Hardware differences between 1st and later batches?

[midna25]

Anyone know if there will be any hardware differences between the first and later batches of the pandora? I would like to hop on the bandwagon of a pandora shipment asap, but if hardware improvements are going to be made, maybe I'd like to wait...

 

[Tor]

As for differences, none has been mentioned or announced or even guessed at yet, as far as I know.

 

[Spirit]

It would only be minor fixes if unforseen bugs appear. Nothing major.

 

[Tor]

The biggest and most unexpected hardware upgrade actually happened after the preorder date (and we'll all get that version).. the upgrade to 256MB RAM and 512MB NAND. With that upgrade the current design seems to be so good on all fronts that the product should have a quite good lifetime before it starts getting long in the teeth.

 

[Alpha2]

Considering how long the pandora has been in the works I'd besurprised if anything else changed for any other reason than avoiding a catastrophic failure.

 

[gruso]

What Schbirid said basically. There won't be any design change between batches, just bug fixes (if any).

There may be a "Pandora 2" one day, but not in the next few years.

 

[LemurGuy]

I apologize if this is beating a dead horse (especially since this thread seems to have not had any replies in a while), but I personally would like to see a minor revision of getting an OMAP 3630 maybe with more RAM and possibly more flash or such in a later batch (within reason, of course). I didn't suggest an OMAP 4 as since they're still a long way from taping out and the OMAP 36XX may not prove too hard to integrate into the current design or so I'm guessing.

 

[Tom`]

I apologize if this is beating a dead horse (especially since this thread seems to have not had any replies in a while), but I personally would like to see a minor revision of getting an OMAP 3630 maybe with more RAM and possibly more flash or such in a later batch (within reason, of course). I didn't suggest an OMAP 4 as since they're still a long way from taping out and the OMAP 36XX may not prove too hard to integrate into the current design or so I'm guessing.

Craig has stated that there will not be any hardware changes to the current-generation Pandora, regardless of what "batch" it is. I'm pretty sure this was on the old board, so I don't have a link, but the reasoning is that it would split the community, as well as (probably) raising costs.

I believe the OMAP 4 is on the table for a possible Pandora 2, but again I can't seem to find the post where Craig talked about it...

 

[Kramy]

Plus, wasn't the 3630 not as open with drivers? And it might introduce some compatibility issues when porting beagleboard software.

Keeping the platforms as close as possible means they can share software resources, somewhat. ^_^

 

[pelrun]

After the marathon getting the Pandora 1 into production, you can be sure craigix and the team won't be going through it all again for at least a couple of years.

 

[Vorporeal]

They have stated multiple times that they won't be creating a new "revision" of the device with improved hardware, because it would create a software rift, with some titles being designed only for the more powerful revision, leaving other users in the dust. Not going to happen. The only changes would be PCB revisions to fix minor hardware bugs.

 

[pelrun]

because it would create a software rift, with some titles being designed only for the more powerful revision, leaving other users in the dust.

Or result in everyone cancelling their Pandora 1 orders to wait for a newer version, killing the OpenPandora company in it's crib. People did learn from Adam Osborne's (apparently apocryphal, but still enlightening) fatal error

Half the reason that the team has taken their time getting the Pandora to market is to ensure that the hardware is as solid as possible, reducing the need for any future revisions. And besides, if you've been exposed to the PC market for any length of time you know it's completely pointless waiting for a 'new and improved' version anyway...

 

[second exodous]

I hope Texas Instruments blazes the trail for them with a Beagleboard project that use their new chips. I think the BB has helped a lot of developers look at their ARM offerings. It also cut a ton of the work out for the Pandora team, or anyone else that wants to use it for that matter.

I think as soon as Ti releases a new BB, if they do, then work on the Pandora 2 should start. The second time around it will be a lot easier for Craig and the team. If they don't and a copy cat takes the next BB and makes a new game system they may never get a chance to make a next handheld.

I think this won't happen for at least a year after the Pandora comes out, and then you add time onto that to design everything, so there is no reason to hold out for the next batch or the next Pandora.

 

[Dauric]

The only revisions this early on would be because of systemic failures to Pandora units as people used them, not because of plans for a "Pandora ver 1.2".

 

[latiosu]

I think the only real improvement on the second batch will be not waiting +9 months between preorder and shipment.

There won't be any differences and if there were, they would be to fix something (but the devs are doing a lot of testing in order to prevent that situation).

 

[hansfranz]

the only improvement will be a lower price i guess. the specs of the pandora are not the best...anymore at least. and if you want to sell this 2 years from now witout a faster processor it will be laughable because better solujtions will be on the market by then and better systems offered for littler manny.

 

[emcp]

the only improvement will be a lower price i guess. the specs of the pandora are not the best...anymore at least. and if you want to sell this 2 years from now witout a faster processor it will be laughable because better solujtions will be on the market by then and better systems offered for littler manny.

what was the point of that post

the 2nd batch is actually most likely going to be more expensive, whether it goes down, it might but it might not, usually does
also great way of stating the obvious that technology improves

 

[Dunny]

the only improvement will be a lower price i guess. the specs of the pandora are not the best...anymore at least. and if you want to sell this 2 years from now witout a faster processor it will be laughable because better solujtions will be on the market by then and better systems offered for littler manny.

what was the point of that post

the 2nd batch is actually most likely going to be more expensive, whether it goes down, it might but it might not, usually does
also great way of stating the obvious that technology improves

Ignore him - he's just bitter and having a little bitch-fest of his own because his Pandora hasn't shipped yet. Given the life-span of the DS (67+33mhz, iirc) and the PSP (333mhz dual processors) - both significantly lower spec'd than the panda, yet not pushed yet in terms of non-emulation software. It will be a very long time before homebrew game authors can push it to the limits.

D.

 

[axenzoku]

You know, my thoughts, if there is going to be a Pandora2 later on, the hardware might skip a generation or two... You know instead of going simply from omap 3 to 4, it might be 5 or 6 or whenever there may be a different mini board with that "sweet spot" for those "perfect specs" for other stuff down the line...
But that last comment of why they wont release different versions of the same console: "because it will split the community"
That is the most important reason I'd say not to keep pumping out all these different versions of the same handheld... As you see with PSP, there's just a ton of different remakes of the same thing (even tho it didn't really change the Operating System or playability of games). But when it comes to Pandora and it's default OS Angstrom, from what I saw in the software archive, there's going to be skins, apps, games, etc. So changing things might result in compatability issues from what I could expect to happen.

 

[hansfranz]

the only improvement will be a lower price i guess. the specs of the pandora are not the best...anymore at least. and if you want to sell this 2 years from now witout a faster processor it will be laughable because better solujtions will be on the market by then and better systems offered for littler manny.

what was the point of that post

the 2nd batch is actually most likely going to be more expensive, whether it goes down, it might but it might not, usually does
also great way of stating the obvious that technology improves

Ignore him - he's just bitter and having a little bitch-fest of his own because his Pandora hasn't shipped yet. Given the life-span of the DS (67+33mhz, iirc) and the PSP (333mhz dual processors) - both significantly lower spec'd than the panda, yet not pushed yet in terms of non-emulation software. It will be a very long time before homebrew game authors can push it to the limits.

D.

you really think i buy the pandora to play HOMEBREW? come on... evrybody buys this because of the emulators... > 1 emulator = 1000 playable games, 1 homebrew game = well.. 1game! sux!
and if its going to be even more expensive... well good night. there exist good alternatives to the pandora already and the price is at the very limit i think, a little more and nobodys gonna buy it.
bitter? why TF am i bitter? did i say anything bad about the pandora? ive just stated my honest opinion you dam fanboy kid!