Our New Machine, Pandora

[DaveC]

Yes you can drag around external devices but that kind of ruins portability if you have to have some kind of battery brick with a wire connected while you use it. It would be much nicer if it was a quick swap like the GP2X or PSP, with NO tools needed.

No it doesn't. On the plane/train whatever I'm sure it wouldn't bother you at all. I don't know what you mean by "brick", obviously it wouldn't have to be any bigger than actual battery (which is not going to be large), just like the spare you'd be carrying around.


Well I know I would like to just pop out the old battery and put in a new one and then put the spent one away in a pocket, bag etc. Then you could play free of wires. I would not like some dongle wired to the unit while playing, that would be quite annoying.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Yes you can drag around external devices but that kind of ruins portability if you have to have some kind of battery brick with a wire connected while you use it. It would be much nicer if it was a quick swap like the GP2X or PSP, with NO tools needed.

No it doesn't. On the plane/train whatever I'm sure it wouldn't bother you at all. I don't know what you mean by "brick", obviously it wouldn't have to be any bigger than actual battery (which is not going to be large), just like the spare you'd be carrying around.


Well I know I would like to just pop out the old battery and put in a new one and then put the spent one away in a pocket, bag etc. Then you could play free of wires. I would not like some dongle wired to the unit while playing, that would be quite annoying.


What would be neat would be if it had either two battery slots, or an internal NiMH battery so that you could swap them out without interruption.

 

[Vimacs]

Why have it swappable(not as in replaceable) at all then? Just have two build in.
Having two would also be a good way to get "tits" on both sides without wasting space.

I don't see the battery swapping working well, how would you recharge it outside of the unit?

 

[Squidge]

Little or big endian, software programmable.

even if programmable, I doubt Linux would accept both at the same time. I hope this OMAP has some instructions to make those conversation cheaper


Linux would only accept one, but I'm assuming that if your going to write something as power hungry as a N64 emu, your not going to be using linux.

I don't see the battery swapping working well, how would you recharge it outside of the unit?

The only way I see is having an external charger like most PDAs, which would add yet more cost to the unit due to plastic moulding/etc.

I'm sure the unit can tell you when the battery is getting low, so lets just have one big battery in there rather than two smaller ones.

 

[Vimacs]

Well, how big do they make em? most mobile liions seem quite small, or quite thick.
While the former would be a waste of playtime the 2nd would be a waste in space, which is why i think it would be a good idea to have two medium sized ones.

I know that you can get lipoly battery's in pretty much any dimensions you want them in couse of how they are made, but i thought the idea was to go with a "off the shelf" one?

 

[Squidge]

The problem with multiple batteries is that no two are ever the same, so they may have been discharged to different levels. You then have to charge one to a different level than the other to prevent over charging. Secondly, providing two batteries for each console is also obviously going to be more expensive. All this does is add cost to an already expensive console. It's £200 at the moment, do we really want to push that to £249 or even more with all the extra stuff people want?

From the current design of the console, it seems that there will be space for a nice big battery, thus increasing playtime dramatically and not adding much cost at all.

 

[Vimacs]

Ok, i didn't think about that, but that makes sense.

 

[earx]

i second squidge on the price. this should be a handheld games/multimedia device, not a supermobile laptop or whatnot.

the omap sounds like a great choice, and i can't tell enough times how excited i am by the specs of that great SoC. the only thing left is to hook it up to the right peripherals in the right way. i make it sound so simple, don't i?

 

[X-Code]

From the current design of the console, it seems that there will be space for a nice big battery, thus increasing playtime dramatically and not adding much cost at all.

... Current design?... :blink:

--

I would like a big user replaceable battery, just keep the replacing part easy enough.

 

[atomicthumbs]

The problem with multiple batteries is that no two are ever the same, so they may have been discharged to different levels. You then have to charge one to a different level than the other to prevent over charging. Secondly, providing two batteries for each console is also obviously going to be more expensive. All this does is add cost to an already expensive console. It's £200 at the moment, do we really want to push that to £249 or even more with all the extra stuff people want?

From the current design of the console, it seems that there will be space for a nice big battery, thus increasing playtime dramatically and not adding much cost at all.

What I meant was a switchover thing - when one battery became almost too depleted to power the system, it would switch to the other, and you could charge the first or slot in a new one.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Alright, people! All hail the page-master!

Of the wikified information page.

Please note that this page is NOT for discussion of the Craginator. It is for info and specifications about the console ONLY.

Feel free to add or change anything that's wrong, but base it on FACT that has been stated by one of the "in-the-know" people.

http://craiginator.bluwiki.com/

 

[hlidegp2x]

even if programmable, I doubt Linux would accept both at the same time. I hope this OMAP has some instructions to make those conversation cheaper

Conversions between endian are cheap w/o special instructions. Byteswap the ROM and you only have to XOR the lower bits of byte and halfword accesses.

huh !? ROM is not the only part. Even in ROM you may have strings : how could you dare to byteswap strings ?

 

[Exophase]

even if programmable, I doubt Linux would accept both at the same time. I hope this OMAP has some instructions to make those conversation cheaper

Conversions between endian are cheap w/o special instructions. Byteswap the ROM and you only have to XOR the lower bits of byte and halfword accesses.

huh !? ROM is not the only part. Even in ROM you may have strings : how could you dare to byteswap strings ?


You byteswap the entire ROM on a per-word basis. EVERYTHING else in the system propagates from ROM so you don't have to worry about it. Loads/stores of words are handled as-is. For halfwords you XOR the address by 2. For bytes you XOR the address by 3. This unswaps the individual bytes/halfwords within the word.

Trust me, it's that simple.

 

[Squidge]

What I meant was a switchover thing - when one battery became almost too depleted to power the system, it would switch to the other, and you could charge the first or slot in a new one.

The problem I see with that is you would need some high-current switch, and when you switch between one battery and the other, you would have to take the power to control that switch from somewhere, and you can't take it from the currently switched in battery, as the power would die momentarily whilst the switching was in progress. The same would happen with a manual switch - at some part, the contacts will be touching nothing just before connecting with the second battery.

Is it that troublesome to just save your work when the battery light comes on and swap the battery then?

Trust me, it's that simple.

And the scary thing is, he's right

 

[javaJake]

Alright, people! All hail the page-master!

Of the wikified information page.

Please note that this page is NOT for discussion of the Craginator. It is for info and specifications about the console ONLY.

Feel free to add or change anything that's wrong, but base it on FACT that has been stated by one of the "in-the-know" people.

http://craginator.bluwiki.com/



Excellent!

As a nice side-effect, the codename is now Craiginator, as far as the community is concerned.

 

[quadomatic]

As powerful as a Gamecube huh?

I can't wait for the Craiginator. I only hope the GP2X will hold me over till then.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Alright, people! All hail the page-master!

Of the wikified information page.

Please note that this page is NOT for discussion of the Craginator. It is for info and specifications about the console ONLY.

Feel free to add or change anything that's wrong, but base it on FACT that has been stated by one of the "in-the-know" people.

http://craginator.bluwiki.com/



Excellent!

As a nice side-effect, the codename is now Craiginator, as far as the community is concerned.


Wasn't it already? :huh:

 

[Vorporeal]

Or it could be the GP3X, more affectionately known as the GPXXX (cause it's gonna be so damn sexy).

 

[icurafu]

Alright, people! All hail the page-master!

Of the wikified information page.

Please note that this page is NOT for discussion of the Craginator. It is for info and specifications about the console ONLY.

Feel free to add or change anything that's wrong, but base it on FACT that has been stated by one of the "in-the-know" people.

http://craginator.bluwiki.com/



Excellent!

As a nice side-effect, the codename is now Craiginator, as far as the community is concerned.


Wasn't it already? :huh:


Craiginator was just a name I added to a comparison table about a thousand post ago because people were stupidly calling it GP3X and causing a lot of confusion.

 

[PeterM]

Isn't Craiginator a little disrespectful to the (presumed) other people also working on the project?