Our New Machine, Pandora

[Vimacs]

Guys,
I just deleted your stupid offtopic posts, this will be the last time i just delete them, next time you get a 1day ban as i told you earlier.

 

[atomicthumbs]

I was wondering, would the performance of Bochs or QEMU be good enough on this to run Simcity 3000, the best game of all time?

*starts daydreaming*

 

[javaJake]

The OMAP3430 is probably using the PowerVR SGX 530 which was the first SGX available. This is also what the PowerVR wiki claims. The SGX 530 has a maximum effective fillrate of 1200Mpix/s and polygon throughput of 13.5Mpoly/s. Pretty good IMO, even if it's just theoretical numbers.



My non-technical side comes out right about now. How impressive, or how complex could you get with this sort of thing? Would it reach those demos or get 3/4 of the same performance, or are we just dealing with something too fuzzy to know?

Ugh, curiosity burns like crazy, doesn't it?

 

[Vimacs]

sam fisher, atomicthumbs, God Ginrai

Last warning, stop dragging the thread off topic!

 

[sam fisher]

I hope this has a decent video player that can handle High resolution content. Does it have any GP2x like hardware acceleration for video decoding?

 

[atomicthumbs]

sam fisher, atomicthumbs, God Ginrai

Last warning, stop dragging the thread off topic!

How is speculating on the performance and capabilities of x86 emulators offtopic? :huh:

I hope this has a decent video player that can handle High resolution content. Does it have any GP2x like hardware acceleration for video decoding?

The OMAP3430 has an IVA 2+ video accelerator (encoding/decoding).

QUOTE
In addition, the OMAP3430 processor integrates the advanced IVA
™
2+ acceleration with
new support for critical-coded functions. A second-generation, power-optimized version of
the imaging, video and audio accelerator used in TI’s DaVinci
™
technology, IVA 2+ improves
multimedia processing up to 4X from previous OMAP processors. The increased capabilities
of the IVA2+ enable multi-standard (MPEG4, H.264, Windows Media Video, RealVideo,
H.263, etc.) encode and decode at DVD resolution. With the advanced multimedia
capabilities of the OMAP3430, a multi-standard DVD-quality camcorder can be added to a
phone for the first time. In addition, the IVA2+ advances video teleconferencing by providing
H.264-based video at greater than CIF resolutions.


From the PDF here:

http://focus.ti.com/pdfs/wtbu/ti_omap3family.pdf

 

[sam fisher]

But won't getting the acceleration for Codecs cost huge amounts for the licences as it did on the GP2x?

 

[Alex.]

It seems like most people are interested in gaming fore and foremost. Some people threw the idea for a media-oriented GP2X that has codecs for WMV and other formats, perhaps such a special package could be released for the Craig2x?

 

[sam fisher]

But the point is Craig would STILL have to foot the licensing costs for the codecs. I don't think he would be able to afford that.

 

[craigix]

I have to agree supporting many media formats isn't a main goal, we can go for a select few.

 

[sam fisher]

Excellent. As long as you support Xvid i'm happy . Is it possible, with this things superior processing power, to decode other formats, albeit with a lower maximum bitrate, in software?

 

[MWeston]

I like Archos' business model of allowing the customer to purchase licenses for codecs and features they need and not being forced to buy them all. I'd like to see a codec more reasonably priced than their offerings though!

 

[Vimacs]

If you are going to buy some codecs it would make sense to buy the more cpu intensive ones, mpeg4 avc based ones for example as the cpu will most likely be powerfull enough to decode the older stuff (xvid/divx... you name it) in software using an mplayer port or something similar.

 

[atomicthumbs]

All I'd need would be MPEG, MPEG4, and maybe H.264 (because H.264 offers a very favorable size/quality ratio comapred to other things). People's SD space is limited by money. We can't all afford 8GB SD cards (even though we'd really like to).

 

[Squidge]

But won't getting the acceleration for Codecs cost huge amounts for the licences as it did on the GP2x?

I think your confused, using the hardware acceleration made for the job doesn't cost huge amounts for the licenses. The licenses have to be paid for all commercial software playing certain video formats, regardless of how the end result is managed (hardware acceleration, pure software solution, etc...). Typically, the manufacturer may charge for a pre-written library, but thats usually because it comes with the license to play the content too.

However, if someone wrote a multi-codec video player as a piece of homebrew.... (I've no idea in this case whether or not we would have access to the video decoding registers inside the SoC however, or whether they would be kept hidden like on the MMSP2/MMSP2+)

 

[Ravnos]

I'd like to see good codec support, but it doesn't need to be directly from Craig & co. If some intrepid homebrewer were able to add that support in a third party downloadable package, I would be more than satisfied.

 

[Javacat]

Wouldn't a port of ffdshow pretty much cover most codecs that people would want to use?

 

[icurafu]

The OMAP3430 is probably using the PowerVR SGX 530 which was the first SGX available. This is also what the PowerVR wiki claims. The SGX 530 has a maximum effective fillrate of 1200Mpix/s and polygon throughput of 13.5Mpoly/s. Pretty good IMO, even if it's just theoretical numbers.



Thanks Eolair. That makes a lot of sense. I know it can't be the lowest 510 (2 million polygons) because it only support VGA. According to TI's roadmaps, new OMAPS will come next year that are cheaper, lower power usage but with less performance. These would match the 510 and 520.

13.5 seems a bit crazy since the IGP version is only a few million polygons faster. This is going to be a very powerful beast. (Oh, and with that fillrate, we can expect to make good use of the FSAA hardware.

 

[dak]

Hey guys, I am elated to hear that there will finally be a worthy handheld for emulation coming in the near future. I have about eight friends I let know about this project and we will all order the new machine when it arrives.
I recently bought a mint Sega Saturn controller with a usb converter hub to play emus on my pc. Previously, I was using a psx controller. When I got the controller, immediately I noticed the brilliant action in the d-pad of the SS controller. The first game I played was Raiden and I did not lose a ship until the third level(hardest skill level). I had never done this before, granted I am not the best shmuper, but I try. Upon farther gaming with the new pad I realized the better controller made me a better gamer. I also noticed I enjoyed games much more with the improved d-pad. My suggestion would be to model the d-pad on the new machine after the Sega Saturn controller, as much as possible. I guarantee you will make a lot people happy if you do.

Thank you for your time
dak

 

[efegea]

I have to agree supporting many media formats isn't a main goal, we can go for a select few.

It would be nice if the media player of the craiginator had a plugin arquitechture so homebrew developers can create it's own decoders.

Please don't go the GPH way of doing things