Subject: ARM-based PDA's?

From: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Date: 8 Mar 1998 07:56:39 GMT

I have noticed that there are several ARM chips (e.g. ARM 7100) that
are effectively a PDA on a chip.  I wonder what PDA's there are that
are based on these chips, and if there is any possibilty of porting
Linux to them.  I'd love to have Linux running on the Pilot, but it
looks like even the Palm III uses an MMU-less processor, which (IMO)
makes any Unix implementation a toy (a *neat* toy, I admit, but still
a toy.)

I know the Newton runs StrongARM, but it's (a) discontinued and (b)
too bulky for my taste...

	-hpa
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From: Dave Gilbert <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 16:23:06 +0000 (GMT)

> makes any Unix implementation a toy (a *neat* toy, I admit, but still

Well there is the Psion-5 which uses an ARM 7100; it can take a fair
amount of RAM.  As always the problem is finding out if it uses any
special hardare - but considering the ARM7100 integrates so much I can't
imagine there can be that much.

There is also the Geofox 1, it uses the same OS as the Psion-5 (EPOC32)
but is a bit larger and has things like a glidepoint squidge pad and
I think some real PCMCIA slots.

I expect Windows CE machines based on StrongARM to appear reasonably
soon - after replacement of the OS they should make fairly nice machines!
 
> too bulky for my taste...

Heh? When was the Newton discontinued?????

Dave

 --------------------------------------------------------------------
/ Dr. David Alan Gilbert      | Running Linux on Alpha & ARM         \ 
\   gro.gilbert @ treblig.org | ------- Happy in hex -------         /
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From: "H. Peter Anvin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 09:31:53 -0800 (PST)

> Heh? When was the Newton discontinued?????

This past week.

	-hpa

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From: Dave Gilbert <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 18:52:27 +0000 (GMT)

> > Heh? When was the Newton discontinued?????

Damn - thats a sad loss. Do you have a pointer to an announcment?
Is the Emate thing still being produced.

Dave

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From: David Arnold <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 06:57:49 +1000

-->"Dave" == Dave Gilbert <[email-masked]> writes:

  Dave> Heh? When was the Newton discontinued?????

frday 27 february 1998.

there's a petition gonig around to get apple to release the
hardware/software docs so that we can do something with them, but i'm
not too hopeful ...

-- David Arnold   ,=================================================
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From: Russell King - ARM Linux Admin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 23:15:29 +0000 (GMT)

> Is the Emate thing still being produced.

Hang on - ET published an article entitled 'How will Intel start to flex
it's StrongARM?', saying '... and used in Apple Computer's latest Newton -
which could be used to spearhead an attack on the Windows CE-based PDA and
set-top market.'

Hmm, looks like ET got that wrong! ;(

BTW, the article goes on to say 'Ron Smith ... said: "... Once we obtain
regulatory approval, our plan is to enhance and improve the product (StrongARM).
We also plan to grow the customer base as well as provide support for
existing customers."'

I wonder if this means that they'll replace my 3.3V backplane for my EBSA-285
with a 5V one, so that it's of some use to me (other than providing a nice
flat space to put my RiscPC on)?  ;)  If anyone's reading this at Intel, let
me know!
   _____
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