Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

New platinum has flash rom!

I just uncover my platinum,and I found that my new platinum had a flash rom!!! That's great,I think the next ver. of trg pro will suoport that,so I can put the FAfilemover into flash,that's great!!!

Registered: Jun 2000
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 216

Are you sure?

quote:

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Originally posted by mltl
I just uncover my platinum,and I found that my new platinum had a flash rom!!! That's great,I think the next ver. of trg pro will suoport that,so I can put the FAfilemover into flash,that's great!!!

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 30

Unfortunately visor doesn't have flash rom and you cant upgarde the Palm OS on it

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

i think u'r wrong,on handspring's web site,they does say that they have no plan to make flash rom as paltinum's rom,but what i said is true,i can even post the photo for u,i just don't know how can i post that img. ?

and if u can open ur platinum,u can see the handspring had keep their way to install flash rom on platinum's PCB.

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

photos

okay,I put the photo on my website,

http://go5.163.com/~michaelleo/

[Edited by mltl on 02-02-2001 at 04:23 AM]

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 8

Can anyone verify this?!?!?!?!?!?

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Luxembourg
Posts: 68

Well, if the close up picture that you posted is really from your Visor, then you might be right....

We can see that the part number begins with is HY29L, so I checked the Hyundai web site:
HY=Hyundai
29=Flash Memory !!!
L (actually LV) = 3.0V

Check http://www.hei.co.kr/eng/products/s...ash_image01.gif

mltl, could you please post the full part number??

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

so,u make me re-open my platinum.

PN:hy29lv160bt-12w,

and the photo:

http://go5.163.com/~michaelleo/005.jpg

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Luxembourg
Posts: 68

Thanks mltl... I don't have my Platinum here, but I'll open it up tonight to see if mine has the same chip.

So, now we have:

HY=Hyundai
29=Flash Memory
LV=3.0V
160=16M (16 Mbit = 2Mbyte)
B=3rd gen.
T=top sector
12=120 ns
W=??? (temperature range, we don't care anyway)

Now if this turns true, what software can we use to take advantage of it?

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 284

Hmmm, while they may have used a flash for this, they may not have hooked up the write pins for it (as I understand things, there are certain pins on the device that require certain voltage levels to be able to write to the device). Even if they have, it's not going to be cheap or easy to flash a new image on it, as I doubt they have the ability to write these on the main board (requiring special hardware to burn the new image in). Not worth the time, money, and effort, IMHO.

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

I had try TRGPRO and jackflash,but they not support Platinum now,

and if your platinum buy in 4 weeks,i think it use flash too.good luck anyway.

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Luxembourg
Posts: 68

Also found this on the Hyundai web site (full spec sheet of the chip) : http://www.hea.com/Products/Memory/...V160_DS_v10.pdf

sowens may be right anyway, even if it has a flash chip, it doesn't mean one can write to it using the existing hardware.

How do you normally flash a Palm with flash ROM, like a Vx?

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

I dont think so.why handspring do that?they design for use flash and mass rom,if they dont want platinum can be upgraded,they can use mass rom only,why they keep that way?
And,it's not so hard to program the flash,it just need 3.0v to program,and turn "read" mode to "write" mode.So,I think next ver of Trgpro will support that.

Registered: Jun 2000
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Posts: 216

This is very interesting. mltl is correct: his Visor Platinum does have a Flash ROM chip. Now we need to find out how many other Platinums do. Anyone else willing to open their's up? Can someone also check out the Prism?

The write enable signal to the Flash could be a problem. The Flash chip wants a single write enable signal (WE#) and a separate signal indicating a byte (8-bit) write or a word (16-bit) write. The Dragonball VZ outputs separate write signals for both the upper (UWE#) and lower (LWE#) bytes. This either requires external logic to translate the signals or the design is done one way - say all accesses to the Flash are 16-bit - and the software must make sure to never try and access it the other way - 8-bits accesses.

The next problem is software. In order to use the extra space in the Flash ROM for app/database storage, we would need to have a version of FileMover that works with this Hyundai chip. I'm not sure if Handspring gives the source code away for FileMover or not.

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: mass
Posts: 56

wow

Who knew?

If they are not going to offer OS upgrades, the only reason I can think of for HS using flash is that it allows for last minute tweaks during manufacture. If they used otp roms, they would have to program them before soldering to the board. If they used masked roms, they would have to commit to firmware even earlier (weeks, months?). By using flash they can burn the firmware image in-circuit. Discover a bug, or decide to add a feature? Just reprogram remaining inventory.

Some flash mem chips require high voltage generated off-chip for program and erase, but this one appears to have everything it needs to be programmed in circuit.

There's a bit of an issue in terms of bootstrap/monitor app to actually perform the upgrade without leaving the device in an OS-less state, but that is probably already solved.

Looking forward to OS4.0 on my Prism! (I guess I should check to see if it too has flash rom)