OS Speed
So by now everyone is singing the virtues of USB, but how fast is the PalmOS
3.1h that comes with the Visor? To find out, I used two programs that test
the speed of your Palm-compatible -- BenchMark
and PocketMark.
All of the tests below were done with no hacks turned on.
According to the Benchmark FAQ, it performs a CPU and memory-intensive
Fibonacci calculation to test speed and bus bandwidth utilization. Below
are the ratings of some of the current Palm-compatibles.
| Palm-Compatible |
Benchmark Rating |
| Palm III |
91% |
| Palm IIIx/V |
100% |
| Palm Vx |
122% |
| Visor DX |
158% |
| TRGPro |
161% |
PocketMark is
a similar tool for comparing the speed of the various Palm-compatibles.
PocketMark performs three tests: the first test, IntMark, is done using an
algorithm to find perfect numbers, so it is a very CPU-intensive task with
little memory impact. The second test (MemMark) performs copies to/from a
buffer (array), evaluating the RAM speed. The last test (FloatMark)
performs floating point calculations using NewFloatMgr routines. The
overall number is the PalmMarks in the far-right column. Here are the
results taken from the author’s
website and from emails in varous user groups:
| Palm-Compatible |
IntMarks |
MemMarks |
FloatMarks |
PalmMarks (overall) |
| Palm III |
88 |
70 |
86 |
85 |
| Palm IIIx/V |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| Palm Vx |
116 |
113 |
113 |
115 |
| Visor DX |
129 |
101 |
132 |
125 |
| TRGPro |
100 |
111 |
100 |
102 |
It looks like Handspring optimized
the PalmOS code very well in the Visor. Looking at the BenchMark
results, the TRGPro edged out the Visor because of the TRGPro’s better
performance in memory-intensive procedures. In the PocketMark
overall results, however, the Visor surpasses even the Palm Vx, which has a
faster processor and Palm OS 3.3.
Conclusion
The Handspring Visor is fast -- both
in synchronizing and in PalmOS speed. The PalmOS performance overall
surpasses other Palm-compatibles, and the USB really flies during a HotSync™.
