OS 5.2.1 update for NZ and 128 MB Ram?

[gfunkmagic]

Now that PalmSource has made it official (http://palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=5245) that OS 5.2.1 will allow up to 128 MB of internal Ram, I was wondering if anyone knew whether Sony planned on releasing an OS patch? And if so, does anyone know if the Ram in the NZ can be upgarded to take advatange of this OS update? A NZ90 with 128 MB Ram woudl be pretty damed cool IMO... :D

[n2ifp]

Cool yes!

No on everything else!

[EvilErnie]

Well i guess for now the MS and MS pro will have to do. Soon the CF will be available.

[zack777]

Given Sony's 'track record' in product support & customer service, i'm pretty sure they won't be offering RAM upgrades for the NZs, even if it's expandable, which i doubt very much.

Since using Jackflash and PowerRun, I don't really think about the measly 11mb ram anymore :p

But i'm hopeful that Sony will release the OS patch.

[YTTAN]

If palm use 128mb in the ram, the battery life will drain off at faster rate just like PPC.

Do you all believe it or not?

[greg elmassian]

no, ram is not your problem... it doesn't take near the power as the backlight, or the cpu...

it would be great to have more ram...

Greg

[EvilErnie]

I think the problem lies in the batteries... With better batteries there will be no problems with processors, backlight, etc.

[JohnJ80]

Originally posted by YTTAN
If palm use 128mb in the ram, the battery life will drain off at faster rate just like PPC.

Do you all believe it or not?

Actually, no.

In order to get this much memory into a PDA this size, it will probably be necessary to go to the next size up of memory chip.

To get to the next size memory chip usually means that it has to be the next click up on technology. That means that it will be a smaller geometry, it will be faster and it will consume less power.

So, bottom line if if you get to 128MB of RAM, it will probably consume the same power (approx) as today.

[YTTAN]

JohnJ80,

You got the points there. I do read a reports that the next clie's CPU is going to consume less power too. Hopefully the device with 128mb ram will come as soon as possible as I really feel that 11mb is too small for OS 5 technology.

[greg elmassian]

The real point right now is that the major consumption of power is the backlight, then the cpu, unless you are doing audio... don't worry about power in the ram... I've designed a few pda's with XScale... Greg

[n2ifp]

I think it'll be awhile yet before we get 128mb RAM. When you consider the size of the battery, it's amazing how much power it can produce.

[greg elmassian]

Actually, it's getting harder to find small ram... started a project with 4 meg chips, by the end of it, only 16 meg strataflash was available (Intel flash ram).... dram is cheap and fast, at least for our pokey 200 MHz ARM's .... now, if you are talking a 1 gig Xscale, well, then.... (have a project using this too)...

Greg

[YTTAN]

I do agree that if the backlight emit at lower level, it will prolong the batt life. But I don't think there is software able to solve this problem right now.

[JohnJ80]

It will be very hard to design in less memory in future designs. In DRAM, 256Mb chips are the standard now, 512Mb are coming on like gangbusters. 64 and 128Mb devices are not reccommended for new design.

The 16MB limit that palmos 5.0 enforces is stupid. Moving it up to a 128MB limit is better, but they should have made it go to at least 512MB so that it would just be a function of IC technology instead of waiting on the software.

I guarantee you that in 2 years or less we will be grousing about the 128MB limit.

j

[greg elmassian]

YTTAN: I seem to have trouble getting this across... the backlight even at the lowest setting, uses MORE power than the RAM... so any increase in RAM consumption, even doubling, would have little effect on battery life... unless you NEVER use the backlight

Greg

[n2ifp]

I was looking at the memory size issue in terms of marketing rather than technical. The reason is to keep the buying public hungry!