About the hardware


ProDigit

Still Fresh
Joined
Jun 2, 2011
Messages
8
Hi,


I've seen you are using an omap processor @600mhz, perfectly fine to run old dos games on.


There are 2 things in the specs that I have questions about:


1- The resolution. Why have you not chosen a 640x480, 800x600, or 1024x768 resolution for the device? (preferably 800x600)


These are the 3 most common resolutions found in DOS applications.


2- The processor. Although an ARM processor is very efficient, you will have to run DOS in emulation mode constantly, which means lots of lost cycles!


Why have you not installed a native x86 processor, like the Intel Atom Z500 or something? That processor is 800Mhz, 0.65 watts TDP, and runs dos Natively, without having to revert to emulation mode...


In fact, if you go with an Intel Z600 series processor, the TDP only rises to 3Watts, but it has an integrated graphics solution on the die, which means no additional powerdraw for a gpu!


The Z600 series processors come at $75 though...


The Z500 comes at less than $20!


It would significantly reduce the costprice of the machine, while offering better battery life, but will also be more limited to MS DOS, and older Windows versions (like Win9x or Win XP).


3- The last thing I am wanting to ask you is why no USB port? I know few MS DOS apps support USB ports, but there must be some way to connect a USB controller or mouse to the system, and for it to be recognized as a serial mouse or something?


Just questions, no criticism intended!
 
Hi,


I've seen you are using an omap processor @600mhz, perfectly fine to run old dos games on.


There are 2 things in the specs that I have questions about:


1- The resolution. Why have you not chosen a 640x480, 800x600, or 1024x768 resolution for the device? (preferably 800x600)


These are the 3 most common resolutions found in DOS applications.


2- The processor. Although an ARM processor is very efficient, you will have to run DOS in emulation mode constantly, which means lots of lost cycles!


Why have you not installed a native x86 processor, like the Intel Atom Z500 or something? That processor is 800Mhz, 0.65 watts TDP, and runs dos Natively, without having to revert to emulation mode...


In fact, if you go with an Intel Z600 series processor, the TDP only rises to 3Watts, but it has an integrated graphics solution on the die, which means no additional powerdraw for a gpu!


The Z600 series processors come at $75 though...


The Z500 comes at less than $20!


It would significantly reduce the costprice of the machine, while offering better battery life, but will also be more limited to MS DOS, and older Windows versions (like Win9x or Win XP).


3- The last thing I am wanting to ask you is why no USB port? I know few MS DOS apps support USB ports, but there must be some way to connect a USB controller or mouse to the system, and for it to be recognized as a serial mouse or something?


Just questions, no criticism intended!


I dont think the pandora was designed just with DOS in mind, that would be very close minded!!


screans are rarly made in 4:3 anymore, also if we stuck to a 4:3 screen we would be limiting the dimentions of applications.


usb mice do actually work, though you need a usb 2 hub as the usb hosts doesnt support usb 1.0 nativly


I dont mean to sound harsh, but did you think about this before writing your question?
 
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The Pandora is much more than a DOS emulation machine. Imagine the formfactor of the device if it had a 4:3 screen.


x86 eats power. Lots of power. The Z600 you suggest, TDP at 3Watts, at 3.7 volts, that's almost an amp! If you run nothing but the Z600, you get a battery life of about 4 hours. Not very good. Then, the screen + backlight wants their share too. The Z500 would probably require external GPU? Remember that we need to cram everything into a very small board, I'm not sure it would be very doable the cram in a GPU. And remember that the hardware was designed in 2008, x86 at that time was even more power hungry.


There is a USB-port on the pandora.
 
Are we talking about the same machine?



Code:
3- The last thing I am wanting to ask you is why no USB port? I know few MS DOS apps support USB ports, but there must be some way to connect a USB controller or mouse to the system, and for it to be recognized as a serial mouse or something?


There is a USB port...


Also the resolution is 800x480 because that's the best they could do with a screen this size. Remember the pandora isn't made only for DOSbox... A 4:3 screen would be far from ideal these days.
 
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3- The last thing I am wanting to ask you is why no USB port? I know few MS DOS apps support USB ports, but there must be some way to connect a USB controller or mouse to the system, and for it to be recognized as a serial mouse or something?
Look again, it has a USB 2.0 port (high-speed only) as well as an USB OTG port.
 
Wait am I going to have to medicate again? :angry:


I see a USB port dammit!!!!!! B)


Which brings me to a question....How do wireless USB mouses/mice work on the Pandy?


Don't know if this has been discussed.


ciao.
 
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It would significantly reduce the costprice of the machine, while offering better battery life, but will also be more limited to MS DOS, and older Windows versions (like Win9x or Win XP).

Umm... Why wouldn't linux run on a x86 cpu?
 
1- The resolution. Why have you not chosen a 640x480, 800x600, or 1024x768 resolution for the device? (preferably 800x600)


These are the 3 most common resolutions found in DOS applications.
As said, because it isn't just for DOS. Why limit to one application when you can get the best possible screen for the most applications?

2- The processor. Although an ARM processor is very efficient, you will have to run DOS in emulation mode constantly, which means lots of lost cycles!


Why have you not installed a native x86 processor, like the Intel Atom Z500 or something? That processor is 800Mhz, 0.65 watts TDP, and runs dos Natively, without having to revert to emulation mode...


In fact, if you go with an Intel Z600 series processor, the TDP only rises to 3Watts, but it has an integrated graphics solution on the die, which means no additional powerdraw for a gpu!
The Pandora isn't just an x86 emulation machine, it is so much more, and all those applications had to be accounted for. An ARM processor was the best choice for this. Remember, it was designed and production started about 3 years ago. At the time there was absolutely no comparison to be made between ARM and x86: x86 was a battery killer and ARM was the way of the future, and it is far, far too late to make any changes. The Z600 was released just last year, and the Z500 is hardly comparable to the OMAP3's power. A future Pandora 2 may dabble in some x86 compatibility, but I wouldn't count on it: 2 or 3 years from now, ARM will still probably have a lot of benefits in the portable scene over x86, but we will see.

I know few MS DOS apps support USB ports
I still don't understand why you've got it in your head that the Pandora wants to be a DOS emulator? DosBox is just ONE of the many, many, many things it can do, most of which don't care if they're x86 or ARM, and some of which even benefit from being ARM vs x86.
 
Wait am I going to have to medicate again? :angry:


I see a USB port dammit!!!!!! B)


Which brings me to a question....How do wireless USB mouses/mice work on the Pandy?


Don't know if this has been discussed.


ciao.

I plug the dongle into a small Manhattan USB hub, and it all works like a charm!
 
I've never felt my eye twitch the way it did after I read the first post..


Are you even talking about the OpenPandora? No USB? I use the freaking USB port everyday..


I need my Meds!
 
It would significantly reduce the costprice of the machine, while offering better battery life, but will also be more limited to MS DOS, and older Windows versions (like Win9x or Win XP).

cant-tell-if-stupid-or-trolling.jpg
 
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Hi all, and thank you for your most (unfriendly) welcome!


Few forums suck as much as this one!


I came here upon request for a DOS console game, referred from another forum.


Without more details than a tiny picture, I have written this thread with 3 simple questions, all of which deserve a little better than the bashing response I got here!


I had thought people on this forum to be a little more mature than this!


But regardless, thank you for noting that it has a USB port, not noticeable from the picture I got!


And as said, from the specs I knew it was a Linux machine, running some dos emulator. Presuming it was made for dos games, I made a simple question.


As far as TDP goes, the Atom Z500 (0.65W) or Z600 (with 3W TDP) is nothing compared to my core2duo laptop with 20W TDP processor (and 80W powersupply), or my desktop's 90W corei7 processor.


I was merely looking for something small to play old dos games on; portable, long battery life.


I thought this device was intended for such purposes!


An emulated environment never works as well as the real thing, so you'd be saving lots of CPU cycles running DOS games from an x86 cpu, and thus saving lots of power too, because dos has been designed for x86!


And running an x86 cpu does not limit you to DOS only, it only gives you less advantage when running Linux apps (will draw more battery running linux than on an ARM system).
 
The Pandora is much more than a DOS emulation machine. Imagine the formfactor of the device if it had a 4:3 screen.


x86 eats power. Lots of power. The Z600 you suggest, TDP at 3Watts, at 3.7 volts, that's almost an amp! If you run nothing but the Z600, you get a battery life of about 4 hours. Not very good. Then, the screen + backlight wants their share too. The Z500 would probably require external GPU? Remember that we need to cram everything into a very small board, I'm not sure it would be very doable the cram in a GPU. And remember that the hardware was designed in 2008, x86 at that time was even more power hungry.


There is a USB-port on the pandora.
The 3Watts TDP is max power, only achieved on maximum CPU AND GPU utilization. In idle it uses less than a tenth of this. It has a graphics unit built into it, so no additional graphics card is necessary.


The Z500 and Z600 atom processors where designed in 2010 and 2009. They are modified pentium 4 processors, optimized for low power. Originally created to fit in cellphones, but never caught on because they used too much power for a cellphone (and would give them only 1 day battery life).


Manufacturers have used many of these processors in all kinds of other devices ranging from tablets, to netbooks, to portable media players etc.


Most of these processors are too slow to actually host an operating system like Windows. But they work fine for watching HD video, listening to MP3, and browsing the web.


In case if MS DOS would be the host operating system, even the lowest of Atom processors (like the Z500, with 800Mhz speed) would be sufficient to run most x86 programs created for MS DOS. But as some said, it is not a DOS console, so I will quit my chatter here.
 
not the be an asshole for once, but please go read up on the pandora first, and where do you get this idea that a comparable x86 cpu can save battery life over an arm cpu? the pandora is in no way made to be a dosbox emulator, if there is one thing it was aimed for, it is amiga, but it isnt, although it runs quite a few dox games wonderfully, and please refrain from calling us immature if youre gonna refuse to read 2 threads about the pandora before starting a thread. we gladly welcome you to the community, but not if youre gonna troll us around with stuff like no usb and x86 better battery life and trying to get us to have 4:3 screens even in 2008
 
not the be an asshole for once, but please go read up on the pandora first, and where do you get this idea that a comparable x86 cpu can save battery life over an arm cpu? the pandora is in no way made to be a dosbox emulator, if there is one thing it was aimed for, it is amiga, but it isnt, although it runs quite a few dox games wonderfully, and please refrain from calling us immature if youre gonna refuse to read 2 threads about the pandora before starting a thread. we gladly welcome you to the community, but not if youre gonna troll us around with stuff like no usb and x86 better battery life and trying to get us to have 4:3 screens even in 2008
I've asked a simple question (mr hothead)!


No one says I can't!


It's an open forum!


You don't want to repeat yourself? Then don't!


You want to answer my question? You're welcome, and I will read it!


However by now you should have read that I was referred here by someone saying IT WAS a dos console.


Now most of you say it isn't, then a X86 processor makes little sense, and so does 4/3 resolution.


This device is not what I'm looking for, because I can get the same or better from a netbook.


have a good day!
 
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