From: Jim Witte (jswitte_at_bloomington.in.us)
Date: Thu Sep 23 2004 - 17:07:08 PDT
> As Einstein has said, "it's only relative", the Newt. is faster than
> any
> desktop OS since I get one-tap response, but YPAY.
To me, the Newton has one tremendous advantage over my iBook - it's
OS is memory-resident, and there is no disk. When I open up my iBook,
it *always* spins the disk to do *something* (I have no idea what, and
the Window Server seems to actually access the disk (as opposed to a
cache hit) about every 20-40 seconds (as opposed to a cache hit
literally *hundreds* of times of a second - well, maybe only 70..) And
the iBook's clock takes 15 seconds to syncronize from whatever
real-time clock chip the iBook uses.
To me, this is unacceptable. I want an iBook that, given that I have
enough memory (384 MB RAM certainly seems like enough), if my iBook has
the Address Book open in the background (not in the Dock, just not the
currently active app), and I put the computer to sleep, I should be
able to wake it up, bring AB to the front, and put it back to sleep,
and the disk should NEVER un-park. Ideally (given the RAM), AB should
also load the entire database into memory, and I should be able to
check other cards. Maybe even bring textedit to the front and write a
document (not save it, just write it). No disk access. And the clock
should synchronize within 1 second.
This would save time (it takes the HD at least 0.5 seconds to boot up
- sometimes this gets to me if I just want to check something in the
AB), it would save battery power (Perhaps, depending on how much
"zero-access" mode is used. I don't know how many mA spinning up a
4200 rpm disk to spin up pulls, but it's certainly greater than 0).
It might save on heat disappation (unlikely, but possible). It would
make it a tad bit quieter.
Most of all, it would make the iBook more responsive in those few
seconds after wakeup. If the iBook were adjusted so that the screen
could be flipped-over to make a tablet computer (a tablet would have to
be added of course, but this could be done I think by simply by
redesigning the screen hinge and and it's connection places to the
screen and body), sleep-wakeup time is going to be a major factor. Not
that I think that will ever happen on Jobs watch though..
The only way I can currently approach this level of responsiveness is
to put about 2 GB of memory in the iBook, make a RAM disk, and put a
system on it. And then I have to convince the computer to *boot* of
that RAM disk, which might be quite difficult indeed (oh, and the RAM
should have a battery backup..)
>> between using only a Newton and your desktop machine for the next 3
>> years or a
>> 12" Aluminum Powerbook with Panther or Tiger and your desktop machine.
>> Which combo would you choose?
> For the next 3 years??? Then the Newt and a DP-G5.
With the above modifications to the laptop (minus the screen hinge
perhaps), then the laptop and desktop. Otherwise, the newt and a DP-G5
(if I could *afford* a DP-G5, that is..) Am I allowed to add an IBM
Microdrive to the Newt? :)
Jim
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun Sep 26 2004 - 13:30:03 PDT