Comments on: Samsung Joins the Palm OS Ready Program

PalmSource today announced Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., has joined the Palm OS Ready Program. Samsung brings expertise in wireless chip sets and memory technology to the program, which lowers development cost and shortens time-to-market for Palm OS licensees manufacturing ARM-based handhelds and smart phones.
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Nice memory specs

bcombee @ 3/3/2003 11:03:56 AM #
256Mb == 16MB, so that means you have one chip that can store the whole Palm OS image and also provide 16MB of RAM. Keeping memory inside the chip reduces power usage considerably, and also allows a smaller device. This looks really, really cool, especially for Palm OS smartphones.

--
Ben Combee, CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead
Programming help at www.palmoswerks.com
RE: Nice memory specs
bcombee @ 3/3/2003 11:06:40 AM #
Oops... 256Mb == 8Mb. Arghh... early morning math. That's still enough for the OS and some RAM, but you'd really want a bit more RAM for most Palm OS devices.

--
Ben Combee, CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead
Programming help at www.palmoswerks.com
RE: Nice memory specs
neoyuan @ 3/3/2003 11:12:48 AM #
256Mb=256/8MB=32MB.

RE: Nice memory specs
Palminator @ 3/3/2003 11:38:14 AM #
Keep in mind with NAND flash, you cannot execute in place, so the OS image and all ROM based apps must be copied to SDRAM which consumes up to 16MB to RAM space. So, you're left with 16MB of code space and 16MB of storage space.

RE: Nice memory specs
bcombee @ 3/3/2003 12:04:46 PM #
Yep... 8X8 == 64, 8X32 == 256. I think I get that confused because of the old 64K computer days... that was the original memory barrier, and its still with us in Palm OS 5 in the design of HotSync Manager (arghh!).

You're right about the NAND flash requiring being copied to RAM, so its likely you'd have something like a 8MB OS/24MB RAM split on a device like this. That's still pretty nice for a tiny Palm OS device.

--
Ben Combee, CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead
Programming help at www.palmoswerks.com

RE: Nice memory specs
rsc1000 @ 3/3/2003 12:26:25 PM #
Ben - you do what for a living now? :)

RE: Nice memory specs
twalk @ 3/3/2003 12:32:49 PM #
I've heard that PPC PDAs have can't do rip with nand, but this is the first I've heard it with Palms. Does someone know the reason why you can't do rip with nand? (Too slow?)

Also keep in mind that they're using a SiP. This means that the memory can likely be increased pretty easily in later designs compared to a SoC.


RE: Nice memory specs
BlueAnon @ 3/3/2003 1:56:41 PM #
Microsofts already showed 'catfish' in several developer conference based on this chip.

PIC reported it last year when Microsoft put out a press release. Everybody thinks it'll be a flop, and dragonball will eat it alive.

Well, meet the future of sub $180 ARM device.

RE: Nice memory specs
JKingGrim @ 3/3/2003 3:07:02 PM #
>>the processor has SD/MMC and SDIO support

No MemStick. Give it up Sony.

RE: Nice memory specs
hotpaw4 @ 3/3/2003 4:59:05 PM #
NAND flash typically has serial (1-bit-at-a-time) access, whereas most CPU cores require parallel (16/32-bit wide) memory for instruction and data fetches (ROM or RAM). The flash boot loaders usually either preload some RAM memory from flash, or allow the CPU to very slowly fetch just enough code to copy the rest of the boot image in software. This means that a cold reset (RAM/storage wiped) may take a lot longer with these devices. On the other hand, NAND flash is usually also cheaper.

Players!

kev @ 3/4/2003 10:25:40 AM #
Samsung have PDA OS agreements with all providers: MS Smartphone, Symbian, Palm OS. Anybody any idea what they plan on doing with all this? Sounds like they're either cowards and can't pick a platform or they're on a spending/signing spree gone mad.

RE: Players!
ConceptVBS @ 3/12/2003 1:00:30 PM #
Samsung is known to be agressive in signing contracts and, more importantly, keeping them. What they are planning to do is to be the dominant player in the smartphone market. I think they've gone mad.

RE: Players!
Konstantin @ 10/25/2003 9:15:50 PM #
[b]oh no[/b]

RE: Players!
Konstantin @ 10/25/2003 9:16:29 PM #
^b g

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