Release Pandora Now Has 256mb Of Ram And 512mb Internal Nand Storage

[wiseguy109]

I'd also like to know how much this will affect the release date.

 

[joa]

Now we really do have a powerful device. hmm whether or not to get a get a web-book now!

blog/newsletter explain all the facts would be much appreciated.

 

[Ryuu]

coming out of lurking

Dont u guys think its time to update the wiki's and spread the news to sites like digg and w/e ? and ive never really understood the "NAND" the only thing i understand is it will hold the os, anything else it will be important for ?

I would suggest to keep it 'secret' until Pandora is out and the pre-order for the second batch starts. That would explode like a bomb on digg


a secret which would come in handy for the 2nd batch but i still think we should update the wiki

Well, I guess it would be handy to be able to put programs on the nand instead of sdhc cards.

but then wouldnt that reduce the life of the pandora? if we are installing and removing applications from the fixed nand flash ( write/erase cycles ) or is the nand replaceable ?

 

[ssj195]

I think of it less in terms of "which programs will load now that wouldn't run before?" and more in terms of "how many apps can I have open at once without swapping?"

Anyway, a hugely, hugely welcome upgrade from my point of view; in fact, the 128MB RAM was about the only thing I felt was sub-optimal before. Thanks very much indeed!

 

[Tobriand]

Very welcome, though I must confess to a slight concern over increased battery drain. I doubt the ram is the absolute main part of that, though, except in standby.

I'm also another person concerned about loss of queue positions by the refund/re-order process. Is there any way to maintain them? Maybe by allowing us to add a comment in order form of our previous order-number?

There are a couple of programs which 256mb will make all the difference for though. Or at least, make the difference between the port being a straightforward one, and its requiring the program to be heavily optimized to load and unload assets at appropriate times...

EDIT: Also, congratualtions on whoever decoded that first. I was surprised. Were you surpried?

 

[cosam]

This is certainly a nice upgrade. I don't think it's nearly as game-changing as some seem to make out, though. There will be few, if any programs that will run now that wouldn't have before. Some programs will surely run better now that they don't have to use swap, but the tired old stement "128MB is all you really need" was not a lie.

Woah, don't get overexcited now ;-) I think it's a pretty significant upgrade for such a small machine, especially one without dedicated video RAM. Yes, there may not be all that many programs which really need more that 128MB, but there are plenty which will make the leap from "just about runable" to properly usable.

I'm also another person concerned about loss of queue positions by the refund/re-order process. Is there any way to maintain them? Maybe by allowing us to add a comment in order form of our previous order-number?

I should think having the original list of orders and our names and addresses would be enough to sort that out, although using order numbers would definitely streamline the process.

 

[Svartalf]

Now, the question is, what can we do with 256MB that we couldn't do with 128MB?

If we got the 256Mb SoC, there's quite a few things that just NOW became possible once we get ES drivers...

Very welcome, though I must confess to a slight concern over increased battery drain. I doubt the ram is the absolute main part of that, though, except in standby.

You'd be surprised in this case. The jump will be a slight increase in watt-hours consumed, but not something that you'd probably have noticed. We'll probably still hang at just 6 hours of life at normal speeds with the new SoC update.

QUOTE

There are a couple of programs which 256mb will make all the difference for though. Or at least, make the difference between the port being a straightforward one, and its requiring the program to be heavily optimized to load and unload assets at appropriate times...



Yeah, I'm of the same opinion. You now can have games in that I was concerned about making happen on the 64-96Mb we were going to realistically have at our disposal.

 

[bigtruck]

Um, wow. Craig (and the rest of the Pandora team), it's completely official now. You rock.

 

[antheus123]

Why some credit card orders and not all?
Can we have some more info on this please.

 

[Pickle]

This is certainly a nice upgrade. I don't think it's nearly as game-changing as some seem to make out, though. There will be few, if any programs that will run now that wouldn't have before. Some programs will surely run better now that they don't have to use swap, but the tired old stement "128MB is all you really need" was not a lie.


In a way your right it wasnt a lie when we were expecting only to applications from a simple launcher, but now that a full desktop has been shown and apparently benchmarked it there is a reason for the extra memory.

The speed of the chip and the memory that we have are the limiting factors of what we can do with this device. The highest we can get these the more this device is capable of. But of course if you just want a GP2X replacement "32 MB is all you really need".

This is good for pandora, like craig said it will extend the life of pandora before the next more powerful handheld is made. This choice moves us more from simple gaming device to umpc i think.

 

[mcqfesijiba]

Specs increase is definitely welcome and I don't mind a slight delay for it. Remains to be seen how the situation behind this plays out. Hopefully nothing more than a slight hiccup and we still all have our Pandoras before the Christmas season!

 

[Svartalf]

QUOTE

Well, I guess it would be handy to be able to put programs on the nand instead of sdhc cards.

but then wouldnt that reduce the life of the pandora? if we are installing and removing applications from the fixed nand flash ( write/erase cycles ) or is the nand replaceable ?

Not really. While it won't be "sanctioned", you will be able to put and pull things onto and off of the NAND after a fashion. It IS a Linux handheld with all of what that entails.

The big takeaway on the NAND for everyone is that it's using JFFS2, which does compression, wear leveling, etc. You will see a similar lifespan to the SDHC's in write endurance because of the wear leveling algorithms (Which are done in hardware on the SD cards out there...). However, there IS a price for the use thereof- the more you put on there the slower it can become. Really, you're going to want to keep it mostly to using the NAND store for common runtime stuff- shared libs everyone's going to use from out of the official distro, shared utils, etc.

 

[Kyo]

This is truly great news. It will certainly make some programs work better, but it will also improve multitasking.

 

[mechanizeddeath]

You'd be surprised in this case. The jump will be a slight increase in watt-hours consumed, but not something that you'd probably have noticed. We'll probably still hang at just 6 hours of life at normal speeds with the new SoC update.

About 12 years ago I owned a portable CD player, one of the early models with the buffer memory to prevent skipping caused by physical shock. Turning that buffer on, which was only a mere 3 seconds, was enough to nearly halve the battery life. On crappy NiCds, it would run about 3.5-4 hours instead of nearly 6. Things have changed a lot since then though, and I doubt we'll see additional power consumption of that crazy level.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the doubled RAM will only double the amount of power consumed by the memory itself, not the entire device.

 

[Svartalf]

Why some credit card orders and not all?
Can we have some more info on this please.

It's probably because of anti-fraud measures with the varying cards, much like the PayPal purchasers found out. Some cards will not allow you to bill for goods more than 1 month in advance of providing said goods. With the Pandora, this was a pre-order with a 1-3 month window of delivery because the units' manufacturing run was being funded by the pre-order's money. Some card providers have issues with that sort of thing because they've been burned with it in the past.

 

[cb88]

depends ... if the new ram was made on a different and smaller fabrication process it may consume the same or less power

so we have these posiblilities:
same ram chip on the SoC x2
2 new ram chips 1/2 size
one ram chip same size twice as dence
and so on.... whatever the case sounds sweetds

 

[tazg]

I thought memory only used power when it's filled... if you still only use 128mb of it wouldn't it be the same?

and does anyone know how much power sd cards or onboard storage would use when swapping compared to ram?

 

[dentrado]

Very nice! ... But will this change the release date? :S

If the money is already drawn from my bank account does that I'm not affected of the bank change? or will they give the money back and then I have to reorder?

 

[atomicthumbs]

256MB is just too good NOT to put in the Pandora. If anyone isn't happy about this and wants to cancel their order that is of course no problem, we understand.

The Pandora is better than I expected! You're spoiling the users! I quit! Cancel my preorder! :angry:






:lol:

(This is forking awesome.)

 

[craigix]

Just to confirm every Pandora will have the 256MB.

Any delays are still down to the LCDs, we have 640 and the rest are coming when ready.

The two main reasons for the upgrade were 1) being to give some compensation for any fuss we cause with asking some people to reorder and 2) being that we can see where this project (and ARM chipsets in general) might be going and the advantages the extra RAM will give us in this area.

We never really imagined running things like Ubuntu so 128MB seemed fine as 256MB was not available and when it was it was initially so expensive as to be impossible.

But then after the Ubuntu 'buzz' and many long late night chats about it we decided it was worth it, the price came down just enough (after some long negotiations) for us to do it in time.

As you all know we are now making no money on the first batch and it has become more of a love of what we are doing and getting the Pandora out there.

Doom3 anyone?