Atom based Pandora v2?
- Thread starter valnar
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kaprikawn
Very Active Member
No. Not from the Pandora team anyway.
slaeshjag
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Unless anyone manages to make a x86 CPU that doesn't require a nuclear power plant to power it, I don't see it happening.
kaprikawn
Very Active Member
Same here, I'm waiting on a ChromeOS one myself. But that's delayed, and the first ones are bound to be Atom if the CR48 or whatever it's called is anything to go by. But I've got plenty of practice of waiting for these things with the Pandora!
Caine
Hardcore Member
Not being an x86 machine is a key selling point of the Pandora as that is what allows the long battery life.
The Pandora 2 will most likely be based on the TI omap4 processor instead.
The Pandora 2 will most likely be based on the TI omap4 processor instead.
slaeshjag
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Don't forget the TDP. Even if you can select what core you want, the x86 one will dissipate a lot more heat, and with the current case design, that's just asking for a core meltdown (eheh.)
Grench
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Although I appreciate what you're all saying about ARM and battery life, I don't think this idea should be dismissed out of hand.
Yes, I hope there be a next ARM version of the Pandora console developed.
However, I don't think we should dismiss an x86 version out of hand. The battery life wouldn't be as great (half?). However, using the same case, nubs, keyboard, screen, battery and major board components but installed on a same form factor X86 board & CPU design (VIA? ATOM? TEGRA?), I could see myself buying one. I still wouldn't run Windows on it. Unfortunately the things that make an X86 hum would quickly dictate a higher price. Dual core CPU with 2GB RAM and 60GB SSD is kind of a minimum.
I would like to see the console take baby steps on items that wouldn't necessarily 'fragment' the user base. I have a few ideas for that.
Yes, I hope there be a next ARM version of the Pandora console developed.
However, I don't think we should dismiss an x86 version out of hand. The battery life wouldn't be as great (half?). However, using the same case, nubs, keyboard, screen, battery and major board components but installed on a same form factor X86 board & CPU design (VIA? ATOM? TEGRA?), I could see myself buying one. I still wouldn't run Windows on it. Unfortunately the things that make an X86 hum would quickly dictate a higher price. Dual core CPU with 2GB RAM and 60GB SSD is kind of a minimum.
I would like to see the console take baby steps on items that wouldn't necessarily 'fragment' the user base. I have a few ideas for that.
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Well most people are mentioning battery life, but some forget the biggest bonus ARM has over x86 it's heat or lack there of. Atom chips require a heatsink... And a heatsink would require the size of the pandora to be bigger..
Now Via may have some x86 solutions that may be close, but looking at their site. I'm not so sure they are.
Now Via may have some x86 solutions that may be close, but looking at their site. I'm not so sure they are.
Stradian
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<_< good luck with a single boot.
On a side note, reminds me of that netbook which had two videocard chipsets: ion 2 and intel GMA. Unfortunately, you had to reboot the device after switching.
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Exophase
Nothing good will ever come of Exophase.
Where'd you read this? Atom is an ARM competitor. Intel wants you to believe that it's a universally superior option that, in its lowest power incarnations, is suitable for phones and other mobile devices. Including an ARM core on-die would be a complete contradiction of this market position and I doubt Intel would do that.
You guys are comparing netbook or nettop Atom solutions, Moorestown probably tends to draw around 2W or less so it's more in the same power class as the OMAP3 used in the Pandora. Unfortunately, it's a three chip solution (Lincroft + Langwell + PMIC instead of OMAP + TI PMIC/audio/whatever) and as far as I can tell there's no package on package support for stacking RAM on top of Lincroft, so it'll take up way more board area. And compared to the dual core Cortex-A9 SoCs available now (Tegra 2) and next year (OMAP4, Orion, U8500, and others) you probably won't see dual-core in the low power Atom cores (currently Lincroft in Moorestown and Pine Trail, then whatever they use in Cedar Trail/Cedar View). There's Hyperthreading instead, but that only does so much in comparison.
IMO an Atom Pandora would be an especially bad idea precisely because you'd lose software compatibility with the Pandora library and people would have to release dual binaries (or a dual mode binary format would have to be made I guess), and it'd be a much greater burden on the OP team to support both for their own software. You'd see a lot of things that'd be ARM Pandora only or x86 Pandora only because of strong ISA dependence in the code; lots of emulators will have ISA dependence for instance.
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Stradian
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Heard of overclocking?
Grench
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It would certainly need to be treated as it's own animal. Even if it re-used the rest of the hardware, the MB, processor, RAM, flash disk would certainly have the be unique to it. I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand though. Technically it would be possible, but don't expect modern notebook type performance out of it.
More likely would be a quadruple of the power on the ARM chip and a boost to the DOSBOX command set to allow emulation of higher level X86 CPUs under DOSBOX. Don't hold your breath, but who knows? In 10 years we could be running the emulated equivalent of a dual core Pentium on a hand held device.
Picture this. Using 23nm technology, incorporate a dual core X86 CPU, chipset, graphics accelerator, 2GB RAM, networking, phone, bluetooth and anything else you can cram into it onto a 1" system on chip die. Under clock it until it can run passive or with a contact to shell heat sink system. I don't think that kind of solution is all that far out really. 5 years maybe?
Exophase
Nothing good will ever come of Exophase.
A mobile Atom isn't going to be 4x more powerful than a high end dual-core Cortex-A9. It's going to perform pretty similarly.
XxionxX
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What is wrong with Explorer? My mother loves that browser.
Blue Protoman
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It doesn't have Adblock. Also, I heard it has security holes.
