Creative NOMAD
Encyclopedia
The NOMAD was a range of digital audio players designed and sold by Creative Technology
, and later discontinued in 2004. Subsequent players now fall exclusively under the MuVo
and ZEN
brands.
The NOMAD series consisted of two distinct brands:
These models appear as a USB mass storage device
to the operating system so that the device can be accessed like any other removable disk, a floppy disk
for example. Older MuVo devices and all Jukebox models use a custom protocol named PDE (Portable Digital Entertainment, a Creative internal device designation) that requires the installation of drivers before the device can be recognised by the operating system.
Creative's foray into the MP3 player market began with the Creative NOMAD, a rebranded Samsung Electronics
Yepp YP-D40 player with 64 megabyte
s of solid-state memory.
IEEE 1284
Parallel port
connection
USB
1.1 connection
USB
2.0 connection
The first NOMAD Jukebox used the OASiS operating system, which was developed in India. Later NOMAD Jukeboxes used Creative's own firmware. Most players use Texas Instruments TMS320DA25x
ARM
plus digital signal processor
as their CPU and support some version of Creative's environmental audio extensions (EAX)
.
The NOMAD Jukeboxes have varied in their use of connections. The Jukebox 3 and Jukebox Zen were unusual in their use of the older USB 1.1 standard despite their predecessor, the NOMAD Jukebox 2, having used the newer USB 2.0 standard. Part of the reason for this was the inclusion of a FireWire connection, which is of comparable speed to USB 2.0.
USB
1.1 connection
USB
2.0 connection
A variant of the NOMAD Jukebox was also sold as an OEM
product by Dell under the name Dell Digital Jukebox
(Dell DJ), a USB 2.0 device. The Second Generation Dell DJ and Dell Pocket DJ 5 are also OEM products from Creative.
Future versions in the Creative ZEN line exclusively use Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol
(also known as PlaysForSure), and some legacy devices have been supplied with firmware upgrades to support MTP. The first NOMAD player and the first NOMAD Jukebox use proprietary protocols, neither PDE or MTP.
Bundled software
Free software
For early models
For NOMAD Jukeboxes
Proprietary software
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
, and later discontinued in 2004. Subsequent players now fall exclusively under the MuVo
Creative MuVo
The Creative MuVo is a range of digital audio players produced by Creative Technology, launched in 2003...
and ZEN
Creative Zen
The Creative ZEN is a range of digital audio players and portable media players made by Creative Technology. The players evolved from the now-defunct NOMAD brand through the NOMAD Jukebox series...
brands.
The NOMAD series consisted of two distinct brands:
- NOMAD (and later NOMAD MuVo) - Players that utilize flash memoryFlash memoryFlash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
. This brand eventually became the MuVo line. - NOMAD Jukebox - Players that utilize microdriveMicrodriveMicrodrive is a brand name for a miniature, 1-inch hard disk designed to fit in a CompactFlash Type II slot. The release of similar drives by other makers has led to them often being referred to as 'microdrives'...
s. The brand has now evolved into the ZEN line.
NOMAD and NOMAD MuVo
These models appear as a USB mass storage device
USB mass storage device class
The USB mass storage device class, otherwise known as USB MSC or UMS, is a protocol that allows a Universal Serial Bus device to become accessible to a host computing device, to enable file transfers between the two...
to the operating system so that the device can be accessed like any other removable disk, a floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
for example. Older MuVo devices and all Jukebox models use a custom protocol named PDE (Portable Digital Entertainment, a Creative internal device designation) that requires the installation of drivers before the device can be recognised by the operating system.
Creative's foray into the MP3 player market began with the Creative NOMAD, a rebranded Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...
Yepp YP-D40 player with 64 megabyte
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
s of solid-state memory.
IEEE 1284
IEEE 1284
IEEE 1284 is a standard that defines bi-directional parallel communications between computers and other devices.-History:In the 1970s, Centronics developed the now-familiar printer parallel port that soon became a de facto standard...
Parallel port
Parallel port
A parallel port is a type of interface found on computers for connecting various peripherals. In computing, a parallel port is a parallel communication physical interface. It is also known as a printer port or Centronics port...
connection
- Creative NOMAD
USB
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
1.1 connection
- Creative NOMAD II - Included FM radio and 64mb of memory via bundled Smart Media card. No internal memory.
- Creative NOMAD IIc - Same appearance as Nomad II, but with no FM radio and 64mb or 128mb internal memory.
- Creative NOMAD II MG
- Creative NOMAD MuVo
- Creative NOMAD MuVo NX
USB
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
2.0 connection
- Creative NOMAD MuVo2
- Creative NOMAD MuVo2 X-Trainer
- Creative NOMAD MuVo2 FM
- Creative NOMAD MuVo USB 2.0
- Creative NOMAD MuVo TX
- Creative NOMAD MuVo TX (Second Edition)
- Creative NOMAD MuVo TX FM
- Creative NOMAD Muvo Micro V200
- Creative NOMAD MuVo Micro v100
- Creative NOMAD Muvo Micro N200
NOMAD Jukebox Zen
Texas Instruments TMS320
Texas Instruments TMS320 is a blanket name for a series of digital signal processors from Texas Instruments. It was introduced on April 8, 1983 through the TMS32010 processor, which was then the fastest DSP on the market....
ARM
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
plus digital signal processor
Digital signal processor
A digital signal processor is a specialized microprocessor with an architecture optimized for the fast operational needs of digital signal processing.-Typical characteristics:...
as their CPU and support some version of Creative's environmental audio extensions (EAX)
Environmental audio extensions
The environmental audio extensions are a number of digital signal processing presets for audio, present in Creative Technology's later Sound Blaster sound cards and the Creative NOMAD/Creative ZEN product lines...
.
The NOMAD Jukeboxes have varied in their use of connections. The Jukebox 3 and Jukebox Zen were unusual in their use of the older USB 1.1 standard despite their predecessor, the NOMAD Jukebox 2, having used the newer USB 2.0 standard. Part of the reason for this was the inclusion of a FireWire connection, which is of comparable speed to USB 2.0.
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
1.1 connection
- Creative NOMAD Jukebox (Creative Digital Audio Player in EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
) - Creative NOMAD Jukebox 3 (also features a FireWire connection)
- Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen (also features a FireWire connection)
USB
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
2.0 connection
- Creative NOMAD Jukebox 2
- Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen USB 2.0
- Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen NX
- Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra
A variant of the NOMAD Jukebox was also sold as an OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
product by Dell under the name Dell Digital Jukebox
Dell Digital Jukebox
The Dell Digital Jukebox or just Dell DJ was a brand name for a series of digital audio players sold by the Dell Computer corporation....
(Dell DJ), a USB 2.0 device. The Second Generation Dell DJ and Dell Pocket DJ 5 are also OEM products from Creative.
Future versions in the Creative ZEN line exclusively use Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol
Media Transfer Protocol
The Media Transfer Protocol is a devised set of custom extensions to the Picture Transfer Protocol . Whereas PTP was designed for downloading photographs from digital cameras, Media Transfer Protocol supports the transfer of music files on digital audio players and media files on portable media...
(also known as PlaysForSure), and some legacy devices have been supplied with firmware upgrades to support MTP. The first NOMAD player and the first NOMAD Jukebox use proprietary protocols, neither PDE or MTP.
Related software
Besides the NOMAD Explorer or MediaSource programs included with the devices, there are other programs which can be used to manage the player and to transfer data.Bundled software
- Creative NOMAD Explorer - Software included with older NOMAD models and used to transfer music and data to the device. This has since been replaced by Creative MediaSource
- Creative MediaSource - A fully featured audio player for Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
that also manages NOMAD devices and can be used to transfer media to the device or to synchronise playlists with the device - a feature that was unavailable in the previous NOMAD Explorer software.
Free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
For early models
- The NOMAD Manager Project is a program to control the original NOMAD player under Linux
- The Nomad II Linux USB driver - for using the Nomad II under Linux
For NOMAD Jukeboxes
- libnjb is the driver underlying most of the following programs
- AmarokAmarok (audio)Amarok is a cross-platform free and open source music player for KDE, but is released independently of the central KDE Software Compilation release cycle...
is a music player for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... - BansheeBanshee (music player)Banshee is an open-source media player, called Sonance until 2005. Built upon Mono and Gtk#, it uses the GStreamer multimedia platform for encoding and decoding various media formats, including Ogg Vorbis, MP3 and FLAC. Banshee can play and import audio CDs and supports many portable media players,...
is a music player for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... - Gnomad is a Jukebox Manager for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
- Neutrino is another Jukebox Manager for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
- XNJB is a Jukebox Manager for Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
- Nomadsync is a Jukebox synchronization tool for both Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... - Creative Nomad Jukebox KIO::Slave is an integration driver for KDEKDEKDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
- JBHTTP is a webserver interface to Jukeboxes that is similar to what Notmad Explorer (see below) did for Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
- Apple's iTunes http://www.apple.com/itunes/ is also capable of controlling the Nomad Jukebox.
Proprietary software
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
- Notmad Explorer by Red Chair Software is a (now defunct) jukebox management program for Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. The program was notable for fully integrating NOMAD devices into Windows ExplorerWindows ExplorerThis article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...
, providing a web-based interface to the device and providing search capabilities using a built-in SQLSQLSQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
databaseDatabaseA database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
External links
- Official Creative MP3 player website
- Linux and digital audio players
- We Test Drive the Creative Nomad Jukebox - November 2000 MP3 NewswireMP3 NewswireFounded in 1998, the same year as MP3.com, MP3 Newswire is the oldest active news site devoted to digital media technology. Notable for its series of essays that chronicled the rise of digital music and the Internet’s acrimonious relationship with the record industry, MP3 Newswire initially was...
review of Creative's Nomad Jukebox - Sharky Extreme Nomad Review October 2000 - Nomad Jukebox Review