Palm performance

Here are some performance comparisons as reported by Speedy, a benchmark utility for Palm OS devices. Speedy runs three tests and measures the time each task took. The Calculation test is for measuring the processor's speed, the Memory test measures mainly the memory access speed, and the Graphical test measures the graphical chipset's speed. Actual performance varies, of course, depending on each application's use of the various resources, but this benchmark gives a general idea by giving equal weight to each test and calculating the estimated effective clock speed of each device. (Note: Speedy was originally developed for pre OS 5 devices (DragonBall processors), and though it's been updated to evaluate OS 5 devices (ARM based processors), the high speeds of the latter types make Speedy less accurate.)
  Treo 270 Treo 600 Treo 600 w/ mp3 background Zire 71 Zire 71 w/ mp3 background Tungsten E Tungsten E w/ mp3 background Tungsten T3 T3 w/ mp3 background interpretation
Calc Test (sec) 3.52 1.09 2.73 1.06 1.85 1.46 2.77 0.38 0.49 lower is better
Mem Test (sec) 3.35 0.52 1.27 0.51 0.88 0.56 1.03 0.17 0.22 lower is better
Graph Test (sec) 4.92 0.79 1.93 0.9 1.59 1.02 1.88 0.25 0.32 lower is better
Total (sec) 11.79 2.4 5.93 2.47 4.32 3.03 5.68 0.80 1.03 lower is better
clock speed est (MHz) 25 125 51 121 69 100.00 53.00 375.00 291.00 higher is better
Comp. to Palm Vx (%) 127 625 253 607 347 500 264.00 1875 1456.00 higher is better
   

The graph shows the numbers in the Total row of the table above.
chart
 


SD card performance
Below are some performance comparisons as reported by VFS Mark, a benchmark utility for SD expansion cards. VFS Mark runs several tests and measures the time each task took. It reports the results as a percent of the time needed to accomplish the same tasks with a 16 MB SD card on a Palm 500 (though the documentation does not mention the brand of the 16 MB card). Higher numbers are better.

Here are the results the Tucson PUG obtained by running VFS Mark on 4 Palms and with two different 128 MB cards: one branded PNY and the other branded "Fujifilm". Though both cards show they are made by Sandisk, it is clear that there are differences between the cards.  In particular, File Write performance appears to be gated by the SD card capabilities, as it is essentially identical across the different Palms used. The PNY card's relative File Write performance is about 25% across the board, while Fujifilm's relative performance is about double (about 55%).

The table below shows all the results. "VFS mark" is a number reported by the benchmark and it appears to be the arithmetic mean of all the other performance numbers (e.g., a VFS mark of 127 is 127%). The last row of the table lists the harmonic mean of the performance numbers because it is a more valid combination of relative performance metrics.

  PNY 128 MB Fujifilm 128 MB
  Treo 600 Zire 71 Tungsten E Tungsten T3 Treo 600 Zire 71 Tungsten E Tungsten T3
File create 63% 85% 84% 92% 147% 184% 171% 486%
File delete 49% 104% 102% 110% 189% 207% 204% 238%
File write 24% 25% 25% 27% 54% 59% 59% 55%
File read 90% 281% 271% 371% 166% 421% 414% 692%
File seek 262% 256% 236% 453% 380% 393% 368% 1072%
DB export 30% 40% 41% 44% 58% 56% 83% 81%
DB import 250% 272% 265% 356% 399% 473% 462% 770%
Record access 190% 320% 301% 373% 312% 476% 470% 603%
Resource access 192% 300% 293% 358% 314% 468% 446% 600%
VFS mark 127 187 182 242 224 304 297 510
Harmonic mean
(higher is better)
 71% 96% 96% 108% 153% 177% 194% 228%