Author: Mike Byrne
Date: 10:37:03 12/25/04
Wow -- very impressed. First, the Zire for my wife arrived late Christmas Eve and knowing that the Holiday officially already started Europe, my instincts told me the chances of getting the activation codes last night/today were slim and none. Mr. Richard Lang proved me wrong - awaiting in my email box was the Chess Genius code to fuilly implement all the activation features of Palm Chess Genius 2.1. Now the Zire 31 has a 200 Mhz Xscale ARM processor and it runs OS 5.2.8 -- so it can take full advantage of the ARM version of the Genius program. It appears to be identical to the Pocket PC version that and the 200 Mhz Zire runs at about 1/2 fast as the 400 Mhz Dell Axim I use. Using the OC program for the ARM , "Lightspeed" I am able to run it at abpout 270Mhz with a roughly 33% increase in problem solving. The neat thing about Genius, you can run both the ARM and the 68K version on Zire 31. I also used to play the 68K version on a Palm VX at 32 Mhz (oc). There is NO comparision between the 68K and the ARM version Genius - The ARM version is more than 10x than the 68K version that used to run on my Palm Vx. In fact, with the OC program LightSpeed, the Zire is only 50% slower in problem solving than the Pocket PC 400 Mhz Dell. At a cost of just $110 (Open Box - Blemished description - but it came with no visible blemishes - it was probably just an open box) and using Palm Genius ARM - I have to rate this combo for a PDA as best buy! My rating is about 1600 and I just have to set the speed at 1 second per move to have a very competitive game of chess - with the Palm Vx - I probably had a ~20-30% scoring rate at one second per move (with me playing quickly as well -- perhaps Game in 10 speed) - with the the Palm ARM it is clearly way less than 10% ( I should keep track but I don't). As an illustration of the difference between the 68K and ARM versions of Genius, the ARM version solves Fine #70 instantly, it is not solved in < 120 seconds with the 68K version. [d]8/k7/3p4/p2P1p2/P2P1P2/8/8/K7 w - - ;Fine #70 - Best move Kb1! In addition,, with the Christmase day delivery of the activation code by the author, Richard Lang, - who could ask for more? When I do receive the acitvation codes for Tiger and Hiarcs, I will post my impressions for those programs. Season greetings: Michael Ps My wife loves the Zire thus far.
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