Modularity and memory


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jontheramer2

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As memory is getting cheaper fast and 2-4gb is on the low side of things (the 'competition' launching this year ships with 8gb) and the Pyra touting modularity, what are the chances of getting 8gb this year? I would pay substantially for that option.
 
Pyra doesn't need more than 4gb. Even 4gb is much more than Pyra actually needs.
 
While the OMAP5 actually supports 8Gb of Ram, a single Application can only use 4Gb of them (As its still an 32-Bit SoC). Also tests have shown that 2Gb Ram already is more than enough, as the SoC itself becomes the Bottleneck when trying to actually use all that Ram.
 
jontheramer2 said:
(the 'competition' launching this year ships with 8gb)
Click to expand...
Might that 'competition' use Windows? Because if they use Windows... they Need that RAM for Windows....

Aside from that... I use RAM to keep databases/datafiles in memory to make them snappy, and Webservers can cache ALL the requests... but eventhough the Pyra can be a server... you might want to use other hardware for that.

On the Pyra you will be able to create a RAM disk (yes this works on Pandora too iirc, but there is so little space...):
Code: 
mkdir /tmp/ramdisk; chmod 777 /tmp/ramdisk
mount -t tmpfs -o size=5G tmpfs /tmp/ramdisk/
 
If the Pyra ever get's a 8 gig ram upgrade it will most likely come with a new SoC. I'm sure ED has a lot of ides for the furture of the system when it comes to upgrades. But I don't think you'll get it this year. Trying to keep up with the competition on mobile SoC's and Ram memory is almost impossible unless you're a huge company. And most SoC's never really get's to stretch their true hardware because of how fast the market is progressing.
 
Well, the memory is on the same board as the CPU so it is upgradeable. As far as competition I do remember seeing a UMPC that ran Linux and Android, it had a octacore with 8 gb of ram but it didn't have game controls or as many ports or storage options. I looked and looked for it but can't find it, it was on kickstarter or indiegogo, I doubt it would be ready before the Pyra though.
 
To answer the question as written, I imagine the probability is greater than zero but depends entirely on just how well the initial revision actually sells. If not enough 2 and 4GB versions sell then an 8GB certainly isn't going to happen.
It also depends on the availability of chips. If I recall correctly (and I am almost certainly forgetting something) the CPU board has 4 sets of pads for memory modules: the original 2GB design had four 512MB, the 4GB has four 1GB, and the current 2GB design maybe uses only two 1GB (leaving the other two empty). If 2GB drop in replacements exist then it'd be a pretty simple "upgrade" (by which I mean the consumer would need to buy an entirely new board, it's an upgrade in manufacturing) but I don't know whether such chips will ever exist.
 
I'd have thought getting any new CPU board out this year is unlikely, given I don't really expect the initial system to ship by June. I'd have thought it'd be at least a year on sale before ED really can start thinking about designing a new CPU board, even just a simple RAM increase with compatible parts.

@WizardStan I'm not aware of any 2GB redesign - as far as I've heard the few of us that've ordered one are still getting four 512MB parts. There was some speculation regarding 4GB boards with half-broken RAM being sold as 2GB boards, but it was then pointed out that this would have half the bandwidth of the genuine 2GB boards. We've not had an official suggestions that they're even considering this proposal, and ED's said in the past that he has enough 512MB parts already for now. I suggest there'd have to be a dramatic uptick in the sales of 2GB boards for him to run out and have to order more.
 
I was talking about the newly announced and funded gpd pocket which runs Ubuntu or Win. And while I appreciate the 'you do not need 8gb' comments I would say: that is not for you to say. I rather have a 4gb ramdisk and 4gb mem than not a 4gb ramdisk. Also, as someone who works almost fulltime some months of the year while travelling on a Pandora doing software development,I know fairly well how Linux and memory stack up. I have no issues filling 64gb mem if it had that but I start finding 4gb too low. If there is a hardware restriction that prevents it from happening then ok, but 'you do not need it' is not a thing when it comes to computer memory. You always need as much as you can get.
 
There's sure to be special use-cases for when you could need more than 4 GB of RAM. Virtualization, for one, comes to mind. I have no problem filling up 8 GB on my desktop, which, without swap, means I intimately know the OOM killer in linux. For me, it's no problem keeping the 4 GB memory limit on my laptop when I try, since most of my memory problems stem from never closing shit I'm done with since four weeks ago. Do you have a specific work-load in mind where > 4 GB would be highly benificial? I'm curious.

Trashy often cites his experiments where opening a lot of crap usually slows down the CPU before the RAM is filled up, but I could easily fill up the 2 GB within 5 minutes doing regular things if I tried.
 
Klumpen said:
How's Linux support now on that thing?

PS: It's not modular so probably neither competition nor on-topic.
Click to expand...
No idea, probably as bad as the keyboard.
I don't like GPD, I touched a XD once and would never buy it, build quality was poor and gaming controls horrible.
 
I put 'competition' between '' as I do not consider it competition but many people will; runs Linux, looks nice, long battery. Not all that interesting for gaming but I myself do not care about that mostly either. I use UMPCs for coding on the road.
 
@slaeshjag I've also stated I prob could find some bizarre application that could use the RAM, I wanted to demonstrate typical use applications.

gpb said:
Compiling would automatically benefit from a larger filesystem cache. You could even speed up more if you use /dev/shm [1]

[1] https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/what-is-devshm-and-its-practical-usage.html
Click to expand...

I've compiled a bit of heavy programs on the devboard and never peaked the memory above 1GB let alone used all of the 2GB available. The only way I can see you using more is kicking off a ton of jobs at once like 20 at once, but then you're loading the CPU down to a crawl.
 
TrashyMG said:
@slaeshjag I've also stated I prob could find some bizarre application that could use the RAM, I wanted to demonstrate typical use applications.



I've compiled a bit of heavy programs on the devboard and never peaked the memory above 1GB let alone used all of the 2GB available. The only way I can see you using more is kicking off a ton of jobs at once like 20 at once, but then you're loading the CPU down to a crawl.
Click to expand...
Compile latest Qt (with WebEngine), Chromium or Firefox then. If it's not enough, activate LTO...
If you prefer to compile some games, try FreeOrion, VCMI or FiFE (the engine for Unknown Horizon), the compile is pretty heavy too.
 
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ImageMagick can be such a memory eater when handling (very) larges images. I increasingly need to rewrite my stuff for Gimp. I orderer a 4_GB version because of my lazyness. I plead guilty.
 
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