Memory on our Future Treo 700 & 800
The whole topic of a possible forthcoming Treo 670 running Windows Mobile over the weekend got me thinking again about what our future Treo might look like – specifically as regards to memory storage.
For some time now we’ve been dreaming about the day that our Treo could hold upwards of 20GB of storage but the fact is that until now I hadn’t stopped to look in detail at all the available memory expansion options nor what the design implications might be.
I initially set off with the idea to design a small add-on module no larger than the keyboard area that could be snapped to the bottom of our Treo and with which we could expand our memory by 40GB. After some research into available drives however I soon realised that this was utter fantasy as any mini hard drive over 20GB is roughly the same width as our Treo and 60% of its length – evidently the ‘small’ add-on module that I had in mind would not work at all.
Next I therefore set out to look at all possible memory expansions and to gather their specifications. In total I found five options below:
I was initially most excited by Toshiba’s 0.85–Inch mini drive (top left) [no $ SRP at present] but this faded somewhat when I realised that the maximum available storage was only 4.0GB. Nevertheless, in terms of overall size (3.3mm thick) and weight (under 10gm) this would seem the most likely candidate for future internal storage in our Treo.
Hitachi’s 1.8–Inch Travelstar [40GB = $220 SRP] (bottom left) used in the iPod was my next obvious choice because it can hold up to 60GB – orders of magnitude above Toshiba’s mini drive. In an ideal world, this is exactly the level of storage that I would like to have on my Treo 
but its size would make this highly unlikely. Nevertheless, since an internal solution is not an option with this drive I would like to explore an external one. For example, this drive could be built into a sled and attached to the back of the Treo. Also, with the addition of a USB 2.0 port it could easily be connected to your PC to transfer files.
The third option is Hitachi’s 1.0–Inch Microdrive [6GB = $300 SRP] already implemented under PalmOS with the LifeDrive. As with Toshiba’s mini drive however we would be limited by a maximum of 6GB on the one hand and on the other its size would likely make our Treo bulge beyond levels acceptable by most. Having said this, 6GB on board plus 2GB (or 4GB soon’ish) via an SD card would make a pretty acceptable combination. Also, other people might alternatively suggest that Palm move from SD to Compact Flash thus allowing these microdrives to be used as the primary storage on an expandable basis.
Then there’s the option that we’re all familiar with. Namely, the standard SD card and more recently the MiniSD card. I’m personally now up to 7.5GB of storage via 5 x 1GB, 1 x 2GB and 1 x 512MB SD cards which is not altogether a bad setup as the cards are very portable (need an SD card wallet ideally) and robust – I would prefer to have more 2GB cards though. If Palm do not incorporate a mini drive or Microdrive in our future Treo then the easiest memory expansion options would be either dual standard SD card slots or one plus a MiniSD slot (perhaps under the battery). Another option might be a sled like the one that I propose for Hitachi’s 1.8–Inch drive but which would incorporate four SD card expansion slots.
Of all these possible memory expansion futures the one that I am keenest to see implemented from a purely “I’ve got to have that” standpoint is undoubtedly a 20GB+ solution. From a more pragmatic standpoint either Toshiba’s 0.85–Inch or dual SD slots solution would be ideal. I have no idea how long it will be before we see one (if any) of these implemented but at least now I have a much better picture of what the options might be.
Treonauts want to grow their memories… 
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» ¿Cuántos datos caben en el bolsillo? from CanalPDA
A juzgar por el interés que despertó hace unas semanas el supuesto Palm con disco de 6 GB, la capacidad de almacenamiento es uno de los aspectos que más preocupan a los usuarios de dispositivos de bolsillo. Y tal como evolucionan las diversas tecnologías, cada ... [Read More]
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» ¿Cuántos datos caben en el bolsillo? from CanalPDA
A juzgar por el interés que despertó hace unas semanas el supuesto Palm con disco de 6 GB, la capacidad de almacenamiento es uno de los aspectos que más preocupan a los usuarios de dispositivos de bolsillo. Y tal como evolucionan las diversas tecnologías, cada ... [Read More]
Tracked on Aug 11, 2005 11:30:50 AM
Comments
All the Palm sites have been buzzing the last few days over the recently leaked photos and videos of the new "Treo 670" which seems to run Windows Mobile. We've seen three grainy cell phone videos and several still photos of this device, and I have to say they look real enough to me. That is, the device looks real. I'm still not convinced about the operating system.
http://www.1src.com/headlines/show/001180.html
[Thank you for your comment Jeff. If you would like to submit a story, please send it to me at [email protected]. Cheers, Andrew]
http://alteraxion.typepad.com/coolgadgets/Treo_2067001.jpg
this is the link of the pics that I compared Cobalt to Win 5.o
Bringing the comments back to Storage options. Did you know Pretec have a 12 CF Card (Type II)? http://www.pretec.com/OnlineSales/SSD/Cheetah/Cheetah_Pages/Cheetah80X_12GB.htm Yours for the basement bargain price of $9,999. :)
They have also announced a 4Gb SD Card.
I think another problem with internal 20Gb+ hard disks will be battery life. How long will a battery last on a Treo that is a Phone, PDA and spinning a harddisk? That's basically a Laptop how big are their batteries? Perhaps incorporating both SD and CF card slots like some WM devices is a better alternative.
If an External interface is made, they'll be lots of third party manufacturers that'll bring out lots of alternatives.
I love this site, its my first comment. I would have to say. I would either just want a 2g to 6gb drive. That is what i expect to get fromt he treo 670 but what I would really enjoy which I know won't happen but an iPod Treo. What would be better. If/when it ever comes out it would probably be the same size. It gets annoying carrying a 40gb ipod and then a treo. Its like 2 bricks in your front pockets.. why not just one brick. doing this would be awesome. this coudlb e the future except
"the itunes phone" is by motorola. i hope apple gets some sense and thinks.. big brick/big brick - combine it.. same size one brick.
There would be a lot in common,
a screen
a small/ large hard drive
and then the magnificant scroll wheel can easily blend into the 5 touch and then you still got your keyboard/phone...
it probably sounds rubbish the way i say it.. but wit the thinking i have done of it.. its possible.
Simply, how about a Treo Phone Lifedrive? And what about the 2GB SD card limit that the current Treo has? Muchas gracious.
Treos won't have a hard drive for one simple reason: Vibrating alerts. Imagine the havoc wrought upon your drive when your Treo buzzes while it is trying to write a document to the drive. I also don't think a hard drive based Treo would be responsive enough to answer phone calls and emails. They could come up with a buffering solution, but I'd prefer my Treo to be simple and flash based. More complicated = more points of failure, IMHO.
I like your idea of more space but the problem with that is (for large amounts of space) you would need to move to a harddrive. I don't know about most Treo owners but I have dropped mine on more then one occasion. I can't imagine how I would feel if I dropped my Treo and everything on it was dead because of a harddrive. Just my thought!
What Mancil said. Hard drives need a lot of cushioning to protect themselves in a fall. You can engineer an iPod for that, but it would be too much for your average smartphone. I think the Treo will stick to some form of flash memory.
That said, flash is getting cheaper every year. Samsung and Toshiba are starting to produce 8-gigabit NAND chips, and Samsung suggested that they could be making 16GB flash modules by 2007. That'll work for me...
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As far as storage goes, I have an 8gig sdhc card in my treo 650. As Sdhc evolves you will be able to look @ 20 - 30 gig storage capacity. the 680 has the drivers to allow for the reading and writing of sdhc. In order to get that type of functionality on anything before the treo 680 you would need to add the drivers to a custom ROM and then flash the ROM to your device. Interested in the concept???? google "SDHC on treo 650"
I have looked for the Expansion Memory limit in my Treo 700p, and it seems nowhere to be found on the Palm site. The only hint is that there's only up to 2 GB SD cards for sale. That's crazy-making, and I tredged through enough Search results to waste most of an afternoon. I did find in this blog that Mr. Peabody wrote, "And what about the 2GB SD card limit that the current Treo has?" But then Eric writes, "I have an 8gig sdhc card in my treo 650." I was about to buy a 4 Gig card as the Up To Date information system I wanted would take a 2 Gig card all to itself.
So, like Eric, would my 700p be up to the challenge? How the bloody hell do I find out? Please, I would appreciate some guidance here.
Thanks for your kind attention.
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