ATI Technologies Joins Palm OS Ready Program

ATI Technologies has joined the Palm OS Ready Program. This means that future Palm OS handhelds can include ATI's Imageon graphic accelerator chip, which delivers high-performance advanced 2D graphics and hardware MPEG-4 decoding. Imageon chips have been designed to offer the highest performance and crisp images while saving power for longer battery life.

Graphic accelerator chips work alongside the CPU handling graphics decoding and allowing the CPU to handle other tasks such as audio decoding. This reduces the amount of power used, as well.

"ATI Technologies will help the Palm OS platform push the innovation envelope by enabling a new generation of handhelds and smart phones with high-performance multimedia capabilities and advanced power-saving technology," said Christy Wyatt, senior director of Worldwide Licensing at PalmSource, Inc.

This doesn't mean all future Palm OS devices will have ATI chips in them. Instead, by joining the Palm OS Ready program, ATI has done the groundwork to be able to be included. Palm OS licencees will have a choice of which processors to use.

Other members of the Palm OS Ready Program include Intel, Motorola, Texas Instruments, and MediaQ.

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O god ....

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 1:22:34 PM #
A Graphics chip on a PDA ......
RE: O god ....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 1:32:34 PM #
Already on the Toshiba e740 and, at present doesn't seem to be helping its multimedia performance.
RE: O god ....
big_raji @ 6/26/2002 1:33:24 PM #
Just wait until the benchmarking comparisons come out. Yikes. I think we're going to start seeing articles saying "ATI's Processor gets nearly 40fps in QuakePDA on the new Palm 615, while nVidia's GPU clobbers it with a 55fps score in QuakePDA on Sony's new T855C"

Gah.

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What's Wrong With This Picture?
http://raj.phangureh.com/picture.html

RE: O god ....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 1:37:02 PM #
Who is porting Quake for Palm?
i don't belive
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 1:47:16 PM #
it's a joke!

you see, they have quake for pocket pc and so...it's a joke.

RE: O god ....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 1:51:59 PM #
Well, there is always Deity 3D (www.ardiri.com) A similar 1st person 3d shoot em up...
RE: O god ....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 1:52:18 PM #
> Who is porting Quake for Palm?

ardiri.com is --> http://www.ardiri.com/palm/deity/

RE: O god ....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 2:21:22 PM #
Isn't Deity3D a Doom clone, not a Quake clone?
RE: O god ....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 2:25:38 PM #
well, quake and now quake II have already been ported to pocketpc. With Palm moving to ARM, there is no reason the same cannot be done. And with devices supporting 320x320 looking like the furtue standard (now that its supported in the os) - such a port should be able to look nicer then on ppc. The challenge is out there....
RE: O god ....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 2:25:38 PM #
>>Isn't Deity3D a Doom clone, not a Quake clone?

yeah - for those who aren't gamers: Quake is a generation ahead of doom in terms of 3d engine technology. Quake II is a generation ahead of Quake. Doom is pretty simple by comparison. Still, Ardiri has done an amazing job - this thing works on a 20mhz palm V - almost playable except for the greyscale, trailing, LCD screen. The color version they have coming looks much more promising / playable. Now how about hi-res(hi-res+)?

RE: O god ....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 2:39:06 PM #
Don't forget Doomling/Dreadling on the Palm! A few generations behind Deity3d, but still impressive for its time. Seemed to cause quite a stir when it came out 2 or so years ago!
RE: O god ....
Ed @ 6/26/2002 2:47:09 PM #
> Just wait until the benchmarking comparisons come out.

I can see it happening, though in this case it will be ATI vs. MediaQ, who is also part of the Palm OS Ready Program:
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3630

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News Editor

RE: O god ....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 5:16:46 PM #
Sony Clie's not only have a graphics chip from MediaQ but also have a music DSP coprocessor. PalmOS 5 will support both video and audio hardware acceleration.
See www.red-mercury.com/aifaq.html
and www.palmos.com/dev/support/docs/palmos50/
RE: O god ....
drw @ 6/26/2002 10:23:52 PM #
How about...

ATI All-in-Wonder Pro 8500DV on the desktop with PVR (personal video recorder) which can scale down recordings for viewing on an OS5 device sporting an ATI All in Wonder Palm which not only can show these recordings from an SD card, but can pickup broadcast TV from an internal antenna. That would be cool.

On another topic, the discussion of who's making the browser and what features it supports is soo boring. Will it support RealOne, Quicktime, Media Player streaming content over G3 smartphones?

David in Pflugerville, TX

RE: O god ....
nuopus @ 6/27/2002 3:19:46 AM #
Okay ... one thing about graphics chips in a PDA .. they are NOT new. MediaQ has been putting graphics chips in PDAs since the IPAQ 38xx series. The Jornada 740 has MediaQ graphics chips.

But what IS new is the new ATI chip. I hope they put the same effort into that as they have their upper end graphics chips for PCs.

RE: O god ....
ahecht @ 6/28/2002 4:49:46 AM #
Actually, it isn't even new for Palm. While this is the first chip for palm that can do onboard MPEG decoding (really cool!), the m505 (and presumably m515) used an Epson SED1376 graphics chip with an 80kB display buffer (which is actually capable of controlling a 160x240 screen). http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z1A652721

Wow Ed - heck of a news week already

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 3:05:27 PM #
Wow. What a slew of developments. What's next?

"Extraterestials Make Conact With Earth; To Use Palm OS 5 AS Embedded OS For New Generation Of Flying Saucers."

RE: Wow Ed - heck of a news week already
drw @ 6/26/2002 10:30:12 PM #
just glad Arther Anderson isn't auditing PALM. also hope that beeoootch marthastewart doesn't own any palm shares

David in Pflugerville, TX

It's already on the PPC

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 4:31:14 PM #
If I recalled correctly, the new PPC from Toshbia already has the ATi chip built in, not sure if it really helps out in terms of video departmenet though.

imagine playin Q3 online on your palm. w00t

RE: It's already on the PPC
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 6:42:23 PM #
no they use media q
RE: It's already on the PPC
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 6:47:01 PM #
> no they use media q

It IS on the PPC, you idiot.

RE: It's already on the PPC
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 7:04:31 PM #
oh you are right -the e740 uses ati

2d not 3d

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 6:49:06 PM #
remember we still only have 2D accelerated chips for PDAs-not 3D. It is true that mpeg 4 is the latest cool feature. However I will still wait for a geforce GPU (or even Nvidia TNT) on a Palm. Then you'll really see some cool games.
btw now that Be Inc is in charge of Palmsource, it is not too far fetched that there will be a 3D api if not opengl on future PalmOS versions
RE: 2d not 3d
jjsoh @ 6/26/2002 7:59:15 PM #
Not only that, don't forget that Sega is developing a Palm OS gaming API
(www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=2948) as well.

What a welcome addition ATI and Sega make for the Palm gaming community. The future for Palm looks more interesting every day.


Jim

RE: 2d not 3d
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 9:18:47 PM #
Anybody knows what exactly is Sega doing for Palm OS?
Are they going to makek a game API and make it available to all developers like Palm OS SDK,
or they are going to charge money?


Sega API
Ed @ 6/26/2002 9:57:15 PM #
Sega is developing a game API for the Palm platform and will licence it to developers. You can read more about it here:
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=2948

and here:
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3253

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News Editor

RE: 2d not 3d
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 10:25:11 PM #
Thanks Ed.

But my question is really is Sega going to license
the API free to all developers, like Palm OS SDK?
or they charge money.


RE: 2d not 3d
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 11:11:12 PM #
It isn't going to be free. How would Sega make any money off giving an API away to its competitors?

The days when companies spent a lot of time and money making something then gave it away are over because most of the companies that did this are out of business.

RE: 2d not 3d
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 12:45:24 AM #

If you read the above link, you'll notice it says: "The game API will be integrated into future versions of Metrowerks' CodeWarriorTM development tools for the Palm OS platform. In addition, Sega Corporation will license the game API to developers."

So it won't be free, but YES, they will make it available to "competitors" - the sample games in the second link above were developed with another company in fact. Probably they will make the API free to developers BUT charge the licsense for actual use/distribution (based numbers of copies of app that uses API). This is what everybody does with their developer APIs.

RE: 2d not 3d
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/27/2002 1:31:14 AM #
the sega gaming api is very important but what I'd like to see is a hardware accelerated 3D api built in the OS (like opengl or directx). even if you can do 3D with sega's api it will be all in software
Be Inc. Sold to Palm
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2002 9:49:14 PM #
Be was sold to Palm... no more BeOS...

Palm OS Ready Program

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 8:12:21 PM #
Is there a short list of the major players in the Palm OS Ready Program?
RTA
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 9:17:31 PM #
Read the end of the article.
RE: Palm OS Ready Program
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/26/2002 11:49:00 PM #
Intel
Motorola
Texas Instruments
MediaQ
ATI
Did i miss anyone ?

I love ATI... now ;]

Lock @ 6/27/2002 3:05:58 AM #
Well, ATI always developed powerful video cards, so it's a quality mark.
Finally, after one year of fight with my Radeon 7200 ddr vivo I was able to make it work the capture on XP.
I know, I'm a bit OT but who cares? It works and I'm happy! ;]
Anyway, I think ATI will do a good work.

Happy capturing! ;]P

Who wants extensive graphis on a pda?

I.M. Anonymous @ 7/4/2002 2:00:48 PM #
I find meningless games, e-books, development, and internet more important then extensive graphics on a 2" Screen. If i'm going to watch a movie or play extensive games I'd use my computer. I like the portability and inexpensive basic Palm. Why over clutter a great simple system.
RE: Who wants extensive graphis on a pda?
I.M. Anonymous @ 10/1/2002 4:41:56 AM #
Look, you don't HAVE to use it...
And besides, you stated that you'll use a PC for movie watching etc, but you dont carry a PC in your pocket everywhere don't you ?
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