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Details Of Palm OS 6 - 'Cobalt'

Posted by timothy on from the that's-a-big-palm-you've-got dept.

Splezunk writes "Looks like Palm has finally released some details on Palm OS 6 a k a 'Cobalt'. Palminfocenter has more on it, and I have just noticed that there are now screenshots. Highlights are a 32,000x32,000 screen support, BeOS like multitasking and threading. Currently 256MB memory, but this will be upgraded in time."

3 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. 256MB memory by LookSharp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With support for up to 256MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM...

    I suppose this is a lot for a Palm, but what's the imitation? Address space/overhead? Nowadays you can fit a gig into an area that the first Palms fit 512K into, so size isn't an issue... voltage/battery life might be a consideration, but probably not a showstopper.

    Eh, I suppose the design of the Palm is really not meant to handle things requiring that much memory. But guys at work are cramming 512meg memory cards on their iPaqs and watching movies; does the 256MB limitation in the OS mean that "external memory" cannot exceed that amount as well?

  2. version naming by maliabu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    there are some interesting discussions at the bottom of the page regarding the naming of "Palm OS Cobalt" instead of "Palm OS 6".

    the CCO's reply was "As for the naming, numbers were a problem because in the PC world a higher number means the lower number is obsolete (Windows 98 immediately replaces Windows 95). Palm OS Garnet is just fine for many users and will persist a long time, so licensees asked us to move away from numbers."

    so maybe the naming also implies the confidence in a product? the company sees no need for users to UPgrade unnecessarily in the future. eg Mandrake Almighty instead of Mandrake 1241.12.102

  3. Re:OT: What is the dpi "resolution" of reality? by BarakMich · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I remember correctly it's 1 arcminute, which is 1/60th of a degree if I remember right. This is at the center of your eye, where things are the most clear (and it degrades from there, toward your peripheral vision)

    Whoever said "Think Angular" is right.

    What this means is that it depends on distance. The farther you are for something, the less resolution it has. Try it -- have someone hold a ruler and walk away from it... pretty soon, you can't see the lines of demarcation. Yet up close, they are quite clear.

    I played around with these numbers with a friend of mine for a whole class period once. It worked fairly well. Best way to re-figure these numbers is to assume a straight line out of the eye of length "l", and some height, "h", where the angle inside the eye from the top to bottom of H (along the triangle is 1/2 an arcminute (1/120 degree). So, therefore...

    tan (1/120 degrees) = h/l (and l is given, find h)
    h = l * tan(1/120)

    2h = one dot. 1/(2h) = dots per unit of h. proper unit conversions then apply.

    so, at 1 foot (12 inches)

    h = 12 in. * tan(1/120)
    h = 0.00175
    2h = 0.0035
    1/2h = 286

    thus, at 1 foot, the eye has (at it's center) close to 286 DPI.

    More than you cared to know, I'm sure. Interesting nonetheless.

    (Sorry about the English units. I guess I'm just being an insensitive clod.)

    Barak Michener