Diy Sdxc Mod

[twent4]

I was wondering if the HW/FW gurus could shed some light on this... i understand that a year ago SDHC top limit was probably enough, just wondering if a homebrew mod to up one of the ports into SDXC is anything at all feasible.

 

[WizardStan]

The theory currently goes that we should be able to use SDXC sized cards with nothing more than a firmware update. We won't be able to take advantage of all the features, notably the increased speed, without change in hardware, but just getting the larger sizes should be enough.

 

[droneb]

From what i know, SDHC and SDXC are the same hardware technology that can scale up to 2 TB, but due to some Technical Factors SDHC was severed on the 32GB line (2^35 address bus). but on the original document, it was stated that a full SDHC compliant hardware should be able to run the 2^41 address bus as a forward compatibility)

im not sure about the architecture of the Panda, but depending on the memory access method it sould be changeable by Software/firmware, or adapatable by changing the hardware access buffers.

 

[Squidge]

That just reads wrong. The is no "address bus" as such for SD. It has a 1/4/8 bit data bus (with 4 bit being dominant in commercial devices using dedicated SD controllers, and 1 bit in homebrew setups where they are bit bashed over SPI or GPIO). You send the address as a parameter to a read or write command. The original SD spec stated byte start, so was 2^32 = 4GB max. SDHC/SDXC uses 512-byte block number instead of byte so now its 4GBlocks max or 2TB. The SDHC spec reserved some of the bits of CSIZE which stated card size so you can't actually get a standards compliant SDHC with > 32GB (and some drivers may reject such cards as invalid).

Since the faster speeds of SDHC are optional and all SDHC cards support 100Khz, theres no reason why SDXC shouldn't support such speeds also, so hardware shouldn't be a problem. I'll doubt the hardware can support the 100Mhz of SDXC (The new max speed, compared to the 50Mhz of SDHC).

 

[Grench]

IF it is possible to upgrade the OpenPandora from SDHC to SDXC, it will likely require purchasing an SDXC license.

I see that as a great low-cost add on for the 2nd batch consoles with a $free to $20 upgrade to bring us all along for the ride. It would be a nice selling point for the new ones as well.

IMHO - Not a mod.

 

[Yigguth]

Honestly two 32 GB SDHC cards is more than enough. You can put hundreds of games and dozens of movies on that

 

[musicalwoods]

Honestly two 32 GB SDHC cards is more than enough. You can put hundreds of games and dozens of movies on that

"640kb ought to be enough for anybody."


XD Sorry, I just had to...

 

[twent4]

Honestly two 32 GB SDHC cards is more than enough. You can put hundreds of games and dozens of movies on that

I agree, but considering Pandora being a bit of a novelty item, I'd like it to be as reasonably future-proof as possible. I also want to put most of my music on it. It's not a huge deal, but after chuckling @musicalwood's comment i remembered that there's never such a thing as "too much" capacity.

 

[ImmaculateChimp]

All this talk of SDHC and SDXC cards is certainly important, but do we yet know the maximum sustained read & write speeds of the Pandora to and from the SDHC card slots?(if this has already been covered elsewhere I'm sorry) If we don't yet know could someone ask MWeston or EvilDragon or someone else in-the-know what they would be?

 

[Squidge]

IF it is possible to upgrade the OpenPandora from SDHC to SDXC, it will likely require purchasing an SDXC license.

Where does it say that? It sounds complete nonsense. You should only have to execute a HALA (which they should already have) regardless of what card types they support.

(Of course, you need to be a member of SDcard before you can execute a HALA, before anyone picks me up on that )

 

[Trip]

Don't forget that you will also be able to use other storage options with it having WiFi, Bluetooth and full USB included.

There's also on-line hard drives, network drives and plenty of free home server software for hosting all your music + photo's etc. These become much more usable now as Wireless networks keep gaining in popularity and 3G dongles start to become a little cheaper.

 

[Pleng]

Don't forget that you will also be able to use other storage options with it having WiFi, Bluetooth and full USB included.

which means, of course, if all else fails you can connect a USB SDXC reader which will cost next to nothing within a couple of months of the first SDXC cards being available (anybody know when the first ones are due to arrive yet? I thought it was meant to be March this year!) So sure, it'll be great news if the built in slots ARE able to utilize the format, but carrying around an extra card reader wouldn't be the end of the world either - especially as that means you're maximum storage capacity would become 64Gb (2 * 32Gb SDHC via the built in ports) plus the maximum available size of an SDXC card at any given time(via USB)!

 

[Squidge]

Or you just buy a 256GB USB Key - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/262621/the-650-flash-drive

£650 is a little much for such a device, but I'm expecting 256GB SDXC cards to be around the same price at the moment.

 

[Enverex]

Or you just buy a 256GB USB Key - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/262621/the-650-flash-drive

£650 is a little much for such a device, but I'm expecting 256GB SDXC cards to be around the same price at the moment.

Problem with that is firstly you have the stick jutting out the back of the device and secondly the extra power drain. The first is an issue for me.

 

[Gricey]

I don't know if I'm just too much of a retro nut, but I kind of like the idea of carrying a few cards around with different stuff on - music, games, and scrawling on them in marker pen - AMIGA GAMES 1/3 etc

 

[rv6502]

I don't know if I'm just too much of a retro nut, but I kind of like the idea of carrying a few cards around with different stuff on - music, games, and scrawling on them in marker pen - AMIGA GAMES 1/3 etc

for extra points add a patch to the SD/SDHC drivers that makes an annoying click every 3 seconds or so when there's no cards in the "drive"

 

[MonkeyChops]

3 cards for just amiga games? do they even make cards that small anymore? I do like the idea though, someone was making sd card labels for that kind of setup awhile back.

 

[Jourdy288]

It's not a huge deal, but after chuckling @musicalwood's comment i remembered that there's never such a thing as "too much" capacity.

When there's space to waste, innovation happens. Didn't you people read The Long Tail? I did. I actually started a thread about this not too long ago... I suppose a USB reader for SDXC would do, though. Built in SDXC will probably be in the next generation Pandora.

 

[Gricey]

I don't know if I'm just too much of a retro nut, but I kind of like the idea of carrying a few cards around with different stuff on - music, games, and scrawling on them in marker pen - AMIGA GAMES 1/3 etc

for extra points add a patch to the SD/SDHC drivers that makes an annoying click every 3 seconds or so when there's no cards in the "drive"

Aww, hell yeah!

3 cards for just amiga games? do they even make cards that small anymore? I do like the idea though, someone was making sd card labels for that kind of setup awhile back.

Maybe. I have 24G of amiga emulation stuff, and I by no means have it all. So unless I buy 32G cards (I won't yet, 16 are so much cheaper), I'm on the way to 3

 

[Squidge]

Problem with that is firstly you have the stick jutting out the back of the device and secondly the extra power drain. The first is an issue for me.

Yes, but it's surely better than the alternative of buying both a USB SDXC card reader and a 256GB SDXC card

(Although I suppose if the card did get updated drivers later on you could lose the card reader and still have the card, thus losing the sticky out bit)