OMAP4440 Dual Core


until someone shows me that the only reason we dont have a nds/psp/gamecube/ps3 emulator is because of lack of cpu power, stick with what we've got, so if you want more power, show me that 600mhz isnt enough for you, write a nds/psp/gamecube/ps3 emulator and show me
 
until someone shows me that the only reason we dont have a nds/psp/gamecube/ps3 emulator is because of lack of cpu power, stick with what we've got, so if you want more power, show me that 600mhz isnt enough for you, write a nds/psp/gamecube/ps3 emulator and show me
I don't know how much more work it would be to prove a point, but I requested some time ago that someone port this nintendo ds emulator -> http://www.desmume.com/ the unanimous reply was it would be a waist of time because not enough power. I don't know how much would have to be re-written if a more powerful cpu came about. But I kinda agree it would be sort of a waist of time. Because alot of the base code would more than likely be changed between now and then and it would have to be re-written, also I'm sure whatever new cpu isn't going to be 100% compatible with what's out there now, or would it? It would be really cool to see as a semi-functional proof of concept that would work on future hardware (if it worked like that)
 
We got the green light from TI to make a new unit with this SoC, yep, but it NEEDS a complete board redesign, it's no drop-in replacement or anything... so it'll take a few years.

Can I pre-order one now? (not joking)


Actually, can I just subscribe to Pandora?


A new open-source, handheld emulation beast every 2 years would be pretty nifty.
 
until someone shows me that the only reason we dont have a nds/psp/gamecube/ps3 emulator is because of lack of cpu power, stick with what we've got, so if you want more power, show me that 600mhz isnt enough for you, write a nds/psp/gamecube/ps3 emulator and show me
I want to emulate my Core 2 Duo laptop, I think we need more power.


But also I'd rather just wait until OPT has everything lined up, because at this point I'd be happy to have a Pandora that couldn't even emulate a Dreamcast. (I hate emulating for emulation's sake anyway)
 
until someone shows me that the only reason we dont have a nds/psp/gamecube/ps3 emulator is because of lack of cpu power, stick with what we've got, so if you want more power, show me that 600mhz isnt enough for you, write a nds/psp/gamecube/ps3 emulator and show me
You need to see a "working" PS3 emulator to understand that a 600 Mhz Cortex A8 can't emulate a cell processor at reasonable speed? I'm pretty confident that no matter how much effort you put into it, you're not going to succeed. I don't see any reason to waste a lot of time to even attempt it.


NDS and PSP might actually work to some degree, but it will require a lot of work. Feel free to volunteer.
 
<edit>Ugh, whoosh.</edit>

:lol:


EDIT: I love it when swearing people use swear words in a way that, when interpreted literally, gives the whole sentence a hilarious new meaning :) . This works especially well in finnish. :D
 
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Will the greatest respect to ED, I think this is ridiculous. Would improving the processor on newer revisions upset people who've had their Pandora for months already, and fallen in love with it? The early pre-orderers and premium upgraders have got their great reward already, they've had so much longer to play with it! It'd be very nice to sweet things for the people who waited the longest.


What an insult, to deny them a better processor, so as not to offend early recipients? They really deserve 3 years of interest or whatever, a freebie processor upgrade is a small token, compared to what preorderers have given by funding the company.


If can have more RAM too, fantastic. I'll buy another one, and give my 1st edition one to my son.


The price for Pandoras has apparently gone up from $350 to $500. Nothing wrong with throwing in a faster processor at the higher price point either. I'm very happy with my 1GHZ-capable Pandora as it is, and wouldn't begrudge someone else 1.2GHZ and 512MB or whatever they can get with the other SoC.


Progress and improvement for the project is much more important than to be oversensitive imagining people's possible feelings and reactions! Hell, if people have stuck with the project this far, there's nothing OP can do to upset that.


What sort of person would want the current product to be inferior for no good reason, just so that their earlier purchase would remain the best available? Stop all progess now! That's just crazy.


Call it the Panodra 1b and charge an extra $50 for it if you like.
 
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^ get this: revising the current production is IMPOSSIBLE.


Wait for Pandora v2 in a few years.
 
We got the green light from TI to make a new unit with this SoC, yep, but it NEEDS a complete board redesign, it's no drop-in replacement or anything... so it'll take a few years.
He said nothing about "nope, you won't get this processor, EVER!".


He just said that the current mainboard can't be used with this SoC.


Designing a new mainboard takes time and money, and they currently lack both of these.


Now case closed!
 
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Even though I'm pretty sure it's infeasible, I just really want to see someone with good POP soldering machinery/skills make an adapter board to convert signals from an OMAP4 to the OMAP3 pad on the Pandora. And if they're really on top of their game, build it into an expansion module that fits on the bottom of the Pandora like those expansion drives for the N64 and Gamecube. :lol:


Edit: I mean, just as a cool hack, not anything for production or whatnot.
 
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Even though I'm pretty sure it's infeasible, I just really want to see someone with good POP soldering machinery/skills make an adapter board to convert signals from an OMAP4 to the OMAP3 pad on the Pandora. And if they're really on top of their game, build it into an expansion module that fits on the bottom of the Pandora like those expansion drives for the N64 and Gamecube. :lol:


Edit: I mean, just as a cool hack, not anything for production or whatnot.
Basically this'll never happen. Even if theoretically someone were skilled enough to reroute all the wires it still wouldn't be a drop-in replacement because the chips are not the same. People seem to think that it's like the difference between an older and a newer intel processor, but this is not just the processor, this is the entire system on that chip. So the current pandora design is pretty much unusable for a new SoC unless someone has got microscopic soldering and modding skills and is willing to rewrite a lot of the code.
 
A potentially simpler solution for the short- to medium-term would be an upgrade along the lines of the BeagleBoard-xM, which AIUI uses the AM37/DM37x chip. If this could be incorporated in the Pandora without excessive redesign, existing software should be persuaded to work without too much difficulty and a higher clock speed would be available without going so far out of spec. (Note that similar software work has recently been undertaken to get RISC OS working on the -xM board.) PS I'm still happy to receive the current Pandora - a subsequent version in a year or so could always retail for a slightly higher price.

Using the faster OMAP and more RAM is already possible with the latest board revision.


But as I already said a while ago: We won't change the CPU right now as it would be unfair for all the guys who have been waiting.


We changed it in case that sometime in the future, TI will no longer sell the slower version. You never know. And in case that happens, the faster SoC can be used without a board change,

That's great I'll send you my pandora to do the upgrade, and pay for it as much as you want (almost ;) ), whenever you are ready!
 
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