Assuming (and its a big assumption) that the rumours of / wishes for some sort modular Pandora 2 design are true, I would like to propose an idea. I suspect its been discussed before, in which case just point me in the direction of previous scornful rebuttals.
On the ARM powered Acorn RiscPC from the late-90s you had 'podule' expansion slots. One podule available for these slots was the PC Card. This was a very basic x86 computer on a chip which could be run from within the normal operating system, sharing memory with the main computer. It ran Windows in a window.
If the Pandora 2 were to expose a similar sort of expansion slot, and if the design accomodated expansion cards (they could attach to the back, for example) then a similar 'podule' could be theoretically produced sometime after launch. With a fairly rubbish, underclocked, low-power x86 we could easily move into running all Windows 98 games natively at full speed. Obviously it would hit the battery life hard, but as its an optional extra, what does that matter? Plus, this wouldn't the only possible podule, of course.
I know that the possibility for expansion is largely in the hands of the ARM SoC makers, but, assuming something suitable comes along, does anyone see a flaw in this?
On the ARM powered Acorn RiscPC from the late-90s you had 'podule' expansion slots. One podule available for these slots was the PC Card. This was a very basic x86 computer on a chip which could be run from within the normal operating system, sharing memory with the main computer. It ran Windows in a window.
If the Pandora 2 were to expose a similar sort of expansion slot, and if the design accomodated expansion cards (they could attach to the back, for example) then a similar 'podule' could be theoretically produced sometime after launch. With a fairly rubbish, underclocked, low-power x86 we could easily move into running all Windows 98 games natively at full speed. Obviously it would hit the battery life hard, but as its an optional extra, what does that matter? Plus, this wouldn't the only possible podule, of course.
I know that the possibility for expansion is largely in the hands of the ARM SoC makers, but, assuming something suitable comes along, does anyone see a flaw in this?
