Motorola MPx Will Have an Unusual Memory Arrangement

[Ed Hardy]

Additional details have come to light about Motorola's upcoming cellular-wireless handheld. It uses a new memory arrangement that might be the model for future Pocket PCs.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/De...ry_Arrangement

[Double-Trinity]

According to Mr. Blackwell, all of the 64 MB of ROM on this upcoming wireless device will be devoted to holding the user's applications and files. The operating system will be stored elsewhere. The 32 MB of RAM will only be used to hold currently running programs, an arrangement similar to the one used by desktop computers.

The primary advantage of this setup is, if the handheld undergoes a hard reset, none of the files and programs stored on the device will be lost. The disadvantage is that the user won't be able to change the amount of memory devoted to storage or running applications, as can be done on current Pocket PCs.

I have always wondered why none of the handhelds before have utilized this setup. RAM being used only as RAM: for running programs, and flash-memory (ROM) being used for storing installed applications and files. There's no reason why a hard reset should eliminate a user's data.