.KEYWORD trg
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Exploiting the TRGpro’s CompactFlash slot
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY Last month, Contributing Editor S. Fred "Fredlet" Green brought you a sneak preview of the new TRGpro, the latest and most powerful Palm device to hit the street. Now that the TRGpro is shipping for real, Contributing Editor Jason Perlow tells you how to take advantage of its CompactFlash storage capabilities.
.AUTHOR Jason Perlow
In the past, Palm devices just didn’t have what it took to be viable alternatives to Windows CE in the vertical integration and corporate systems integration market. Offerings from Palm Computing, IBM, and Handspring just didn’t cut the mustard when it came to storing large amounts of data. Until now.
TRG Products is an engineering firm with a proud history of making impossible things happen with Palm devices. For the last several years, their 4MB and 8MB memory cards for the PalmPilot and the Palm III were the only routes you could take once the limited storage capabilities of your devices were exhausted. The base 1MB and 2MB memory of the PalmPilot Professional and Palm III just couldn’t handle the voluminous amount of inbox email, .DOC files, and data the typical corporate user dealt with.
The makers of Palm devices had grossly underestimated how much RAM corporate power-users really needed, and TRG profited greatly from their mistake by selling "SuperPilots" that had been beefed up with their 8MB memory expansion boards. Not to be outdone by TRG, however, Palm device creators eventually gave into your demands for more RAM and introduced the Palm IIIx and Palm Vx in 1999. TRG, unfortunately, found itself in the undesirable position of having to find a new market and a new product. Bummer.
.H1 Mega memory
As Bugs Bunny used to say, "If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em" — and join up TRG did. As a Palm Computing platform licensee, they introduced their very own Palm device, the TRGpro, shown in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A Not long after the makers of Palm devices developed models able to supply more RAM, TRG introduced their very own handheld device, the TRGpro.
While it closely resembles the Palm IIIx and can use existing Palm III peripherals (TRG actually uses most of the tooling and plastic parts from the IIIx), the TRGpro is unique. Unlike the proprietary Springboard flash memory technology that Handspring’s Visor uses (and unlike the proprietary Memory Stick technology that Sony will use in its upcoming Palm device), TRG uses industry standard ATA CompactFlash (CF) memory. This is the same memory that digital cameras and some Windows CE devices already use.
CompactFlash cards can store a LOT of data. How much is a lot? Regular CF cards, shown in Figure B, from vendors like Kingston Technology and SanDisk Corporation start at 4MB and go all the way up to 128MB.
.FIG B The Kingston Technology CompactFlash storage card is just one example of the many different types of CF memory available.
Surprisingly, CompactFlash memory is also very affordable. Many 32MB CF cards from online vendors go for under $80, a great deal when compared with Handspring’s own 8MB Flash Springboard module, which goes for around the same price for one fourth of the storage. The TRGpro is the clearly the way to go if you’re suffering from RAM cram.
And then there’s ludicrous memory. IBM’s Microdrive ($500), which is represented in Figure C, is currently not an ideal match for the TRGpro because of its high battery drain (a battery-saving version optimized for PDA is due out sometime this year).However, it will work with the TRGpro and can store 340MB of data on its miniature spinning hard disk. On a good note, it doesn’t require drivers because it’s a standard ATA storage device. You just need to expect to change the batteries every few days.
.FIGPAIR C The IBM Microdrive allows the TRGpro to hold huge amounts of data — up to 340MB.
Simple Technology, Inc. also released a 320MB flash memory device (with no moving parts) at Fall Comdex, although, at over $1,500, it’s very expensive for PDA use. The important thing to consider here, nonetheless, is that while IBM and Simple’s CF devices aren’t practical, they do work, and demonstrate just how expandable the TRGpro really is.
CompactFlash also has the advantage of being a peripheral expansion format as well. Need a 56K modem or Ethernet card for your Palm? No problem. Pretec sells a CF V.90 modem, shown in Figure D, which was designed originally for Windows CE but works great with the TRGpro, and 3Com and TRG are working together on drivers for 3Com’s CF Ethernet card. Socket Communications also sells a serial card for connecting external devices and a bar-code wand card for inventory management and retail applications.
.FIGPAIR D Pretec sells a CF V.90 modem that was designed originally for Windows CE but works great with the TRGpro.
.H1 CF readers
The TRGpro is equipped with a standard Palm III serial HotSync cradle for installing programs and databases through the Palm Desktop software, but that’s not the most efficient way to get data onto it. For that, you’ll need a CF card reader, as shown in Figure E.
.FIGPAIR E The SanDisk Corporation CompactFlash card reader is just one of many card readers available.
A CF card reader is a device that connects to your PC, Macintosh, or laptop computer via USB (Universal Serial Bus), parallel port, or PC Card connection. It allows you to access a CF memory device as if it were a removable hard disk, like a Zip or Jaz drive. CF readers transfer data extremely fast, at rates of over 1MB per second. Got a lot of .DOC files and applications you need to install? Just dump them straight onto the CF card from the reader as if the card were a hard disk (you can see a sample of this in Figure F) and pop it back into your TRGpro when you’re done. CF memory modules use the FAT (file allocation table) file system standard, just like IBM PC and Windows CE devices do.
.FIGPAIR F With a CF reader connected to your PC, you can use CompactFlash cards as removable hard disks and transfer large files to your TRGpro in the blink of an eye.
Laptop PC Card CF adapters are frequently sold with CF memory cards as a set for an extra $30 or so. For PC desktops and Macs, TRG highly recommends Microtech’s CameraMate, shown in Figure G, which has a high-speed USB interface and is compatible with the IBM Microdrive. The CameraMate can also read Smart Media memory cards, which are used by several brands of digital cameras. If you own a digital camera that uses Smart Media, the CameraMate’s a good way to solve two data access problems with one device. In the United States, Microtech’s preferred online distributor is D-Store (at http://www.d-store.com), which sells the CameraMate for $79.
.FIGPAIR G For PC desktops and Macintoshes, TRG highly recommends Microtech’s CameraMate, which has a high-speed USB interface and is compatible with the IBM Microdrive
In addition to the Microtech CameraMate and various different sizes of CF memory cards with PC Card adapters, D-Store also sells Simple Technology, Inc.’s USB CF reader, shown in Figure H, for $60. This is a great deal if you want to save a few bucks and only plan to read and write to CF memory from your PC or Macintosh.
.FIG H Simple Technology’s USB CF reader is a great deal at $60 if you want to save a few bucks and only plan to read and write to CF memory from your PC or Macintosh.
While the Microtech CameraMate and the Simple Technolgy USB CF reader, as well as some of the other readers mentioned, may seem similar, they’re actually quite different. The CameraMate has two drive slots on it, one for CompactFlash, the other for Smart Media. Both CF and Smart Media are used by digital cameras — so if you own a TRGpro and a digital camera that uses Smart Media (like the Olympus D-340L that I own), you’re in good shape. CameraMate is also rated for the IBM Microdrive while the Simple unit is not, and the CameraMate has a faster data transfer rate. The Simple Technology reader and the SanDisk readers only have CF slots.
.H1 Using the TRGpro utilities
Once you’ve gotten your applications and data files moved onto your CF card and you’ve popped the card back into your TRGpro, you’ll want to be able to access those programs and data. Here’s where things get tricky.
Because CompactFlash is a different kind of memory than PalmOS is designed to access (that being RAM and read-only Flash), TRG had to design extensions to PalmOS for reading and accessing data stored on CF cards using its special FAT file system. If you’re a software developer, TRG has provided a set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that you can download as a development kit from their Web site. You can then use these to build the proper hooks into your application to directly access programs and databases stored on CF memory.
Actual Software’s upcoming Multimail Pro 3.1, for example, will have the ability to store file attachments in CF. But if you’re an end user and your Palm application doesn’t support CF, you’ll have to transfer it into RAM. Essentially, without the TRG CF hooks programmed into a PalmOS application, CompactFlash is used as an archival device for storing lots of PalmOS files. You can’t execute programs from CF.
Without coding an application to specifically take advantage of the "hooks" your TRGpro fastens into the CF slot (which supports the FAT file system), all you can do is archive data and programs to the CF storage. You can also move the data piecemeal back and forth to PalmOS’s user RAM using TRG’s CFpro utility whenever you want to directly access it.
However, you’re only able to directly access up to 8MB of RAM at a time on the TRG using PalmOS’s native memory model. So even if you have 340MB of storage on an IBM Microdrive installed in your unit, you have to move some of that data and programs into RAM if you want to be able to use it. The TRGpro gets around this with its API "hooks" but again, if your application isn’t written to see the CF slot, it won’t.
CFpro, shown in Figure I in the CF mode, is a utility that comes with the TRGpro which allows you to move data back and forth from CF to RAM very quickly.
.FIG I CFpro is a utility that comes with the TRGpro which allows you to move data from CF to RAM very quickly.
Got a few Peanut Press ebooks, ISILO databases, or .DOC files you’d like to read on a long plane flight? Just tap the CF button on the bottom of the screen, select the files you want to move or copy over, and hit the Copy button or Move to RAM from the Tools menu.
For those of you who might be curious, ISILO is a program like AportisDOC, but it allows you to have hypertext links in your documents. It’s becoming a popular alternative to DOC on sites like MemoWare because it’s easier to author to, it uses regular HTML as a source file.
Similarly, to move data from RAM to CompactFlash, as shown in Figure J, just tap the RAM button, select the files, and choose Move to CF from the Tools menu. CFpro also functions as a multimedia player for .WAV files stored on CF, so you can take advantage of the TRGpro’s superior audio system. (The TRGpro has a better speaker and a waveform chip similar to that used in Windows CE devices like the Philips Nino. TRG has written sound APIs so that developers can write applications to take advantage of this system . The CFpro program itself is capable of doing this.)
.FIG J The CFpro also allows you to move data back from RAM to CF quickly.
CompactFlash is also used as a backup device on the TRGpro. With the built-in CFBackup utility, there’s no need to purchase specialized Backup Modules like you need to with Handspring’s Visor. And unlike the Visor’s Backup Module, the CFBackup, as shown in Figure K, is capable of storing multiple backup sets of the TRGpro’s internal 8MB of RAM on a subdirectory of a CF module, so you can save multiple configurations of internal memory with pre-loaded applications and data.
.FIG K CFBackup allows you to store multiple backup sets on a CF module.
As if CF storage and backup wasn’t enough, the TRGpro is also equipped with 2MB of internal flash memory, which allows you to upgrade the TRGpro to newer versions of Palm OS (the TRGpro is equipped with Palm’s latest OS 3.3) and store important, non-volatile information and programs. If you lose battery power, programs and data stored in flash memory are still there. This is a great place to store a backup copy of your AddressDB, for example. To manipulate the internal flash memory, TRG provides FlashPro, seen in Figure L, which works very similarly to CFpro.
.FIG L FlashPro is used to store non-volatile data on the TRGpro’s internal 2MB of flash memory.
.H1 TRG developers unite!
The voluminous storage capacity of the TRGpro clearly makes it the most suitable Palm device for enterprise computing and the corporate power user. However, for TRGpro to become a truly successful handheld platform and the enterprise Palm device of choice, Palm software developers need to write the proper CF hooks into their applications. TRG assures us this isn’t a difficult task, at least not for a large software company with multiple PalmOS programmers and a lot of resources.
In our analysis of TRG’s development kit, we found no fewer than 55 new library calls related to CF memory, peripherals, and the FAT file system. With that in mind, implementing CF support is clearly not a trivial undertaking for the one-man Palm development shop, which is where the balance of the Palm OS development community hails from. It’ll require some time for smaller developers to bone up on the required library calls necessary to implement CF support into their applications. We urge TRG to give as much assistance to these shops as possible — or their memory standard isn’t going to fly.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on TRG Products and the TRGpro in general, visit: http://www.trgpro.com/.
Check out the TRGpro Developer’s Web site at: http://www.trgpro.com/developer/developer_front.html.
Visit Kingston Technology at: http://www.kingston.com.
For more information on the SanDisk Corporation, check out: http://www.sandisk.com.
For more information on the IBM Microdrive, go to: http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/micro/.
You can visit Simple Technology, Inc. at: http://www.simpletech.com.
Check out the Pretec 56k CF Modem at: http://www.pretec.com.
You can see the Socket Communications CF serial card/barcode reader at: http://www.socketcom.com.
Get more information about Microtech International, Inc., the manufacturer of the CameraMate USB CF/SM dual media reader, at: http://www.microtechint.com.
You can visit D-Store, the primary online distributor for Microtech’s Cameramate and other CF products, at: http://www.d-store.com.
Check out Actual Software at: http://actualsoft.com.
You can read more about ISILO at http://www.isilo.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Jason Perlow is a Contributing Editor with PalmPower Magazine. He can be reached at the way-cool email address of perlow@hotmail.com.
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ee6dc87
