[The Chupacabra]

In case you didn't read the posts in THIS THREAD, Handspring has supposedly squeezed the Treo 600's PhoneOS into a tiny 4 MB ROM chip. This is automagically expanded into a much larger space - the 8 MB protected area of RAM that's unavailable to users.

A few questions:

1) Is the Treo 600 ROM chip really just a 4 MB Shrunken Head Of A ROM Chip ("SHOARC")?

2) How large is the actual compressed ROM (data only)?

3) How large is the expanded ROM when it resides within the protected area of RAM?

4) Any technical details on how the expansion occurs?

5) Is there a ROM Transfer tool (software) that can transfer/back up a "pure" compressed (or expanded) ROM?

6) Is there a utility (like the firmware updater) that can write to either protected RAM or ROM without corrupting the expansion/compression process?

7) How much dynamic heap does the Treo 600 have? (8 MB - whatever the size of the expanded ROM?)

8) Why such a Rube Goldberg solution when they could have just used a larger ROM chip? (To prevent ROM hacking?)

9) How does the SIM unlock code generate an unlock flag?

10) Where does the unlock code reside?


Even if most of the above can't be answered, it's nice to see that some people like euroclie still enjoy pushing their understanding of the device, just for fun.

[Euroclie]

Although most of your questions I of course haven't the answers to, here's what I could gather using various PalmOS tools:

Insider v4.0.0 by MysticSoftware gives the following informations about memory:

NbCards: 1
NbHeap: 3
NbRAMHeap: 2

Card0-ROMSize: 10944512 (10688k)
Card0-RAMSize: 28377088 (27712k)

Palm Insider v0.31 by Li Xiangming gives the following informations about memory:

Mem Card 0:
Creation Date: Dec. 11, 2003
ROM Size: 10944512 B
RAM Size: 25362160 B
Dyna. RAM: 2741840 B / 3014656 B
Stack: 0x102CECC0 ~ 0x102D0CBF

FileZ v5.3 by Nosleep Software gives the following informations about memory:

Card Number 0:
ROM Size: 10944512 bytes
RAM Size: 28377088 bytes

So all in all, the ROM size reported by the OS is neither 4Mb (compressed image) nor 8Mb (uncompressed image)... Go figure! I'll try to calculate the size of the uncompressed ROM by adding the size of every database included in the ROM, this should give us a start.

As for the RAM, difficult to say its exact size as the figures vary from one program to another! ;-)

I'll try and compare the result using the same program on another device, and will report.

[ideefixe]

from the Treo600 Developer's Guide:

4 or 8 MB of NOR FLASH (OS and applications partly compressed). The choice between 4 or 8 MB is dependant on carrier configuration and localization requirements.

32 MB of SDRAM (user data and expanded OS)

From what I've read, the lock code and IMEI are stored in neither RAM or ROM, but rather in NVRAM inside the modem module.

Check out "mines" thread
He mentioned about the uniCDMA and KWPST tools...they might work for the GSM version also.

[The Chupacabra]

Originally posted by euroclie
As for the RAM, difficult to say its exact size as the figures vary from one program to another! ;-)

I think Palm Insider created a memory leak.

[Euroclie]

TealFiles on the Treo 600 reports:

Total RAM: 27712k
Total ROM: 10656k
Free Dynamic: 2609k
FlashID: ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ

(the "ÿ" character is the character with the 0xFF code).

[The Chupacabra]

Originally posted by euroclie
TealFiles on the Treo 600 reports:

Total RAM: 27712k
Total ROM: 10656k
Free Dynamic: 2609k
FlashID: ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ

(the "ÿ" character is the character with the 0xFF code).

Free Dynamic? When did TealFiles start giving info on dynamic heap? And is it accurate? Can anyone else try running the TealFiles app in TealTools and see if they get the same numbers? I would do it but my Treo 600 was returned on Monday.

[Euroclie]

Just had a look at some interesting HS documentation, and it seems that after all, the situation may be even more complicated than previously thought!

The GSM version of the Treo 600 has 32Mb of RAM and 8Mb of ROM,

The CDMA version of the Treo 600 has 32Mb of RAM and 4Mb of ROM...

[The Chupacabra]

Originally posted by euroclie
Just had a look at some interesting HS documentation, and it seems that after all, the situation may be even more complicated than previously thought!

The GSM version of the Treo 600 has 32Mb of RAM and 8Mb of ROM,

The CDMA version of the Treo 600 has 32Mb of RAM and 4Mb of ROM...

Many of the GSM versions probably have extra language packs, so the PhoneOS would be bigger. I doubt the differences in radios used between CDMA and GSM require that much extra code in the GSM version of the PhoneOS.

[The Ugly Truth]

Originally posted by The Chupacabra


Many of the GSM versions probably have extra language packs, so the PhoneOS would be bigger. I doubt the differences in radios used between CDMA and GSM require that much extra code in the GSM version of the PhoneOS.

This is getting to be quite confusing!

[The Ugly Truth]

Originally posted by ideefixe
from the Treo600 Developer's Guide:



quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4 or 8 MB of NOR FLASH (OS and applications partly compressed). The choice between 4 or 8 MB is dependant on carrier configuration and localization requirements.

32 MB of SDRAM (user data and expanded OS)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



From what I've read, the lock code and IMEI are stored in neither RAM or ROM, but rather in NVRAM inside the modem module.

Where did you read this about the code and IMEI?

What you posted about the FlashRAM sizes makes sense: Language localization file sizes

[The Chupacabra]

Originally posted by The Ugly Truth


Where did you read this about the code and IMEI?

Maybe a backup is written elsewhere. It won't matter though - if the firmware flasher can be hacked to write the "unlock" flag.