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Elitegroup preps Palm clone

Compatible hardware ships with alternative OS on Flash

Palm may soon get its first true clone, courtesy of Taiwanese hardware company Elitegroup.

Elitegroup is apparently preparing a PDA, the EPD 30, that mimics a Palm device in all respects but one: it doesn't ship with the Palm OS. The EPD 30 is based on a 16MHz Motorola Dragonball and contains 2MB of Flash memory and 4MB of regular RAM. There's a 160x160 greyscale LCD and an IR port.

Curiously, the device is said to contain a Memory Stick slot, or will do by the time it goes into production. That would suggest that the processor will upgraded to the upcoming 66MHz Dragonball, which features integral Memory Stick support. After all, if Elitegroup could afford to add the Memory Stick peripheral circuitry now, it could afford to license the PalmOS too.

Instead of which the device uses embedded systems developer Axisoft's Mine OS. Presumably the idea is that users will use that or buy a copy of the Palm OS - on an upgrade CD, for example - and copy it over to the EPD 30's Flash.

Of course, Elitegroup may already be talking to Palm about licensing the Palm OS. The demo device containing Mine OS was just that: a demo and proof of concept model, or so says Chinese Web site 51Digi.com, translated by English language site Nexgear.

The EPD 30 is expected to be priced at around $145, says the Chinese site, commenting that a Palm OS version is likely to be more expensive because of the Palm OS licence fee. But with similarly specced low-end Palms and Handsprings priced about the same, there's no reason why it shouldn't include the 'official' OS.

Unless, of course, it plans to release it at a much lower price, say $30. That's the bizarre claim made over at a site called Adrian's Rojak Pot. It was sent details of Taiwanese mobo maker PC-Chip's plan to build a Palm clone PDA at that price.

Adrian Wong, the site's owner, is rightly sceptical. The device turns out to be Elitegroup's device, and Adrian's informant appears to have read a garbled translation of the original 51Digi.com article.

So, 'EPD 30' becomes 'USD 30' - ie. 30 US Dollars. And 'Mine OS' becomes the PC-Chips' device's 'MiniOS'. Somewhere along the line the EPD 30's 4MB of RAM has become 8MB, which is what Adrian's source says the PDA will contain. Adrian tells us there's nothing about the device on PC-Chips' Web site.

Nexgear has a Photoshop-created shot of the EPD 30 running the Palm OS, and it turns up on Adrian's site too. ®

Related Links

Nexgear: EPD 30 Preview
51Digi.com: original EPD story
Adrian's Rojak Pot: PC-Chips Palm clone

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