More Details on the Palm Ready Program Released

Yesterday, Palm announced that Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments would be joining its new Palm OS Ready Program, which meant that they would all be making ARM-based processors capable of running the next generation of the Palm operating system. Palm's initial announcement on the program was short on details and since it came out there have been conflicting reports being written about it. The greatest area of contention was that some publications said that portions of the OS would be embedded into the chips and some said there wouldn't be. Palm has posted a FAQ on its developer's website that clears up much of the confusion.

This is neither the Palm OS on a chip, nor an embedded solution. The processor manufacturers will be creating a Device Abstraction Layer (DAL) between their chip and the OS. They will receive a porting kit from Palm that will help them to port the DAL to their processor. These processor solutions can then be sold directly to the existing Palm licensees, or even Palm itself.

More specifically, the partners will receive a Silicon Porting Kit that will include the following: a device abstraction layer, a hardware abstraction layer, tools, required Palm OS components, access to technical resources, training, support, and access to marketing opportunities.

Palm isn't requiring its licensees to buy their chips from these companies. They are free to buy them from anyone they want. But they would have to do a lot of work to create their own DAL.

In an interesting side note, this program isn't limited to just ARM-based processors. Motorola will be using these tools for their current 68K products. The program is also open to other chip companies if they would like to join.

Another topic of much debate is when these any devices making use of all this will be available. Palm's FAQ doesn't do a lot to clear this up. It states several times that they are not announcing shipment dates for the Palm OS for ARM at this time and they also refuse to talk about its feature set.

This do say that they will deliver a development version of the Palm OS ARM port to licensees this Fall but that is just to let the licensees start their work for the ARM architecture. They aren't expecting ARM-based chips to be available this year -- and therefore, devices based on these chips won't be available for even longer.

Finally, for those who have asked if their current models will be obsolete, they promise that Palm powered devices based on ARM and 68k will be able to exchange data and work together seamlessly.

All existing applications will not have to be rewritten to work on the new version of the OS. They suggest that developers focus now on supporting Palm OS 4.0 APIs to ensure compatibility in the future. Applications developed according to Palm OS 4.0 API guidelines will be compatible with the ARM-based version of the Palm OS.

Expect to hear much more about the Palm OS ARM port at PalmSource in October.

I want to think Alan Kessler and Gabriel Acosta-Lopez for patiently answering my e-mails yesterday when I was trying to sort all this out. -Ed

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learned something from the 505 debacle

I.M. Anonymous @ 7/25/2001 4:24:56 PM #
Palm is tight lipped on the new features.... maybe they will keep their mouths shut, so they don't have to write off a few hundred dollars in old inventory again when the arm-based devices hit the market.

RE: learned something from the 505 debacle
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/25/2001 4:27:22 PM #
I think that's why they refused to reveal feature set.

RE: learned something from the 505 debacle
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/25/2001 4:42:58 PM #
I agree, but you know the feature set will leak out as soon as Palm ships the development version to the licensees. No matter how hard they try, you can't keep that many mouths shut...

RE: learned something from the 505 debacle
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/25/2001 7:42:47 PM #
And if web-sites such as PalmInfoCenter etc cared about the Palm market they would NOT publish leaks. As we have clearly seen, leaks cause consumer hesitation, which can lead to a full-scale problems with revenue. It doesn't just hurt Palm, Inc. It hurts *everyone* involved with the Palm Economy. As a developer I want to know what is going on as much as anyone, which is why I sign NDA's with companies such as Palm - but I realise all to well the probelms that leaks/rumours cause - so I for one would never post a rumour/leak, and I would like to see that followed by the web-based media outlets.

RE: learned something from the 505 debacle
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/25/2001 7:51:40 PM #
If the whole point of this announcement is to ease third party to develop a product based on the mentioned chips, than it is in PALM interest to explain clearly and make all necessary information available sucah as what is the structure of the OS, it's status, and availability.

I mean if they want people to commit big time and money to license their products, they better show the goods.

This in contrast to making their own palm unit, than it is in their interest to keep competition from knowing what they are doing.

More Oddities

I.M. Anonymous @ 7/25/2001 7:19:54 PM #
well, ok this is my take:

Palm was trying to do PR spin to show that TI/INTC/MOT/ARMHY are behind them, just to shore up big business impression. It's a classic name dropping directed to pump up stock, but the actual announcement itself has no technical merit, and in fact reveal how far behind they are in OS 5.0.

I am no CS major but from what I understand, HAL/DAL are part of OS foundation upon which the rest of OS stability will sit. These ain't just display driver.

what is PALM doing asking MOT/TI/INTC to write a HAL/DAL? I can understand technical input, but actually having them be responsible to write it? can you imagine how messy it is going to be?

imagine a PALM engineer trying to debug part of the kernel and it turns out to be a timing problem in the HAL/DAL. Does He have to call TI/MOT to fix it? than what happen if this bug fix create an incompatibility in the Xscale version? now what?

unless they put every engineer in one building, this is a good receipt for disaster waiting to happen.

What's more, from this we know that at least the dev tool for OS 5.0 has not been completed yet. Afterall how can one create a compiler that work across the board between 3 chips when the HAL/DAL hasn't even been written yet. (heck they didn't even have a dev board yet, let alone HAL/DAL)

from where I sit, I think they are panicking about the 5.0 thing. They couldn't get it straight so they call ARMHY to help with the dev tool, and ask just about anybody to help them built the 5.0. It just make that much more sense for PALM to do everything in house without the hassle of managing inter corporations project.

Somebody really ought to ask them in serious manner, what's up with this 5.0 thing. I mean who want to license this 5.0 thing if it isn't even half done yet. I cannot imagine anybody want to invest developing a hardware when the OS isn't even ready yet. It seems nobody in the right mind will want to built a device except PALM, TI or MOT.



RE: More Oddities
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/25/2001 8:04:04 PM #
Hi,

First of all, I would like to say I have no intention if TRASHING Palm or anyone. Juz like to have some useful feedback for ppl out there.

I am glad to see you good and pratical comment. Agree that it would be really messy to write a HAL/DAL, I would really hate if there were to be a disaster waiting to happen.

Writting a HAL/DAL sound's not logical to me. Imagine if in future, the binaries for Palm application may be not compatible from one Palm to another (that would be following the screw up that Microsoft has for PocketPC).

Second, I agree that the CPU needs to be fast, but does it has to be that fast? If you need multi-media get a co-processor(I am sure there is alot out there and DAL/HAL can sure be specified well for them).

Look at Sony Clie (33Mhz), you don't need a 200Mhz CPU to play MP3s. The same can be done for videos, streaming etc.

As for other applications that need a lot of processing, I don't think anyone would host a Web server on their Palm right? And don't talk about CAD/CAM, 3D animation production and stuff. If anyone REALLY needs such applications on the road, my advice GET A PROPER LAPTOP :)

Well that's my 2 cents worth, hope guys at Palm will see this and consider my comments.


PS: I really love Palm, it's a beauty and really defines another generation in computing world. Anyone tried Privateer 2 from Origin (EA) before? That's the PDA I'm look for ;)



RE: More Oddities
Ed @ 7/25/2001 8:47:24 PM #
> Imagine if in future, the binaries for Palm application may be
> not compatible from one Palm to another.

I've said this before but I'm determined to repeat it until everyone hears. I wrote to Alan Kessler, general manager of Palm's Platform Solutions Group, and asked him whether different chips would require different versions of the same applications. He assured me that this wasn't the case. It will be a standard implementation.

---
News Editor
Palm Infocenter

RE: More Oddities
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/25/2001 8:53:21 PM #
Quote:
Somebody really ought to ask them in serious manner, what's up with this 5.0 thing. I mean who want to license this 5.0 thing if it isn't even half done yet. I cannot imagine anybody want to invest developing a hardware when the OS isn't even ready yet.

OS 4.0 has only been out a couple of months and is only available on a few models so of course its replacement isn't half done yet. Palm is still in the very early stages of developing OS 5.0 and isn't planning to release it for about a year. Look for OS 5 devices in the second half of 2002.

RE: More Oddities
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/25/2001 11:18:43 PM #
ed,,

sure nobody is asking if an app need to be compiled for each version of CPU, but Palm's ability to write all those layers. It's the OS. What they are proposing is pretty ambitious given the tight timetable, specially from a company that has never written an OS from ground up, let alone providing tidy multimedia API.

If the 5.0 is heavy on multimedia API updates as rumored, than these layers are big deal.

If you see MS Win CE block diagram, just as a quick comparison, the hardware layer is way in the bottom and effecting every blocks on top of it.

can they pull it all in 10-12 months? write the OS, develop all tools, make sure everything runs smoothly on 3 chips, than come up with finish hardware product.

on top of that they have to quickly persuade developer write killer apps to be released at the time when this spiffy new unit come out.

This is insane, they better off focus on one chip first to quickly come up with solid product by early spring. Instead of working with all those companies trying to pull a complex trick. (can anybody say Symbian, taligent or power pc?) Design by comitte doesn't work.

call me cassandra, but time and time again, this has been proven disasterous.



RE: More Oddities
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 12:13:02 AM #
Under this plan, making the chips work with the OS isn't Palm's problem. They are going to say to the chip makers: "Here's our OS. Write a DAL that makes your chip work perfectly with it or you can't put 'Palm OS Ready' on your chips and we won't buy tens of millions of dollars of them from you." They are pushing the work and responsibility off on Intel and Motorola. I'm sure Palm'll test the OS on all the chips and make the chip companies fiddle with their DALs until they are perfect. If there's a problem on only one maker's chips, it isn't with the OS, its with the DAL.

RE: More Oddities
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 1:09:58 AM #
than the question becomes who is needing whom. Why should MOT/TI/INTC commit resources to write DAL for PALM OS which will eventually help the success of TI's OMAP solution? If I were MOT, i would want exclusive contract. This ain't brotherly love alliances we are seeing here. It's business. There is at least another company in town who doesn't have such requirement and actually sells more ARM based PDA.

on the other hand this might work since the big chip makers are pretty desperate selling anything these days, specially TI and MOT.

and personally all this competition and open contract idea between Palm and the 3 companies can back fires so badly. If Microsoft comes to them and buy out all of their chips at higher price, there is nothing PALM can do except holding on to exclusive contract to prevent shortage.

Palm is not in the position to play hard to get.

RE: More Oddities
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 1:32:20 AM #
> Palm is not in the position to play hard to get.

Palm OS devices run about 90% of the handhelds. I'll say that again, 90%. Darn straight Palm is in a position to dictate terms. Not only have Motorola and Intel already agreed to do this, they have actually PAID Palm for the rights to do so. Take a look at the FAQ talked about in the article and you'll see that they had to pay to join the Palm Ready program.

I can tell you aren't pleased with this whole business but I'm sure it will be good for the platform. Being tied to one chip company is a bad plan. What if that company decides that their chip suddenly costs four times as much? What if they go out of business?

Windows survives on lots of different processors, the Palm OS will too.

RE: More Oddities
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 2:05:30 AM #
origin of 90% number: (take all 15M Palm ever sold compare it to 2M of CE) It does not indicates sale trend, nor it indicates any invincibility. The number tries to disguise market shift, hence a false assesment.

what I am really baffled is PALM rate of progress doing the 5.0, that's annoying. The 4.0 is dead in the corporate market, regarless what carl is trying to preach.

well, I suppose we all can just wait and see how this great plan panned out. hope it isn't too little too late.

PS. only MOT has a press release blurbing about this PALM OS ready program, but Intel and TI doesn't even bother mentioning it. This sure doesn't look like an eager participation to me.

PocketPC/WindowsCE has 20 - 25% market share...
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 3:58:35 AM #
if you look at ALL sales (retail + corporate).

Their percent will likely increase in the corporate world. Palm will be left selling m100s for $89.95 at WalMart.

Palm can kiss the profitable business sector goodbye.

RE: More Oddities
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 8:46:20 AM #
You guys forgot to say "Palm is Doomed". Microsoft's marketing firm who is paying you to spread lies about Palm isn't going to be happy about that.

RE: Compaq is Doomed!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 4:15:27 PM #
Compaq Computer Corp. just reported a $279 million quarterly loss. They cut 8,500 jobs. According to the latest figures, the company lost 20% of its tiny percantge of handheld retail sales in May.

Doomed I say, DOOMED!

RE: Compaq Doomed?
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 4:30:18 PM #
They finally said how many iPaqs they shipped last quarter: 450,000. That's not just retail, that's to corporations, too. Anyone have any hard figures on how many Palm based handhelds sold in the same time span? I'd really like to compare them.

RE: More Oddities
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 4:56:28 PM #
unlike PALM inc. CPQ is listed to have 3B cash. even bleeding at current rate it would take them 10 quarters to go bankrupt. PLM on the other hand would only last about 2 quarters at the rate of last quarter lost.

and incidentally, CPQ sells 450k unit in last quarter, while PALM doesn't even dare say how many m50x they are selling last quarter. (all they say is that it sells above expectation)

market cap.
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 5:04:34 PM #
PALM 2.87B cash $513.8M
CPQ 23.8B cash $3.83B

compile

Eston Bond @ 7/26/2001 11:44:26 AM #
With this kit, will the developer still have to compile for the different processors?

Eston Bond
CEO Pine Tree Software
http://www.pinetreesoftware.net/

RE: compile
Ed @ 7/26/2001 12:01:25 PM #
I've said this before but I'm determined to repeat it until everyone hears. I wrote to Alan Kessler, general manager of Palm's Platform Solutions Group, and asked him whether different chips would require different versions of the same applications. He assured me that this wasn't the case. It will be a standard implementation.

---
News Editor
Palm Infocenter
RE: compile
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/26/2001 1:50:00 PM #
All the chips mentioned are ARM v5 architecture compliant using ARM 9xx cores. This is the 'target' for the compiler. The ARM licensees differentiate on the extras they put on chip with the ARM core. The OS abstracts these into OS services for 3rd party apps to use, thus sparing apps from needing to know the exact chip details - that's the OSs job.

Think DirectX on the PC: As long as a 3d game is written to the DirectX API on x86/Win32, the developer doesn't have to worry what kind of graphics card is present in a PC. DirectX abstracts the functionality and it just works.

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