Latitude ON Reader...

Once again, standing by should Dell ever want to give me a review unit for a few weeks. I've got a fondness for embedded systems...

 

Hi, I am confused about the LAtitude ON, my Lat4300 has Lat-On Reader, is there any possibility to use the Lat-On? I've tried many things. I have downloaded Dell_Latitude-ON-Software_A00_R233484.exe from dell.com, but when I try to upgrade the FW, it displays "Latitude ON Module: Not Installed." Does that mean I havent got some HW in my laptop, or is just some SW (driver) missing? I attach picture of the upgrade SW.

 

Yes!! You are missing the Latitude ON chip/board. Only a few latitudes have the ON feature, but you have to have the chip/board in your system as well.

Cheers!

 

Hm.
There is one thing I don't understand. When I have the Latitude ON Reader, which (I suppose) is ran on dedicated CPU, the same way Latitude ON works, why it is impossible to load the ON FW instead of the ON Reader. What is the HW difference between Latitude ON Reader and Latidude ON?

 

Hello,

I have a Dell Latitude E4200, but I still could not get the Latitude ON Reader with the internet support, do you guys know if it's out or not, thanks.

 

Latitude ON Reader is basically built into the BIOS of the notebook that uses the main system processor and system RAM. It is not power efficient, the programs on it are not very useful, and the Reader is basically a joke. The Reader "OS" does not do power management either, so the laptop actually will have a much lower battery life than compared to Windows.

Latitude ON (not reader) is a hardware solution that is plugged into the motherboard of a compatible Latitude notebook (right now only the E4300, E4200, and Z600 are compatible). It uses a separate ARM CPU with embedded RAM, not the main system processor or main RAM. It is an entirely different thing than Latitude ON Reader and is why you cannot just download the firmware for Latitude ON and install it without buying that $200 plug in card. The ARM CPU, with embedded RAM, uses a custom Linux OS built for ARM processors and uses MUCH less power than any OS running any x86 CPU.

 

WOW REALLY WELL EXPLAINED, Thanks Greg

 

@kawser

here in Germany its out, i ordered it and they shipped it already to me. Must be here the next few days

 

Some posts in the e4200 and e4300 post that say they have received and used, not much info yet though,

 

Here is a link to a 'latitude on review"

http://jkontherun.com/2009/10/09/dell-latitude-on-review/