Friday, June 18, 2004
Why Is It Difficult To Write SDIO Drivers For Palm OS Devices?
Posted by Janak Parekh in "THE COMPETITION" @ 01:00 PM
Palm users have been patiently waiting for SDIO Bluetooth and WiFi support. I've got some good news and some bad news for those users: reports are starting to filter out that SanDisk is nearing a driver release for their SDIO WiFi cards for PalmOS devices, but with a few caveats: first, Palm users will have to use a new SDIO card (not the one already on the market)... and second, Palm users will have to use an old Palm. 8O Strange as it may sound, the Zire 71 will be the only initial Palm device supported. The linked article has a very disturbing quote:
"The discontinued Zire 71 is the only model that SanDisk has managed to get to work—no thanks to the folks at PalmOne. According to SanDisk, Zire 72's have a driver problem that prevents them from working with pretty much any card requiring true SDIO capability—although memory cards work fine. SanDisk says it would like to support more PalmOS devices, but to date, PalmOne has not released a patch to correct this problem either publically or to SanDisk."
The Zire 71!? What bothers me is that PalmOne even has to get involved. Windows Mobile has a very standardized driver API, and even further, most Pocket PC devices have centralized around bSquare's SDIO Now standard, which seems to be working pretty well. Why isn't the same thing happening in the Palm camp? Diversity is great, but if you don't have standardized APIs, it'll eventually lead to trouble -- and this is what a number of us have been saying for a long time.
In the meantime, a few users have gotten fed up with the slow driver releases for Bluetooth SDIO cards, in particular for the Treo 600, and have started a bounty and is hoping to raise $5,000 to create an incentive for a third-party developer to make a driver. (What I don't get is how this would work, even if a driver were to exist -- could the Treo 600 even route audio over the SDIO slot?)
I can't help but think this is crazy. If anyone has more details or clarifications on the technical and business underpinnings of this, please post -- it just sounds needlessly complex, and I feel bad for Palm users who have been waiting forever for support.
"The discontinued Zire 71 is the only model that SanDisk has managed to get to work—no thanks to the folks at PalmOne. According to SanDisk, Zire 72's have a driver problem that prevents them from working with pretty much any card requiring true SDIO capability—although memory cards work fine. SanDisk says it would like to support more PalmOS devices, but to date, PalmOne has not released a patch to correct this problem either publically or to SanDisk."
The Zire 71!? What bothers me is that PalmOne even has to get involved. Windows Mobile has a very standardized driver API, and even further, most Pocket PC devices have centralized around bSquare's SDIO Now standard, which seems to be working pretty well. Why isn't the same thing happening in the Palm camp? Diversity is great, but if you don't have standardized APIs, it'll eventually lead to trouble -- and this is what a number of us have been saying for a long time.
In the meantime, a few users have gotten fed up with the slow driver releases for Bluetooth SDIO cards, in particular for the Treo 600, and have started a bounty and is hoping to raise $5,000 to create an incentive for a third-party developer to make a driver. (What I don't get is how this would work, even if a driver were to exist -- could the Treo 600 even route audio over the SDIO slot?)
I can't help but think this is crazy. If anyone has more details or clarifications on the technical and business underpinnings of this, please post -- it just sounds needlessly complex, and I feel bad for Palm users who have been waiting forever for support.
