Finalizing everything!

[ible]

excellent! 4GB would be a nice addition (i would probably bump up my order, though i'd be happy with 2GB), and if you can split it between WiFi-only and 4G units (despite the overhead), people would probably be happier. (but who knows, maybe everyone who wants 4G wants 4GB ).

isn't 4GB still addressable via 32 bits, or am i missing something? (do you have to address each individual bit in RAM, or can you just address the bytes?)

 

[fusion_power]

Umm, of course, otherwise the discs would always scratch the case

But the Pandora nubs didn't had any gaps there, maybe because they were on piece, Pyra nubs seems to need the big hole in the case because the caps are fit from the bottom through.. Strange design decission but OK.

Connect S-ATA harddisk to the Pyra

I would prefer a Thunderbolt 3 connector to plug in external Monitors and graphic cards!

Okay, so we'll make a unit for you which only has keyboard lights and nothing else

Yay! Keyboard Lights FTW!

 

[directive0]

Great!

But what of the colour, ED. Have you made a decision as to the colour, will you announce your choices, will there be an official poll? Inquiring minds want to know what your plan is there!

 

[the_marshal]

Thx for the update. I really like the idea of a 4GB Pyra. While I can a lot of people be happy with 2GB I feel the extra memory will prove useful for multitasking or other memory intensive task.
Also there really are not that many nice ARM device out there with 4GB to run Linux.

Making the 4G version with 4GB sound like a good plan. (and 4G/4GB... sound kinda obvious)
It might also help getting more 4G version made which could help with the minimum quantity needed for the 4G chip.

 

[Sebzy]

For us folks on the pre-pre-order train do we finalise our model selection on May 1st or at a later time?

 

[elvissteinjr]

4 GB sound nice, but I'll probably stick to 2 if it's gonna force 4G on me. I understand the reasons, though.

Everything else is also good news. Hoping that everything remaining will go smoothly.

 

[FelixNemis]

isn't 4GB still addressable via 32 bits, or am i missing something? (do you have to address each individual bit in RAM, or can you just address the bytes?)

No, the OMAP5 is 32-bit. It has a PAE-like system for addressing a physical address space larger than 2³²

 

[rSl]

arrr! avast landlubsters! it's springtime! best part of the year to pre-order some quality hardware, pyrate-style (real pyrates pay for it)!

 

[TrashyMG]

Well my stress case proved it hard to use all the 2GBs on heavy multitasking, but I know things like minecraft, some of those mono enabled games and such will use up that memory quick all by themselves.

Honestly I would like an option for a 4GB SoC board without having to invest into a cellular capable base unit. But I guess we can't have everything...

 

[comradekingu]

1. Is it possible to charge the battery with two USBs and power the pyra with last one?
Maybe through the hot-switch battery so that unplugging isn't problematic (should that be a problem)

2. Can the logo be made so that it snaps into place? Say you introduce some flex top to bottom, insert it, and it catches on some half-circle notches and stays put once the flex is released.

One way to reduce cost is to add spacers to the pandora batteries and ship with those.
It uses existing stock, and offers a lightweight option for people who don't go (star-) trekking.

Edit: The 2GB version with only the 2 chips will potentially use less power, and carry the benefit of being easier to upgrade manually, as you dont have to desolder all 4, to add 4, but only add 2 new ones.

As a crier for a GGGGs version, I must say thank you for investigating what is to me a dream device.

Edit: It seems the OMAP5 itself supports populating half the banks, but that is out of 8

http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/swcu130/swcu130.pdf#page=20&zoom=auto,0,350

Standard Volatile Memory
The OMAP5432 ES2.0 processor supports
two DDR3 channels, accessible only via external memory devices.
Each channel supports two chip-selects, so eight memory devices are provisioned on the PCB.
The memory device used is Micron P/N MT41K256M16HA-125IT:E.
This device is a 4Gb device,so up to 32Gb (4GB) of DDR3 can be supported.
However, the current PCB only has the devices on CS0 populated for each channel, so the total amount of DDR3 provided is 16Gb (2GB).

 

[ible]

@FelixNemis
that doesn't answer my question...
32 bits gives 2^32 = 4294967296 possible memory addresses
4 GB = 4*(1024)^3 = 4294967296 bytes

so if RAM is addressed by bytes (or something higher, but not something lower like bits), you don't need PAE; a 32 bit system can address 4GB of memory without it.

 

[slaeshjag]

There's more than memory in the physical address space. All embedded hardware periphials like GPU, SPI/I²C controller, GPIO etc. etc. is mapped into the physical address space. This is the reason why 32-bit x86 systems can't address more than 3-3.5 GB of RAM without PAE, there's other shit in the way.

 

[TrashyMG]

@FelixNemis
that doesn't answer my question...
32 bits gives 2^32 = 4294967296 possible memory addresses
4 GB = 4*(1024)^3 = 4294967296 bytes

so if RAM is addressed by bytes (or something higher, but not something lower like bits), you don't need PAE; a 32 bit system can address 4GB of memory without it.

According to the technical specifications it claims the OMAP5 can address up to 8GB of RAM.

 

[TheOldOne]

Well my stress case proved it hard to use all the 2GBs on heavy multitasking, but I know things like minecraft, some of those mono enabled games and such will use up that memory quick all by themselves.

Minecraft (Modded) the one thing I hope to run on the pyra that wouldn't work well with only 2gb of ram.

 

[Puppetmaster]

One question. Would it be possible to create a solution that deactivates one half of the 4GB RAM for Power saving purposes ? Maybe with a switch on the CPU- Board. So that you can choose between full and half Memory.
Or is it allready to late or to complicated in this stage of development ?

 

[FelixNemis]

@ible yeah I misread that as "is 4GB still addressable via 32 bits" instead of "isn't 4GB still addressable via 32 bits"

 

[Grench]

With the changes to the charging circuit, will it step up the charge rate through the USB OTG 3.0 port to @2A like big tablets do?

Will the charge rates differ between the two ports?

If I have the Pyra fully loaded down with SD cards & USB devices and running full tilt 100% power usage on all systems and plugged into the wall, will there be enough juice to charge or would it theoretically still discharge at that theoretical use?

 

[TrashyMG]

If I have the Pyra fully loaded down with SD cards & USB devices and running full tilt 100% power usage on all systems and plugged into the wall, will there be enough juice to charge or would it theoretically still discharge at that theoretical use?

On the devboard I was only using about 650mA when running a 720p h264 video decoded entirely by the CPU. add the LCD, SD cards and such It may put things close to or over 1A. Isn't the charger circuit still using the micro USB 2.0 Serial debug port?

 

[Pocak]

OK, I'll be that guy and point out that taking away half the memory chips will halve memory bandwidth. That will obviously decrease active power consumption, just not energy per bit.

*hides*

 

[Jumpman]

Awwwww yeah, bring it ON!

Chris