Our New Machine, Pandora

[MWeston]

Actually, what I meant by cutting edge was that we use chips designed for mobile applications throughout the entire unit and provides power gating so that power consumption can be tailored for lowest possible drain in each application (as opposed to using a video encoder designed for home DVD players as an example). Yes, this does include the Wifi chipset. If you don't need it, it only uses 100-ish microamps in standby, or zero current if powered off completely.

It won't have a nuclear powered, fusion reactor based battery! I think the idea behind the battery is the ability to easily replace it with something a little more common

 

[sam fisher]

A Hydrogen Fuel Cell would of rocked though

 

[Tobriand]

True. But low-drain WiFi is definitely a reason to be excited.

 

[sam fisher]

True. But low-drain WiFi is definitely a reason to be excited.

Oh yeah, of course!

 

[icurafu]

Thanks for keeping it up to date.

edit: dw

DW? :wacko:


dw = don't worry. nwi.

 

[kfuse]

yea I think we can say that gameplay hours shouldn't be an issue. and if your a person who plays 24/7 then you need to just carry extra batteries.

 

[icurafu]

100 microamps is insane. WiFi power consumption is normally measured in milliamps.

EDIT: note to self; proofread posts in future.

 

[Tobriand]

Well, if I were to speculate, there's a chip by NXP that's still lacking in specifications on their site called the BGM220. It's supposed to be in sampling now with a view to mass production before the end of the year.

Lack of info on their sites implies the secrecy bit applies.

Timescale seems reasonable.

And it's about as cutting edge as it could be - in March it was the "world's smallest" wifi chip, with power consumption a main feature, and aimed at mobile applications. It seems to fit, approximately, though that's based on about 15 minutes of research...

/conjecture.

 

[Squidge]

True. But low-drain WiFi is definitely a reason to be excited.

Don't you mean "no-drain" rather than "low-drain"

 

[Squidge]

Fingertip control is great if you want your screen to turn into a greasy piece of shit. What is wrong with using the D-Pad to select, when the stylus isn't required?

You'll have the option in most menus to use either, the slow way (dpad) and fast and direct way (touchscreen).

Plus, we are going to pioneer a brand new touchscreen technology to help combat turning your touchscreen into a "greasy piece of shit". It's called..... Nailtip control! (patent pending)

 

[Tobriand]

True. But low-drain WiFi is definitely a reason to be excited.

Don't you mean "no-drain" rather than "low-drain"


Well, no-drain WiFi would be an amazing win.

But I was under the impression that standby power consumption is not necessarily an indication of in use power consumption; surely it'll drain *some* power. Just quite a bit less than expected.

 

[MWeston]

100 microamps is insane. WiFi power consumption is normally measured in milliamps.

EDIT: note to self; proofread posts in future.

No, no, I didn't mean the radio was actively RX/TXing at 100 microamps. That just isn't possible by ANY chipset on the market. It takes power to make power. What I mean is that it is in standby like when you turn the wifi off on a laptop. It is probably still driven on the voltage rails, but it is gated off so that it draws almost nothing except for leakage current. The other mode is to power down the supply voltages to drop power consumption to zero. Either method is useful when wifi is not needed or the device is put to sleep.

Wifi is always going to be a nasty hit on the battery, especially at higher data rates and longer distances from the base station (higher TX power settings) but manufacturers are constantly working on making the consumption less and less.

 

[Vince2501]

Question on Wi Fi: Say I want to play a quick KOF match online, would I be able to go through a kaillera server to do this, or would I need to hook the unit directly to my cable line and/or router to do this?

 

[icurafu]

thanks for the clarification. I thought you meant power consumption when the device is active but not doing anything.

 

[StealthBagel]

Adjustable transmit power and connection rate adjustment would be very handy for 2 reasons. First of all, power consumption of course, ideally there would be a control panel that shows available WLANs and their strength, so you could adjust the transmit power and see how it affects your reception; if you're 100ft. from the AP you probably would only need about 30% of the transmitter's max output. Or less...

The 2nd would be, that at lower data rates sustaining connections to far-away APs is easier, for example I've used APs nearly a mile away at 1-2mbps that wouldn't work at all at 11+.

Standby power use of the WiFi chipset should be low but in use it will hog a lot of battery power. They always do. This is because you need at least 50mW for any kind of appreciable transmission distance... all that power has to come from somewhere.

Maybe it uses some cutting edge new Lithium battery or a fuel cell

You guys read way too much into this shit :rolleyes: He meant it's advanced by handheld standards, as in having modern components in terms of CPU, GPU, RAM, and basic featureset..... not that it has a holographic projector, artificial intelligence and can travel through time.....

 

[atomicthumbs]

Question on Wi Fi: Say I want to play a quick KOF match online, would I be able to go through a kaillera server to do this, or would I need to hook the unit directly to my cable line and/or router to do this?

Why would you need to hook it to the cable line when it has Wifi? There won't be an ethernet port...

 

[StealthBagel]

Because you're all moaning about the price, but it's only expensive to you because your currency is worth less than the paper it's printed on. Still, I suppose it gets rid of fake money.

Holy crap you people get arrogant the instant GBP goes to 2x the value of USD. It's been around 1.5x-1.75x the value of USD for years, so it hits 2 and all of a sudden it's 'worth less than the paper it's printed on' (you mean cloth? It's not printed on paper.) I guess then GBP is worth 2 tiny slips of paper then? I guess that means the british economy is on par with post-WW I Germany then? god, get some perspective.

Also LOL at "unpopular president = low-valued currency"....... I hope you're not an economics major. Lots of people hated clinton and our economy was fine. I won't pretend to know what makes currency fluctuate, it has something to do with interest rates and it's all way over my head, but it doesn't take much to know the common misconceptions are highly oversimplified.....

At any rate if this handheld is solid and has all the advertised specs $320 is a more than reasonable price. A lot of people complaining are probably just broke. And broker than me..... well that's just sad.

 

[icurafu]

Also LOL at "unpopular president = low-valued currency"....... I hope you're not an economics major. Lots of people hated clinton and our economy was fine. I won't pretend to know what makes currency fluctuate, it has something to do with interest rates and it's all way over my head, but it doesn't take much to know the common misconceptions are highly oversimplified.....

One of the reasons why he is "unpopular" is because his governemnt owned the economy. Doesn't take an economics major to see that.

 

[DaveC]

Also LOL at "unpopular president = low-valued currency"....... I hope you're not an economics major. Lots of people hated clinton and our economy was fine. I won't pretend to know what makes currency fluctuate, it has something to do with interest rates and it's all way over my head, but it doesn't take much to know the common misconceptions are highly oversimplified.....

Well it really has nothing to do with how "popular" a president is. While "lots of people hated Clinton" his approval rating was much higher than Bush. He was impeached for having a personal affair, but Bush can get away with mass murder for oil and war profits and that is OK, no impeachment for him :rolleyes: That said it has to do with alot of things one of which is if the country has real value to back up the currency. The dollar was worth more with Clinton because he was building a surplus and the national dept was more "reasonable". He also wasn't involved with a long drawn out and costly occupation of other countries like Bush is. When the dept of the country is at all time record levels like now and you borrow from every other country like a drunken sailor your currency has low value. The US no longer really owns the US anymore, just like you don't really own your house if you borrow all of the money to buy it, the bank owns it. China and other foreign countries mostly own the US as the neocons have sold us out.

I just hope the Craiginator comes out before the GBP is at 4X the USD, or it will cost almoost $700.00

 

[kfuse]

oh dave thats too damn skeptical man Usd aint gonna hit no 4x value man. The stock market would have to crash again for that one...

heh last time I checked tony blair kept egging Bush on anyways...probably cuz he knew better at this point. The the US destroy its own currency will we only put oh maybe a few guys for support

but anyways when where finished about politics influencing the craiginator. We can discuss something that makes sense...