Creative NOMAD - NOMAD Jukebox Zen

NOMAD Jukebox Zen

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

• Creative NOMAD Jukebox (Creative Digital Audio Player in Europe)
• Creative NOMAD Jukebox 3 (also features a FireWire connection)
• Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen (also features a FireWire connection)

USB 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 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.