Re: [NTLK] Mac Tablet

From: Ed Kummel <tech_ed_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed Jan 10 2007 - 15:33:55 EST

iPods and other MP3 players work because they are able to mitigate any perception of lag through an elaborate caching system.
  The player will spin up the HD just enough to read the next several blocks of information, then cache that data in volatile memory which is exponentially faster than the HD for playing back the data. Once the cache is exhausted, the HD spins up again and the cache is populated with data. You can significantly increase your player's battery life by increasing the amount of volatile memory in your device. I was able to increase the battery life from 10 hours to almost 15 hours by doubling the amount of memory in my Archos JukeBox...
   
  Ed
  web/gadget guru
  Download Newton packages directly onto your Newton: http://newton.tek-ed.com
  
matthiasm <mm@matthiasm.com> wrote:
  
On Jan 9, 2007, at 4:19 PM, James Grubic wrote:

> What I have found really disappointing in the last couple of years is
> that no PDA manufacturer has thought to actually put a mini-laptop
> hard
> drive inside. The closest thing is the LifeDrive with the solid state
> drive in 4GB+ capacities.

AFAIK, the lifedrive has a mechanical drive system. Why would it need
time to spin up if it was solid state? Also, iPaq's and similar
machines that had a PCMCIA jacket were able to use those harddrives,
but battery hunger and access times were disappointing. 8GB solid
state are no big deal anymore these days. Do you need more on a PDA?

> They are going the route of solid state
> devices, but it seems to me that if an iPod with hard drive can work,
> why can't a PDA with a hard drive work?

iPods work, because the data is accessed sequentially 99% of the
time. PDAs need random access and a constantly spinning drive which
directly reflects in battery life.

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Received on Wed Jan 10 15:33:56 2007

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