Comments on: TI Unveils New OMAP 1710 Processor

And why??? USB sucks up a lot of power and the USB2GO specs are not dear complete. This is definately a next revision feature when most of the market is ready for it.

>>- maximum clock rate of 220 MHz (maybe a bit low?)

Considers how well you write your software. Some of the performace complaints you are seeing is from 68K emulation. Once you have code running ARM native, that speed is more than adequate for even DSP like functions. Hence this release in the same month that Palm OS 6 is going golden.

>>- no 3D engine

**rolls eyes** I'll say it another time, there is no established market for handheld 3D. The Zodiac is a great move forward but there is no market demand for an SGI-like pipeline on a device this small. Thus, get working on your killer 3D app on a Zodiac and then the demand for a h/w 3D engine will be there.

Well USB2 will mean a sync of a few seconds most of the time, so I don't see battery drain being much of a problem, considering the unit is recharging (when in cradle) when you are doing the sync.

> "there is no established market for handheld 3D."

Build it, and they will come. :)

The clock rate is not that big of a deal, considering my Tungsten E running at about half the speed with a older chip is plenty fast for me.

And of course GPS is important, as I have to know where I am.

But you'll admit that it's more marketable to a wide range of users with GPS support in, so that's a good thing.

USB2, is a moot thing. You *don't* get the full throughput of USB1 speeds even on a current palmos device, nevermind USB2. If palmos hardware and software had USB *master* support, that would be a big deal, which leads me to...

...Firewire. An interesting option to be sure, especially in the absence of USB master, or USBtogo. Shuttling files between a PDA and an iPod has some geek appeal. Snap pictures or video on your Zire and upload to iPod...

"The dual SD slots are nice but I have to wonder if any unit smaller than Zodiac will be able to implement them".

Like say a HandEra 330, or an HP iPaq 22xx series.

-if you crack open a Tungsten Tx, you'd be surprised to see how much space inside the unit and on the mobo is gobbled up by the SD card. Maybe mini-SD's not such a bad thing after all...

But most of the space is taken up in the width and length dimensions. Once that space is claimed for one slot, it doesn't take much additional space, thickness-wise to add another slot below it.

I thought I read about this on TI site about 6-8 months ago. I know I remember the part about the new micro design tech and support for BT & Wifi in 1 chip.

Still good to hear ... faster/smaller/stingier!

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

In all faireness, I know my chief complaints with my T3 (or any other Palm) are for the various quality-control hardware problems Palm's had over the years (T3 yellow screen, SD corruption, m505 SUDS etc etc)
And we all know that there a list OS improvements everyone's wait on in OS 6 that are in no related to CPU upgrades.

All of the under-the-hood items-CPU especially, are basically just there and do their job with aplomb. Certainly the T3 is the first Palm I've ever had where I didn't find myself getting impatient or wishing a certain process was less sluggish.

But, hey, guess what? They're ALL based on the ARM core! Even the Intel XScale!

Have you any idea what Sony did with their HHE implementation of ARM?