Finishing up the hardware


It is still being discussed? Man I really expected 2GB at minimum, even more in future versions.

What about the nand? I could live with 16GB, but 32GB will be much better since we can make use of the debian repos.
 
does the RAM live on the CPU board or the underlying PCB?
It's on the CPU Board, having it on the Pyra Mainboard wouldn't make sense as different SoCs have different Memory needs.
 
ok nice (and thanks).  was worried that small memory here might hurt a CPU upgrade in the future, but that's not the case.
 
It is still being discussed? Man I really expected 2GB at minimum, even more in future versions.

What about the nand? I could live with 16GB, but 32GB will be much better since we can make use of the debian repos.
How much energy does RAM memory need? I suspect it's not a huge amount compared to all the rest, but keep in mind that RAM is always powered, even in standby mode when the screen and the CPU are effectively consuming zero power, so perhaps the power consumption of the RAM does play a role in the battery life.

And I think 4GB most likely consumes more or less twice as much power as 2GB, which most likely consumes four times as much power as 512MB.

When I use my Pandora, RAM is not really an issue at all (both my Pandoras have 512MB RAM). I can use LibreOffice and Firefox at the same time, and still play games or do whatever.

I think the Pyra should have more RAM than the Pandora, but perhaps 1GB is enough. I'm not sure, but if 2GB just ends up being mostly unused, slightly increasing the power consumption and probably increasing the price, then I'm not even sure if 2GB is a good idea. If we're going to have more than 2GB, then I first want to see a realistic use case for which it is actually useful.

For the eMMC on the other hand, the larger the better. Though I wouldn't make it larger than the optimal GB/euro point: typically the largest available one is more expensive (even per GB) than the second or third largest one.

E.g. when I look here:

http://en.chinaflashmarket.com/pricecenter/emmc

then I get the following prices per GB:

eMMC (MLC):

4GB: 0.5875$

8GB: 0.3875$

16GB: 0.3406$

32GB: 0.3531$

64GB: 0.3906$

(the TLC ones are cheaper, but TLC is less reliable than MLC so I think we should probably use MLC)

This indicates that 16GB is currently at the optimal point (two 16GB eMMCs are cheaper than one 32GB eMMC), but the relative price difference between 16GB and 32GB is not big so I would go for 32GB in this case.
 
Who is this compani "goldendelico"?? Isnt Global Components near Micheals Place involved??


Or is goldendeloco the company from Nikolaus who makes our board design??


They wrote something on twitter, they had 75 % of the CPU Board ready..
 
I have come to accept 2GB because most people feel that will be enough for everything practical we can throw at the Pyra.  I would still like 4 or 8 to help futureproof it, but I don't know if my ideas warrant having that much.  I think it was Grench that mentioned having a pair of Android VMs running, which isn't too far off from my own interest in VMs, but probably with different OSs.  Is it possible that 2GB might limit resource hungry commercial games we might otherwise be able to play?

As for the grey case, I am pretty sure that was an option in the poll.  I would be as happy with a somewhat dark grey as I would be with black or dark red,  which are somewhat better imo than clear, which I also kinda want (so the obvious solution for me is a translucent dark red for the bottom with case lighting and stone grey like the pic for the body with black for the back of the lid...did someone mention lava? Lets go all the way.).  I wouldn't want a very light grey or white.  It doesn't matter from a functionality standpoint, so as long as it isn't blue I will still get one.

I will probably get it if the only choice is blue, too.
 
I have come to accept 2GB because most people feel that will be enough for everything practical we can throw at the Pyra.  
Even with heavy multi-tasking I've been hard pressed to consume more than 750MBs on the Devboard. 
 
I have come to accept 2GB because most people feel that will be enough for everything practical we can throw at the Pyra.  
Even with heavy multi-tasking I've been hard pressed to consume more than 750MBs on the Devboard. 
What about metasploit (if possible) or VMs and games like I mentioned?  I don't have specific games in mind since the ones I am most interested in either don't run at all, or are nearly unplayable, on x86 Linux boxes.
 
It is still being discussed? Man I really expected 2GB at minimum, even more in future versions.

What about the nand? I could live with 16GB, but 32GB will be much better since we can make use of the debian repos.
How much energy does RAM memory need? I suspect it's not a huge amount compared to all the rest, but keep in mind that RAM is always powered, even in standby mode when the screen and the CPU are effectively consuming zero power, so perhaps the power consumption of the RAM does play a role in the battery life.

And I think 4GB most likely consumes more or less twice as much power as 2GB, which most likely consumes four times as much power as 512MB.

When I use my Pandora, RAM is not really an issue at all (both my Pandoras have 512MB RAM). I can use LibreOffice and Firefox at the same time, and still play games or do whatever.

I think the Pyra should have more RAM than the Pandora, but perhaps 1GB is enough. I'm not sure, but if 2GB just ends up being mostly unused, slightly increasing the power consumption and probably increasing the price, then I'm not even sure if 2GB is a good idea. If we're going to have more than 2GB, then I first want to see a realistic use case for which it is actually useful.

For the eMMC on the other hand, the larger the better. Though I wouldn't make it larger than the optimal GB/euro point: typically the largest available one is more expensive (even per GB) than the second or third largest one.

E.g. when I look here:

http://en.chinaflashmarket.com/pricecenter/emmc

then I get the following prices per GB:

eMMC (MLC):

4GB: 0.5875$

8GB: 0.3875$

16GB: 0.3406$

32GB: 0.3531$

64GB: 0.3906$

(the TLC ones are cheaper, but TLC is less reliable than MLC so I think we should probably use MLC)

This indicates that 16GB is currently at the optimal point (two 16GB eMMCs are cheaper than one 32GB eMMC), but the relative price difference between 16GB and 32GB is not big so I would go for 32GB in this case.
Sorry for being so badly informed about the development, but what "eMMC" are we talking about, and why do we need it to be that big? What other memory-related topic have i missed?

I have come to accept 2GB because most people feel that will be enough for everything practical we can throw at the Pyra.
Even with heavy multi-tasking I've been hard pressed to consume more than 750MBs on the Devboard.
What kind of multitasking was that?
 
Sorry for being so badly informed about the development, but what "eMMC" are we talking about, and why do we need it to be that big? What other memory-related topic have i missed?

He's referring to the internal storage which the OS will be installed to.  Larger internal storage will mean more applications can be installed without having to put them on an SD card.

-Neelix
 
Sorry for being so badly informed about the development, but what "eMMC" are we talking about, and why do we need it to be that big? What other memory-related topic have i missed?
 

He's referring to the internal storage which the OS will be installed to.  Larger internal storage will mean more applications can be installed without having to put them on an SD card.


-Neelix
Somehow i forgot that the solution was to keep both the microSD slot and the eMMC.


64M sure is enough for me ^_^
 
Back
Top