Dual Boot Palm OS5 & PPC 2003 Possible?

[JmE]

Yes, however other unlikely things have happened to the computer industry like CP/M that would have been king and a funny little thing that happened to BIOS on it's way past Phoenix.

Profitable or not, I think it is only a matter of time before a platform becomes standardized and one can choose the OS for their handheld. I see hardware like Xscale moving us at least a little closer to that possibility.

-JmE-

[foghead]

You probably won't see actual dual boot. It is possible, but you would need enough ROM to hold both OSs as well as enough RAM to support both OSs.

What is more likely is that manufacturers of PPC hardware will offer Palm OS versions fo their products. There probably won't be Palm OS manufacturers offering PPC versions for a couple of reasons.

The PPC hardware architecture is defined as part of the OS spec. All PPCS are required to support a 240x320 display. There is no support for 320x320, 160x160, or 320x480 in the PPC specification.

On the other hand, the lastest beta version of the Palm OS 5 SDK (Software Developers Kit), does support a 240x320 color video mode. This is what would make it possible for PPC manufacturers to release the same hardware with different OSs as similar but different products.

[JmE]

Yes, I wouldn't expect dual boot either. But a hardware design convergence to the point of compatibility would be good thing for the consumer. This could be way down the road or right around the corner. My hunch is the former.

-JmE-