Hi James,
Just read WRS' White Paper on Mobile Internet. I think it was a very well written paper. Here are a few thoughts:
In referencing to a dual-CPU design, WRS is targeting Qualcomm's next generation ASICs.
It correctly pointed out WRS' advantage in 2.5/3G handset designs:
* Superior development platform.
* Tight integrations of data/voice/postioning/multimeda. Important for time-to-market and power consumption.
* Processing broadband data, this is when a CDMA modem seem more like a DSL modem. (Who is better than WRS in IP?)
Again, this is targeting directly at all of the features in Qualcomm's upcoming ASICs.
VxWorks will be sitting in a lot of these 3G base stations or IP gateways. I wonder if WRS can play some tricks to make the data interface between the base station and handsets more efficient? (Can you see a TMS for cellular base station? I can.)
What I disagree with the paper is on Java. If Java (or ASP as Allen has been pointing out) is the way that every application will be, Palm OS, EPOC, and CE will loose all of their advantages. But I don't think Java and ASP will happen in a big way for mobile computers, at least not in the speed that we would like. This is another reason why Qualcomm went with a dual CPU design, one for a communications OS: RTOS, the other for an application OS: CE, EPOC, or Palm OS. I think Qualcomm did the right thing by putting two cores in there, because the application OS will definitely crash, and potentially often.
As I wrote earlier, I see a simple mobile platform and a PDA-like mobile platform. VxWorks should work for the former, but for the latter, it needs to partner with Palm OS, which is very likely, especially for these dual chip designs from Qualcomm.
Overall, I like what I read, and I like the direction WRS is moving to.
Thank you for giving the link on the White Paper.
Khan |
