TI Announces OMAP Development Platform

Posted By: Ed Tuesday, April 23, 2002 1:20:19 PM

Texas Instruments has announced that it will release the Innovator Development Kit for its OMAP processor platform in the third quarter of this year. It will help developers create wireless apps that will run on handhelds that are powered by TI's OMAP processors. This includes the handhelds Palm Inc. will start releasing near the end of this summer, which run Palm OS 5.

TI's OMAP processors support high-performance and low power consumption -- essential features for any mobile device. Through the Palm OS Ready Program, TI is optimizing the OMAP wireless platform for the Palm OS.

TI's development kit will provide developers with an open software development environment using a modular hardware approach. The interface module can be customized for different device form factors. Optional expansion modules will include support for GSM/GPRS, 802.11b, and Bluetooth.

"With the Innovator Development Kit for the OMAP platform, TI will help wireless application developers, manufacturers and operators quickly develop wireless communications-centric applications and services that provide new dimensions to users' mobile experiences," said David Potts, worldwide director of applications for TI's OMAP platform.

Naturally, this won't be the only tool for developers to write apps for Palm's OS 5 devices but it will probably be the best one for those who want to write applications that make the most of the OMAP processor.

Innovator Development Kits for the OMAP platform will be sold and supported by Productivity Systems Inc., an Independent OMAP Technology Center. Pricing is not yet available.

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Pricing is for losers

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/23/2002 4:04:58 PM #

Has TI learned nothing from PALM? Make the dev kit free and developers will write apps. When the market is flooded with OMAP apps, people will by products with OMAP to use the apps. TI get a clue!

RE: Pricing is for losers

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/23/2002 4:22:17 PM #

Prophetic words.

If history repeats, it's going to be priced to choke anybody other than a Fortune 500. TI's DSP development tools are obscenely priced - $3000 and up.

RE: Pricing is for losers

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/23/2002 4:54:01 PM #

The kit contains hardware for development purposes.

Should TI absorb the cost of the hardware, and give the kit away for free?!

RE: Pricing is for losers

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/23/2002 5:39:36 PM #

No, it shouldn't be free, but it should be at a reasonable cost. The $3K+ I mentioned for the DSP is for software only - keep reachin' real deep into your pocket if you want any HDK's.

It's for OEMs, not end users

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/23/2002 8:06:05 PM #

It looks like it's targeted towards OEMs (Palm, Handspring, Samsung, etc) looking at producing a PalmOS 5 PDA or smart phone (or Symbian, Nokia Series 60, or WinCE), making it easy for them to put together a product with an OMAP processor, OS, and various peripherals (802.11b, etc).

It's not intended to compete with CodeWarrior, etc.

And, BTW, TI's Code Composer also includes extras such as royalty free licence for the DSP/BIOS RTOS (OK, I still think CC is pricey, but not way out of line compared with other commercial embedded development tools). If you're just playing around with DSP's you can get DSK's with assemblers or Code Composer (limited to the DSK) for $200 - $400.

God .. can humans get any dummer .....

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/23/2002 8:56:10 PM #

understand the subject before complaining ...

RE: Pricing is for losers

mikemusick @ 4/23/2002 9:05:35 PM #

The complaint about the high price of the DSP development tools is a valid one. While many DSP implementations are embedded products (and therefore OEM territory), there is an emerging market in industrial process tools that are intended to be downloadable with user-created DSP code - provided you have the means to generate that code. The $400 DSK cannot create downloadables, so you're back to running with the big dogs.

Incidentally, Code Composer for OMAP is $4500. I'm curious how that is going to relate to the pricing of the Innovator Development Kit, and therefore indicate how aggressive TI is going to be about seeding development.

RE: Pricing is for losers

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/24/2002 1:44:57 PM #

>>Naturally, this won't be the only tool for developers to write apps for Palm's OS 5 devices but it will probably be the best one for those who want to write applications that make the most of the OMAP processor.

Hmmm. As a developer, i'd stick to supporting the standard communications APIs in Palm OS - which will in turn, already allow me to take advantage of TCP/IP communcations over whatever network (including 2.5 and 3G) is made available by the service/hardware utilized by the user (except for the Vii/i705 of course). Honestly, i don't understand how it is that so many companies expect developers to shell for some system that provides optimization for their proprietary technology. I'll leave it to PalmSource to bring this together in the OS. My company can't afford to gamble (on the adoption of OMAP as a signicant standard, for example). Users want standard internet inter-operability (ie: TCP/IP). Since this will work over 2.5/3G then why do companies insist on a proprietary 'cell phone' approach to PDA communcations development? Personally, thats why i would never bank on the PalmVii/i705 approach (or web clipping for that matter). These are interim solutions with no long term future: as soon as the bandwidth /memory is cheaply available, then the only thing that we will see on PDAs (and probably natively on cell phone aswell) is full, standard TCP/IP application development - with the 'ugly details' of the network layer hidden from the developer - as it should be, and has been in the Desktop for years.

This TI dev kit makes sense for manufacturers, but as for their assertion that developers can use this to build apps that are optimized for this hardware - i can't imagine why. This lack of standardization (so popular these days in wireless/PDA circles) is a step backwards.

Pricing

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/23/2002 9:34:54 PM #

If they gave all this hardware for free then everybody would want one eventhough they might be able to use it. Pricing development tools like this is to make sure you are serious about developing DSP code and not just playing around.