Xircom PWE1130 for the Palm

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops (More info?)

Folks,

We are conducting some network performance tests with a Palm m130
connected to a WLAN through the Xircom/Intel PWE1130 sled. However,
our initial findings have been quite disapointing, considering PWE1130
802.11b data rate of 11Mbps. The first experiments have found that the
system m130+pwe1130 can sustain a miserable rate only slightly higher
than 8Kbit/s! (btw, we used C++ to write the the palm OS programs used
in the tests.) We have tried some combinations of packet lengths and
interval between packets. It seems that anything higher overflows the
buffers, bringing the whole system to a halt. We are currently trying
other combinations of those parameters to see if we can get higher
rates.

We already suspected that the connection between the palm and the
pwe1130 (the Palm Universal Connector) would not be able to sustain
the throughput of 802.11b, but we didn´t think it would be too bad.
For instance, if the palm--pwe1130 connection is used as a serial
port, it should be capable of at least 115Kbps, right? Or if used as a
USB port, at least 1.5Mbps. Any of those would in fact be a shame, as
the palm--pwe1130 connection (through Palm´s Universal Connector)
would be seriously cutting down WLAN performance.

Does anyone have any clues as to how the Palm--PWE1130 connection is
used (as a serial or as a USB)? (Someone told me that, when in the USB
cradle, the Palm Universal Connector is used as a USB, but that
behaviour was not guaranteed with devices other than the cradle.)

Have anyone conducted similar studies regarding the network
performance of the Palm/PWE1130 system?

Best regards to all,

Fabio M. Costa
Federal University of Goias
Brasil