Do you plan to produce the 2GB pyra?


Mr_Loon

Can't Remember
Joined
Aug 30, 2010
Messages
2,332
Hi ED, as over 98% of pre orders are for the 4GB version and this version appears to be working fine I'm curious, do you still plan to mass produce the 2GB version?

EDIT : Response from ED here
No real answer yet, that will probably be a last minute decision based on tests .)
 
Last edited:
I don't see why he would. He could just have them leave two of the chips off a few of the CPU boards.
 
Because defining two different BoM lists for the suppliers is a non-null cost. It shouldn't be big cost, but it's arguable, not being in posession of all of the relevant facts, that it may be worse doing something about those that ordered the cheaper units.

I personally suspect it's not worth risking alienating a dozen or so preorderers (once of whom is myself), but that's just my pessimism possibly. I personally would not be massively offended if asked for some more money to pay for a 4GB unit, but I already have a pre-preordering voucher guaranteeing my production order (mostly). It still seems like a waste, but if it saved ED some significant amount of money, I could be convinced.
 
I take it you ordered a 2Gb unit @levi ? Mind if I ask why? I ordered a 2Gb WiFi only because of funds and trashy's video showing 2Gb ram usage on the dev board.
 
It's not too late to cancel the 2GB models... i would if i were him.
Why ? Because this will force developers to support 2GB models, kind of like Nintendo forcing Switch devs to support two different GPU frequencies. (dock and undocked)
A lot of software that requires more than 2GB of RAM will either be crippled or just not playable at all.
More RAMs mean that you can also put the game in RAM (via tmpfs) and benefit from faster loading, something hardly possible on the 2GB models.
It's my two cents though, i don't know EvilDragon's opinion on this.

Supporting two different memory modes can be handled easily in the Device Tree Binary. As for real life use of the OMAP5 over the last couple years I can easily say I can barely use the 2GB to the fullest on the OMAP5 devboard even with heavy use. I can't think of many games that would push the memory over 2GB, and even if it did, it would likely be CPU loaded and I feel developers wanting to enable loading data into tmpfs would be rare and not a typical thing that would happen.


That said I totally ordered the 4GB model...
 
I take it you ordered a 2Gb unit @levi ? Mind if I ask why? I ordered a 2Gb WiFi only because of funds and trashy's video showing 2Gb ram usage on the dev board.

Similarly, I was influenced by Trashy's findings. I plan on buying a new CPU board when those become available, and at that point I can go for 4GB if it looks to have been useful, or even buy a new A15 board with 4GB if a new CPU board doesn't look like coming by the time I need more RAM. As is, 4GB looks to be an extravagance, and while it's only a little extra money, I can use that money against a new CPU board more effectively.

But when I placed my order it wasn't that clear how few people would actually think similarly to me - they either want cheapest and go for a standard unit, or best and go for a cellular unit with 4GB RAM. Many even seem to value the RAM over the lack of cell chip (including GPS which I currently plan to use), and go for 4GB units with no cell chip.
 
He can also stop to sell the 2gb model after the end of the first preorders.

About the software, it's still possible to enable ram swap, right?

So even if anything needs more ram, it would be a good way to passby the Ram issue.
 
Yes, swap is always a possibility. Almost necessarily a lot slower than real RAM of course.

Not selling them after the pre-order round is one way to go. I guess another is to stop offering pre-orders of them now, but still fulfil those that have already been sold. I don't think it was too long ago that we had a bunch of 2GB preorders though, so it may be too early to say nobody more will want one.
 
Yes, swap is always a possibility. Almost necessarily a lot slower than real RAM of course.

Not selling them after the pre-order round is one way to go. I guess another is to stop offering pre-orders of them now, but still fulfil those that have already been sold. I don't think it was too long ago that we had a bunch of 2GB preorders though, so it may be too early to say nobody more will want one.
or ED can just upgrade those guys for free and just do 4gb if there really wasn't a huge order for the 2gb version on the pyra if its feesable. just my 2 cents cause i ordered the 4gb version
 
Yeah, he could do that. But it doesn't really do to suggest it, in case it causes a flood of 2GB orders if it starts to seem likely. Also, as I ordered a 2GB unit, it's really not for me to say either.
 
Yeah, he could do that. But it doesn't really do to suggest it, in case it causes a flood of 2GB orders if it starts to seem likely. Also, as I ordered a 2GB unit, it's really not for me to say either.
true. what i was meaning was from say this point forward no more 2gb orders taken and only those guys that ordered the 2gb pyras get the upgrade for free. should have worded it better
 
Given the tiny number of 2GB cpu boards likely to be sold (maybe 50 - 100 total?), it would seem sensible to stop any new 2GB orders, and upgrade all the existing ones to 4GB models.

Do we have any real numbers on the costs involved?
 
As far as I know it's just using four different 1GB chips rather than four 512MB chips. But ED might have already got the 512MB part on order, I dunno. It would also mean only one BoM for ED to maintain and one for the factory to focus on making. On the downside, it might been greater power loss for end users though; that's an unknown at present.
 
Why not use two 1GB chips?
It might be slower (depending on how the bus is organised?), but there are already lots of 1GB chips lying around, without MOQs to worry about
 
Back
Top