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

[ledow]

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?

Depends on the design and technology used, but generally, having RAM "turned on" is as costly whether you are using it or not because of the refresh cycles - every so-many milli/nanoseconds, the RAM has to be updated whether it changed or not. A lot of RAM these days even tells you and lets you adjust such settings from the BIOS or overclocking utilities.

Basically, unless the Pandora's chipset has some fancy power-saving technology, you're still pumping some high-frequency signals through the RAM all the time. High-frequency = high power, because you have to take energy to turn it OFF and ON each time (it sounds counter-intuitive, but it's accurate from a physics point of view - any change takes energy to perform). The larger the change (e.g. high voltage, high current) and the higher the frequency, the more energy you use to do it.

You'd probably find that SD on swap would use less power but I wouldn't hold myself to that, and the speed of access would be drastically reduced.

 

[sterling976]

Craig
DaveC
DJWillis
Evildragon
Fatih
MWeston
Squidge

I owe all you guys a pint or twelve.

 

[FrozenIpaq]

This is great news CraigX! I'm sure every potential pandora owner will be happy with the decision as many were expressing their doubts with 128mb RAM. You mention some delays, is there any projected release date for the pre-ordered Pandoras at this time (aka. has it changed at all)?

 

[gibberish]

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?

i'd like to buy you a few beers man :blush:

edit: haha sterling beat me to it!

 

[daveski]

Just to confirm every Pandora will have the 256MB.
...
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?

Thank you so much.
I think we all hope that you will be making money from the 2nd batch onwards.

 

[Prophet]

If this all pans out as described, then fantastic.

But I will wait until Pandoras ship before praising and congratulating. If/when Pandoras ship and live up to the specs and design - then I will forever be grateful for the Pandora dev's amazing work.

A bit cynical in my attitude? Yes. I am. Only because so many unforseen things can go wrong sometimes.

 

[TrevorBradley]

But don't forget this is to make up for any fuss caused when we change banks, this will mostly be related to credit card orders.

What will probably happen is some of you may get an email saying we have refunded your order please reorder here (url). Just follow the instructions and everything will be cool.

Please, more information on this. I feel very uneasy about joining in with the rest of the fanbase about RAM upgrades until I have a bit more information as to what's going on... My brain sees this (albeit uncertain) data as an increase in probability of the device not coming out at all. It's likely due to trauma of all kinds of lies told to me for a year before being laid off in the dot com bubble many years back... "We are at stage X of N in production, and we remain (demonstrably) fiscally sound" and the like generally work better for me. "Everything's going to be fine, don't worry" sets off alarm bells.

I could care less about the production date slipping, but if you could convince me you're still on track for some sort of release date, I'd be grateful.

EDIT: Craig and I posted about the same time, that's a bit more info, thanks. Targeting to break even on the first batch is logical. Could you be a bit more specific as to who needs to reorder? I saw my Pandora order on my paper credit card statement that just came to my house yesterday.

 

[oblivioner]

Great news, even better now that Craigix says that it won't mean any real delay.

 

[wejp]

This is really great news!

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.

The huge decrease of battery life on your CD player was not caused by the RAM that was used to buffer a few seconds of music, but the increased rotation speed needed to refill the buffer in case of physical shocks.

QUOTE

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.


As already noted by others, the worst case would be a power consumption of the RAM that is twice as much as with only 128 MB, but that would be the consumption of the RAM only. Of course that does not double the power consumption of the whole device. Actually the RAM is not one of the most power consuming parts, so the increased amount of RAM will probably be barely noticable in terms of battery life. The display backlight probably needs the most power and the CPU and wireless chip need much more power than the RAM too.

 

[cb88]

@trevor did you fail to read the part where craigix said the only think that might cause delays is the LCD and they already have 640 or so of those


PS I updated the Wiki to reflect these changes... also left the old info there since it still applies to the dev boards for historical reasons

 

[pferguso]

You're a class act CraigX! This device is going to be something special! I can't hardly wait!

 

[Prophet]

It's likely due to trauma of all kinds of lies told to me for a year before being laid off in the dot com bubble many years back... "We are at stage X of N in production, and we remain (demonstrably) fiscally sound" and the like generally work better for me. "Everything's going to be fine, don't worry" sets off alarm bells.

I could care less about the production date slipping, but if you could convince me you're still on track for some sort of release date, I'd be grateful.

You seem to share my penchant for cynicism.

Honestly, is there anything that can be said that convinces us 100%? Not really.

Only thing we can do is wait patiently and hope for the best. If it all works out, then we will have an absolutely mindblowing little device. Just gotta hope.

 

[-knowledge123]

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.

Wow, that's quite moving to hear, I want you to have good financial stability out of this, after all you guys have worked on it so hard. B)

 

[hch]

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.

let me just tell you, that i find this absolutely fantastic and i really hope it will pay off for you, also financially (i am pretty sure it will). i for my part would be happy to contribute to a "thank you that you gave it 256MB" fund.

 

[sebt3]

i for my part would be happy to contribute to a "thank you that you gave it 256MB" fund.

+1

 

[gibberish]

i for my part would be happy to contribute to a "thank you that you gave it 256MB" fund.

+1


so would i.
after i've received the device and it works like its supposed to ;-)

 

[mazza558]

Wait, if you're making no money on the first batch, how will you be able to make a bigger second batch (as demand increases)?

 

[TrevorBradley]

@trevor did you fail to read the part where craigix said the only think that might cause delays is the LCD and they already have 640 or so of those

I started my post just before Craig posted and didn't see his reply. Some of us take more than 8 minutes to craft a message! My post is slightly modified above.

To repeat, can we get some more information as to who will need to re-order?

 

[Tor]

I would happily add, say, another 20 quid if I could just be certain that my order didn't disappear somehow! I would have expected to get the next bill from the CC company by now and I haven' t heard anything, so I'm slightly worried..

 

[likwidoxigen]

craigix said the only think that might cause delays is the LCD and they already have 640 or so of those

I hope i don't get canceled, i ordered in the first 45mins... which should put me in that 640 range... which would be one of the first of the first batch.... *crosses fingers*