Is tech overtaking current Pyra CPU board design?

[codifies]

https://www.96boards.org/


While its nice to see these open source designs, I wish they'd get on and open the documentation for their GPUs, on my i5 I enjoy open source all the way from bare metal to userland, this means robust *maintainable* opengl drivers but also gles drivers too (handy as you can then easily port to webgl/mobile)


It does seem to me that things are developing so quickly that its very difficult to release something quick enough that it doesn't suffer in comparison either in terms of price or performance


Its going to be interesting to see how the Pyra fairs, but on the other hand its easy to over look killer features like its a pocket portable system with display and (real) keyboard with easily hackable OS...

 

[Neelix]

I thought we'd at least have until the pyra was released before the 'is the pyra outdated' threads started...  guess that was too much to hope for...

- Neelix

 

[WizardStan]

Is tech overtaking current Pyra CPU board design?

No.

 

[Bosbeetle]

Yes it always will, but it wont make the pyra any less usefull

 

[bzar]

Is tech overtaking current Pyra CPU board design?

No.

A case of Betteridge's?

 

[ible]

technology is always advancing. Consider Iphone 4, 5, 6, 6+, and wonder what substantial improvements warrant each successor. I could be upset with Apple for taking the money of people who fall for each new fad, but I'm afraid it's the people's responsibility.

 

[fusion_power]

Pyra development takes a very long time, it's pretty normal that new technologies are coming during such a development phase. That also happens with big Consoles, the "Next Gen" stuff is mostly "Current Gen" if not "Last Gen" when it comes out.

There will be always brand new stuff that will then be used for future developments. Nothing to be worried about.

Oh, matches to the theme, this mysrterious announcement also smells like some "mobile stuff" that will happen soon:

 

[Linux-SWAT]

x86 architecture is better for the Pyra.

 

[TrashyMG]

x86 architecture is better for the Pyra.

Better run..

 

[codifies]

Ya know it does make me wonder given a single core x86_64 and a single core 64bit arm what the difference in benchmarks would be, I've for some reason been under the impression x86 was full of backward compatability kludges and horrors like segmented memory....

 

[Urben]

x86 architecture is better for the Pyra.

iOS is better fot Pyra.

 

[codifies]

better yet go the whole hog and convince microsoft that as well as the PI2 they should support the pyra too, that way we can have a truly miseable experience (well its a toss up with iOS in the ring)

 

[FBnil]

and convince microsoft

We tried that already, the OpenPandora already runs Windows RG successfully, giving you a rich, and fulfilling Windows experience.

Back on topic:

There are many examples of old-tech-but-succesful. Nintendo with its GB and Wii being a good example.

The PS3 that still has more games than PS4.

Pulling it off is the trick. And, should Texas Instruments come with an updated CPU... voilá, last gen again in an eyeblink! (due to the innovative Pyra design, the CPU, the heart of the Pyra, is swappable... take that, Tony Stark!).

Remember: newer != better

 

[moxie]

Tech is always overtaking any given design, as long as your time-to-market is anything longer than two weeks.

 

[Letalis Sonus]

on my i5 I enjoy open source all the way from bare metal to userland

So what about the video BIOS?
BTW: Broadwell introduces Boot Guard, which means it only boots off signed firmwares whose key is being hard-wired into the southbridge. That includes the video BIOS of integrated video cards, it is located within the board's firmware. Screw this crap...

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Not to mention that some intel computers can be controlled even if they are powered off.

 

[Nintendo]

Pyra development takes a very long time, it's pretty normal that new technologies are coming during such a development phase. That also happens with big Consoles, the "Next Gen" stuff is mostly "Current Gen" if not "Last Gen" when it comes out.

There will be always brand new stuff that will then be used for future developments. Nothing to be worried about.

Oh, matches to the theme, this mysrterious announcement also smells like some "mobile stuff" that will happen soon:

OMG HλLF-LIFE 3 confirmed and exclusive to nVIDIA Shield 2 portable!!

 

[codifies]

Oh they are a long way from perfect but, but just alone having documentation from hardware to userland makes a lot of difference, I think though we are a long way off from a totally blobless machine with decent graphics...

 

[Letalis Sonus]

As far as we know by now one of the hottest candidates for a future SoC upgrade might be a yet to be released AMD ARM SoC with Radeon graphics - ED got in touch with them and they showed a lot of interest. Those GPUs might still require some firmware files, but their free driver is pretty awesome nonetheless - we probably won't see any Intel ARM SoCs for a long time, anyway (they did invent XScale, but sold it to Marvell in '06).

I'm really looking forward to the improvements that the new amdgpu kernel module will bring - they want it to be mainline after all, so the free driver will have to be able to use all new features that are being introduced for the proprietary driver. AMD is not aiming at doing it "Broadcom style" (check out the Raspberry Pi GPU situation), they do try to make everything as open as their legal department allows...

 

[ekianjo]

The PS3 that still has more games than PS4.

You don't compare something that was released x years ago with something that is out for way less time.