SHOULDER, LEG, etc.?"

The same day you make a funny joke.

•Bosco

Waiting for ARMed Palm Smartphone

Dev tools?

Foo Fighter @ 6/28/2002 1:16:06 AM #
Will Palm provide developers tools needed to create ARM optimized apps? Particularly multimedia centric applications?

I'd hate to keep hobbling along with TealMovie and Kinoma after OS5/ARM hits the market. We really need a new wave of killer ARMware to put some spice back into the platform. For example, imagine RealOne player for PalmOS, or Apple's Quicktime player. How about WinAmp (PalmAmp)? Opera for PalmOS? :-)

RE: Dev tools?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 1:56:24 AM #
Yup, they are already available to developers...


Gavin.

RE: Dev tools?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 2:45:05 PM #
They are not supporting very much in the way of new tools with OS5. OS 5 is an interesting release in that to a developer it sure looks a LOT like OS 4. Everything is run through an emulator (emulator is a terrible word because the Palm OS libraries themselves are native). So all of the code built for OS 5 will actually be compiled for the 68K processors still and then run through the emulator on the ARM devices. Since the Palm code itself you will still see BIG HUGE speed increases because the majority of the code is still running natively on the arm.

The exception to this is that developers can create "armlets" which are chunks of code written and compiled directly for the ARM. This code can be called from within the 68k code and will be executed as native code (that's because it IS native code).. The code you can write for an armlet is somewhat restricted (it doesn't have access to certain parts of program memory directly)... but these armlets will certainly make for fairly quick apps.

OS 6 (if my guess is correct) is where we'll see the chance to develop true native ARM apps.. along with a bunch of new features (I would hope they would finally implement some kind of multi-threading features in OS 6.. I would be shocked if they didn't)..


In summary: OS 5 == OS 4 on the ARM
OS 6 == Big huge update to the platform

RE: Dev tools?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 5:42:44 PM #
Be wrote the book on multithreading :)
RE: Dev tools?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 7:41:44 PM #
..and Be Inc. is history.
RE: Dev tools?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/29/2002 2:22:13 AM #
>>..and Be Inc. is history.

yes - because they were bought by Palm. Why so snipey? The guy made a comment about BE Inc's talent with designing multi-tasking OS (that is better then Windows), and you had to go and Troll-up the thread. Are you implying that BE failed because their technology was inferior? Don't tell me you actually believe that we use Windows (lamer then a bunch of should-have-been more popular desktop OS's -Amiga,BE,Linux, etc) because it is the best OS? Now that's naive!

RE: Dev tools?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/30/2002 9:10:09 PM #
... actually, Be Inc is in control of PalmSource.

Just do a search of who are on the board of top management in PalmSource, and you will be very surprise how many of them are from Be Inc.

RE: Dev tools?
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/6/2002 3:06:53 AM #
"..and Be Inc. is history." yes - because they were bought by Palm.

No. They are history because they failed to make a product people bought. Palm only bought the leftovers.

Why so snipey? The guy made a comment about BE Inc's talent with designing multi-tasking OS

The OS failed. One interpretation is that it failed because the world was too stupid to realize its superiority. The other is that it failed because, on balance, it wasn't so good after all. Take your pick.

Top

Account

Register Register | Login Log in
user:
pass: