Why 48 megs of ROM?

[BigCanoe]

I am considering the more expensive Dell, partially because it has more ROM...why I care, I dont know.

Part of me thinks maybe when the .NET Compact Framework is released (very soon), it could be an OS update and maybe they could put it in ROM?

[ThomasC22]

I am considering the more expensive Dell, partially because it has more ROM...why I care, I dont know.

Part of me thinks maybe when the .NET Compact Framework is released (very soon), it could be an OS update and maybe they could put it in ROM?

Interesting theory, I'd never thought of that. So far, no one knows for sure how big the next PPCOS will be or why vendors are specifically putting 48mb into their devices at this point.

Apparently (I don't remember the actual post) Jason was told a while back that the next PPCOS would fit in 24mb of ROM, I was told by my dell rep that it would be 34mb. Now, because of the last 4 I'm led to believe my Dell rep could have misquoted...but that still doesn't explain the extra ROM.

You're point about the .NET framework is an interesting one, but I'm not sure it so much rings true either, only because MS wants everyone to install the .NET compact framework and if it's that big it (A) would turn older PPC users off and (B) not fit on Smartphones.

[Rirath]

What I've seen of the .net compact framework really isn't all that large. I don't remember the exact number, but I'm sure it wasn't over a few megs at most. At any rate the program I wrote up wouldn't run on the J525 (but fine on the emulator) so I gave up and deleted it.

[takotchi]

The question is... why not 48MB of ROM? I don't think anybody knows how big the next OS may be, and since you can't upgrade the ROM... well, you can, but you need the OS update from the manufacturer and they only support what they stick in it.

It all likelihood, the next OS may fit in 32MB of ROM but it's nice to have more, and 48MB is a rather odd size and Compaq/HP and Dell have been using it, so there *must* be a reason for it.

If all else fails, it gives you a little extra space for programs. 8O

[sgyee]

It's really interesting as to why vendors put in 48MB of ROM. The Accelent Systems XScale reference design board (which is certified for use with CE.NET in it's newest form) only has 32MB of ROM on it.

Here's the spec sheet.

http://www.accelent.com/PDF/IDP_PXA250_Finalw.pdf

On the flip side, the Intel XScale reference design board has 64MB of ROM on it.

http://intel.com/pca/developernetwork/solutionsjournal/winter_02/pdf/IntelPXA-forWindows-Story.pdf

And to aid in the confusion, BSquare's CE.NET reference design has 32MB of Flash ROM (http://www.bsquare.com/device/products/smartbuild/xscale.asp)

Intrinsyc's reference CE.NET design also has only 32MB of ROM
(http://www.intrinsyc.com/pdfs/productsheets/cerfpda_for_win.pdf)

And Stellcom's reference design board has 16 or 32MB of ROM (http://www.stellcom.com/expertise/pdf/PXA250_cs_03.pdf).

The reason why I list these reference boards is due to the fact that the core design of any PDA rests with one of these company's board designs. All are licensed by Intel and Microsoft to provide PXA250 (XScale) board designs with CE.NET.

[mekmek]

Maybe the 48MB ROM size happened for no logical reason. What would be the difference in manufacturing cost between a 32MB and a 48MB ROM? I expect it would be marginal, even on a low cost machine. Maybe someone in a marketing dept. heard a rumour about someone else moving to a 48MB ROM and then it becomes a case of playing catch-up. Maybe parts manufacturers are just moving to this size as a minimum chip capacity configuration at a competitive price (ever try to find only 32MB of RAM for an old computer lately?).

[Kati Compton]

When I see 48mb of rom or such it makes me uncomfortable. I relate much better to powers of two. :)

But seriously, while it certainly takes less area to do it with 48, it seems strange given that it requires just as many address bits as 64.

[Mike Temporale]

The .Net Compact Framework is available in beta now on MS's site. The mobile device install is only about 1.5 meg. What is really cool, is that a application written in .Net CF is much much smaller than if it was written in eVB.

So, I don't think the larger ROM is for the .Net CF. It could just be that the manufacturers are just trying to be safe and not run into the problem that the MonoChrome iPAQ had. If I recall correctly, the device was flashable, but the ROM size was too small for the new OS. Maybe the NEXT release won't be very large, but they could be planning for a couple releases down the road.