Enhanced Fast ARM Solutions Toolkit Provides Developers Easier, Faster Way To Develop for Palm OS 5 and Beyond

PALMSOURCE DEVELOPER SEMINAR, SAN MATEO, Calif., May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PalmSource, Inc., provider of the world's most popular operating system for handhelds and smartphones, and the Palm OS(R) subsidiary of Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM), today introduced its Fast ARM Solutions Toolkit (FAST). FAST provides developers with an easier and faster path toward creating ARM native applications for Palm OS 5 that will be compatible with future versions of the operating system.

The commercial success of ARM-based Palm OS 5 mobile devices such as the Palm Tungsten and Sony Clie product lines has raised demand and new opportunities for higher performance enterprise, wireless and multimedia applications. FAST will enable developers to expand the range and quality of applications they create for compute-intensive environments. Multimedia, 3D games, security, voice over IP, scientific applications and digital signal processing are just a few examples of the types of applications that will benefit substantially from this improvement.

"Palm OS 5 has created a strong foundation for very successful products that take advantage of processing power and applications compatibility," said David Nagel, president and CEO of PalmSource, Inc. "FAST keeps the promise of compatibility for future Palm OS systems and provides developers with a much improved development environment for optimizing their applications."

FAST allows developers to more easily optimize applications for higher performance, extracting the full power of ARM. It includes the new Palm OS Debugger 2.0 (POD), which will allow developers to write and debug code faster. Integrated development tools and runtime libraries are also key parts of the package and include a new product from Metrowerks, Code Warrior, 9.2. Other features and benefits of FAST include:

-- Support for greater than 64k ARM resources
-- Support for global variables in ARM components
-- Sample code available for reference and quick start
-- Allow developers to more easily optimize applications to achieve higher performance
-- Provides a simplified route to create ARM applications for new Palm OS developers

Developers have found optimizing their applications for Palm OS 5 to be rewarding. John Chaffee, president of SplashData, a leading developer of virtual wallet applications for Palm Powered(TM) handhelds, says, "Converting SplashPhoto to an ARMlet resulted in a 20-times performance increase over 68k code. Customers have been blown away by the performance increase and it shows in our sales. Developing the ARMlet has generated a positive ROI and was well worth the effort."

FAST is an improved methodology over the existing ARMlet development support PSI offered since the first release of Palm OS 5. FAST's new features provide more developers easier access to increased performance by allowing them to add ARM native code into existing 68k Palm OS applications. The toolkit also provides compatibility with OS 6 and future Palm OS versions.

Palm OS 5 runs on ARM processors that are available in a wide range of price-performance combinations from Palm OS Ready partners, including ATI, Intel, Motorola, Samsung Semiconductor and Texas Instruments. These powerful chips combined with Palm OS 5, enable PalmSource licensees to produce a diverse range of mobile devices for every user need, from cutting-edge smartphones and entertainment handhelds to mobile business devices.

FAST will be distributed free of charge via PalmSource's Developer Support website at http://www.palmos/dev/tools within approximately 60 days. Metrowerk's CodeWarrior 9.2 developer product will be distributed through Metrowerks (see separate press release for details.)

About PalmSource

PalmSource is the company behind Palm OS, the world's most popular operating system for handhelds and smartphones. Licensed by industry leaders -- including Aceeca, Acer, AlphaSmart, Fossil, Garmin, GSL, Handera, Handspring, HuneTec, Kyocera, Legend, Palm, Samsung, Sony, Symbol and Tapwave as well as Palm OS Ready Partners such as ATI, Intel, MediaQ, Motorola, Samsung Semiconductor and Texas Instruments -- Palm OS has been shipped on more than 28 million handhelds and smartphones, and given rise to a huge community of users, enterprises, developers and manufacturers, who together make up the Palm Economy. PalmSource's new headquarters are located at 1240 Crossman Ave. in Sunnyvale, Calif. PalmSource is a subsidiary of Palm, Inc. More information about PalmSource, Inc., is available at www.palmsource.com.

NOTE: Palm OS is a registered trademark and Palm Powered is a trademark of PalmSource, Inc., a subsidiary of Palm, Inc. Other brands may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE PalmSource, Inc.