On what factors does synchronization speed depend ?
Which is faster ?
Palm's hotsync or microsoft's active sync.
Also is it possible to syncronize data between a remote sever and more than one handheld simultaneously.
If yes, how is it handled ?
Does the synchronization speed play a role in the selection of a device or the device has got nothing to do with sync speed ?

CAn I get a detailed explanation for the above ?

Sync speed is very variable between devices.

It depends of your Sync method, the read / write speed of the device, quality of the cabling.

You can sync using Remote Access, Infrared, Ethernet, Serial and USB.

Each having its own advantaged.
USB (1200 kbps) has the speed advantage over serial (115 kbps MAX)

Ras depends on the connection speed, modem DSL etc. Ethernet 10 mbps - 1000 mbps and beyond. Infrared ommonly 115 kbps, up to 4mbps on occasion.

It also depends on what your syncing and how big it is. Whether it has to be run through converters, how complex those converters are.

For example, Palm will generally convert a Win Word document to Plain Text, where as Windows CE will convert to Pocket Document formats for the appropreate Operating system

Also to take into factor, is the write speed of the device. Its all well and good to have a gigabit network speed, but unless the device can write that fast, your just showing off the bandwidth. That is completly device specific and so you can't really compare the sync systems in that way.

All in all, unless your trtying to write massive files to a IBM Micro Drive, you would only be talking Nano-Seconds, seconds at most.

I wouldn't buy a PDA on the speed of the syncronisation, but on what it can offer me.

I'm sorry I don't know if you can host multiple sessions over RAS. I will try and find out.

What did you need this information for?, you thinking about buying a PDA?

Chris

Thanks chris for your detailed mail.
The PDA is going to be used for business purpose and not for personal use.
PDA is supposed to be used to collect information about the buying habits of the customers and synchronize the same to a remote server using modem.
Since synchronization has to be done daily by many users, I am concerned about synchronization speed as one of the factors in selecting a suitable PDA for the above purpose.

regards,
Murali.

OK. I see why you asked now.

In answer to your second Question, I did some checking with some of the Other Guys on the Microsoft H/PC newsgroup and Windows CE ActiveSync does not support multiple, simultanious connections over RAS.

I couldn't help you with the Palm software.

I would say, that if your business involves people on the move, then a PDA that can connect to one of these new GPRS cell phones, that will give you a connection speed of up to 42 k I believe. Thay way data can be sent back to the central server on the fly, rather than at the end of the day.

If used internally, get a good wirless network established and have the data constantly being synchronised

Those would be your best options, with concern to speed. As I said, it varies between PDA's. Palms have low speed processors, 8 mhZ, where as Win CE ones go up to 266 mhZ now. Then theres the write speed.
Don't be fooled though with the higher speed valuses of CE. Win CE devices run far larger applications, often more complex applications than Palm, often with the same result at the end.

I would concentrate with CE (I am bias'd though) as you are more likly to have succes with your databases, if you run a MS server

If you need more info, why don't you try coming onto the news groups.

news.microsoft.com

microsoft.public.handheldpc
microsoft.public.pocketpc

Chris