Comments on: Palm to Release XScale Powered Handheld in 2003

Assuming you meant PalmSource - I think you'll find that they consider Video Players and MP3 players the domain of the application develper - not the OS.

PalmOS applications already provide video and audio apps - mainly for the Clie at the moment - but once OS5 comes out I'm sure there will be many more.

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russ@russb.fsnet.co.uk

So a game or media app will try and perform it's updates a set amount of times a second. The PalmOS provides the SysTicksPerSecond() function which gives for any given device the number of 'ticks' (sort of quantum time particles for the application developer) per second. Using this you can use the emulator / simulator quite well to create games and media apps.

Obviously you'll still need to test on real devices eventually - but most of the development can be done without real devices.

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russ@russb.fsnet.co.uk

-- ASUS's PPC looks like a CLIE! Oh, the irony!

Scott

But Palm already dominates the market. It has more than 85% of the market.

Their current marketshare is about 60%

Uh, not quite. Toshiba just released the e740, which has a 400MHz XScale PXA250 processor.

Now, the PPC2002 OS doesn't take full advantage of XScale, but it does support the faster processors.

Not really. PPC2002 has to take full advantage of XScale in order for it to run at 400 MHz. Otherwise it runs at about 200 MHz.

Read this:
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3676

PPC won't go anywhere -- they've still got a better file system and a more open architecture. Palm folk tend to become rather over optimistic with Palm and always spin the PPC side in the worst light. That usually translates into dissapointment and whining when the 'PPC killer' turns out to be vaporware.

Look to SONY to do anything with XScale and the multimedia possibilities. Palm will simply rehash the m515 with a 320 x 320 screen -- i.e. T-615.

Yep - everybody is confused on this point. most people think that OS 5 is designed for StrongARM - its not. StrongARM is just one particular ARM design of processor (manufactured by Intel and running at 206 mhz). According to Palm, OS 5 runs on ARM 4t architechure - which already includes chips running between 18mhz and 1ghz. check out page 8 of this palm pdf:
http://210.153.100.248/slides-2002/100.pdf

Intel licenses the *architecture* from ARM (the instruction set and what it's supposed to do), as does Motorola and maybe a few others. ARM also did several CPU core designs, some of which are licensed by TI and Motorola (and many many others). There are many different ways of executing the same instruction set (think PPro, P3, P4, Athlon, Transmeta, etc. for the ia32 ISA). The actual design (pipeline depth, cache layout, etc.) of an XScale is very different from that of an ARM Inc. designed core.

www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3676&MODE=FLAT

Don't you think Palm would be the first to release a device a division of them created? What makes you think Palmsource didn't give Palm the OS before they shipped it out to other companies? Only time will tell but it is pretty obvious that Palm will be first out the gate.

-Bosco

A while back I asked Mike Mace from PalmSource about this and he promised me it wouldn't happen. PalmSource is trying as hard as it can to be scrupulously fair to all the licensees. If any of them got word that Palm had been given such a large advantage there would be big trouble.

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News Editor

Both have a position in the marketplace and still manage to differentiate their products. Provided that PalmOS will run on either chipset (as promised) then we as consumers might actually be winners here.

I can see a company producing a line of Palm devices with both chips - the TI omap chips for the cellphone/wireless device market, the Intel for the high end MHz junkies, and perhaps Motorola for the general consumer levels devices (the sort we recommend to family and friends).