Redesigning The Gp2x

[ssj195]

Touchscreen and WIFI would be worth an extra £30 (at least) to me Powered USB would also be good.

 

[nickspoon]

A volume wheel would be great, provided they keep the existing volume buttons so you can use them for something else.

And use glue to keep the headphone jack in, goddamnit!

 

[Eso Rimmer]

Hmm, wi-fi + 640x480 touch screen + cpu from xbox + 2GB RAM should be enough.

Edit:
Oh, and 1AAA battery @ 20h power consumption and AGEIA PhysX for acceleration of physics of sprites in games such a Metal slug too.

 

[kardasan]

Wifi and I'm happy, GPU is for modern gamers..ow well mayby for FF3 on SNES to be able to work out these transparencies

 

[techFreak]

I don't think this topic is serious one. The demands are ridiculouse sometimes. However i'd make following lay out changes:

Swap the position of SD Card Slot and EXT Port. (Better when you play games on TV)

Put DC to the Top (Better when you play games on TV)

Put Headphone Jack to the side (Easy access when it's in your pocket.)

Add a HOLD Key. (Avoid accidental key strokes when it's in your pocket.)

Add more NAND (1 GB)

Better Joystick

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Things that wouldn't work for me:

Thinner - Lighter : Why??? It's already about 200 gr

Powered USB: It only will consume more battery for most of the users.
Do you think your AAs can power a Wi-Fi or External HDD?

Built in Bluetooth: What??? Why? No i don't need it.

640x 480 Resolution, NVidia Accellerator: Go and Buy a PC please.

30GB or Bigger Storage: SD is a wise decision because 4GB is already came out. 8GB, 16GB and 32GB is on the way. Limit is up to 128GB. You wouldn't be so happy with a 30GB maybe one year later.

Please don't forget. GP2X is a cost effective, open source solution. It's not just for gaming. And It's an important device because it's aim is to utilise limited resources to bring out a world of entertainment to you. We appreciate all GP2X developers for their efforts.

Thank you!

 

[Radek]

Better stick/dpad.

Progressive refresh for LCD.

External control for volume and brightness.

Two SD sockets.

128MB of ram.

 

[epitaph]

The stick, obviously. I'd replace it with a d-pad (though it's fine in Neo Geo games, I'd probably be at a disadvantage with a d-pad in them, but whatever).

A single(-core) 300 MHz+ CPU instead of this dual core thing which is hard to fully utilize.

External control for brightness.

An extension slot of some kind?

 

[jansport]

Powered USB, positioned on the bottom of the GP2x so any cables connected to external devices won't get in the way of my right hand ( grrr ). Oh yeah, I want proper USB port, Mini USB is shite.
4 battery slots, unit will be heavier but at least it will last longer.
Traditional volume slider.
Switch to turn backlight on/off.
Touch Screen.
Inbuilt-WiFi.

 

[Sonic-NKT]

better stick/dpad
powered USB

other changes that would be cool but more expensive:
Touchscreen
faster cpu

 

[Hanz™]

I'd like:

Bluetooth & WiFi
Samsung 32gb Flash Drive (hideously expensive at the moment, but probably be quite cheap when the GP3X or whatever is launched)
nVidia GoForce 5500 or similar 3D acceleration
640x480 or 800x600 touch screen
Right hand stick, or possibly mouse pad for FPS etc.
Obviously more MHz & RAM
And I'll probably need a much bigger battery to run all that. Replaceable rechargeable please.

More than anything else, I'd like CPS-2 games to run on MAME though.

lol, some "redesign" there.

 

[Radek]

Powered USB, positioned on the bottom of the GP2x so any cables connected to external devices won't get in the way of my right hand ( grrr ). Oh yeah, I want proper USB port, Mini USB is shite.
4 battery slots, unit will be heavier but at least it will last longer.

That's very good idea!

There is place for two extra AA and it could arranged that way the GP2x would still be able work on just 2 of them.

Traditional volume slider.
Switch to turn backlight on/off.

Actually you don't want this - trust me.

It's almost completely dark without backlight. Tested it by accident.

better stick/dpad
powered USB

other changes that would be cool but more expensive:
Touchscreen
faster cpu

Faster cpu would mean change of chipset or... adding some other chips.

 

[el_monkeyo]

The Things that wouldn't work for me:

Thinner - Lighter : Why??? It's already about 200 gr

Powered USB: It only will consume more battery for most of the users.
Do you think your AAs can power a Wi-Fi or External HDD?

Built in Bluetooth: What??? Why? smile.gif No i don't need it.

640x 480 Resolution, NVidia Accellerator: Go and Buy a PC please.

30GB or Bigger Storage: SD is a wise decision because 4GB is already came out. 8GB, 16GB and 32GB is on the way. Limit is up to 128GB. You wouldn't be so happy with a 30GB maybe one year later.

Please don't forget. GP2X is a cost effective, open source solution. It's not just for gaming. And It's an important device because it's aim is to utilise limited resources to bring out a world of entertainment to you. We appreciate all GP2X developers for their efforts.

Thank you!

The next generation of SoCs will be faster, and probably have WiFi, Bluetooth and 3D acceleration as standard. May be they’ll also include things like DVB-H & DVB-T TV, camera interfaces and DAB radio. Who knows, may be the next generation GP2X will be forced into existance if at some time in the future the MP2520F is upgraded, and MagicEyes stop making the original; a bit like the rumoured situation with 64Mb NAND chips.

Personally, I dream of the day I can just carry one device with me that does everything I need (along with a separate phone, I don’t want to talk into it…), and I believe the technology is there already to make it happen, i.e. something like a cross between a GP2X, a mobile 3D accelerator, a Nokia 770 and an Archos PMA 400. I also imagine it running optimised versions of things like OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Quake III Arena, Povray and GIMP.

Whilst this all sounds a bit ungrateful towards the current GP2X , actually it’s very existence reassures me more than ever that the future’s going to be great, WOO, I can’t wait! Is that any more ungrateful than moaning about the position of the headphone socket?

May be in the version after the next version they could build in some sort of 3D scanner, along with some sort of spectral analysis, a bit like the Tricorder things on Star Trek, that would be sweet!

 

[Aninhumer]

A D-pad, in addition to the stick? Could be hard to position, but would satisfy everyone, and we could use the D-pad as extra buttons.

Built in wireless of some kind would be good, but perhaps GPH could sell it as an accesory so as not to raise the price too much.

Extra battery slots sounds good, especially if were adding built in WiFi

 

[Radek]

The Things that wouldn't work for me:

Thinner - Lighter : Why??? It's already about 200 gr

Powered USB: It only will consume more battery for most of the users.
Do you think your AAs can power a Wi-Fi or External HDD?

Built in Bluetooth: What??? Why? smile.gif No i don't need it.

640x 480 Resolution, NVidia Accellerator: Go and Buy a PC please.

30GB or Bigger Storage: SD is a wise decision because 4GB is already came out. 8GB, 16GB and 32GB is on the way. Limit is up to 128GB. You wouldn't be so happy with a 30GB maybe one year later.

Please don't forget. GP2X is a cost effective, open source solution. It's not just for gaming. And It's an important device because it's aim is to utilise limited resources to bring out a world of entertainment to you. We appreciate all GP2X developers for their efforts.

Thank you!

The next generation of SoCs will be faster, and probably have WiFi, Bluetooth and 3D acceleration as standard. May be they’ll also include things like DVB-H & DVB-T TV, camera interfaces and DAB radio. Who knows, may be the next generation GP2X will be forced into existance if at some time in the future the MP2520F is upgraded, and MagicEyes stop making the original; a bit like the rumoured situation with 64Mb NAND chips.

Personally, I dream of the day I can just carry one device with me that does everything I need (along with a separate phone, I don’t want to talk into it…), and I believe the technology is there already to make it happen, i.e. something like a cross between a GP2X, a mobile 3D accelerator, a Nokia 770 and an Archos PMA 400. I also imagine it running optimised versions of things like OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Quake III Arena, Povray and GIMP.

Few years back we had PCes what weren't as powerfull as GP2x is. So I would say that GP2x is already such machine to an extent. The whole box just replaced by one small chip...

SoCs at one moment might treaten the classical PC business. Why purchase big, not portable, hardly noiseless, power hungry machines if someone will be able to get portable (even handheld), totally efficient and fully solid state based equivalent?

I have old PC now and by my choice. I simple don't need more power what the AthlonXP1.4GHz is giving me. Just added more memory to it, silenced drives and cooling and I'm fully satisfied.

So Arm@1000MHz , SVGA dispaly capability, 256-512MB of ram, the 640x480 built in LCD and... I could use such machine for majority of my tasks.

 

[nubie]

Ditch the second cpu, and crank the main cpu up to 400mhz...

second cpu is fairly useless in its current form

Ahem, the MMSP2 is made by MagicEyes, it is a system on a chip, or SOC, don't ask it to do things it can't.

You know what? I'd like some expansion buses..like a sata port, or at least an data bus somewere on the side(with some sort of adapter to sata, or something like that) Preferably with a flip open cover...

Thus..direct connection to harddrive...or a graphics card.

It has PCMCIA support on the chip, I too am still stumped as to why it isn't available to us.

A single(-core) 300 MHz+ CPU instead of this dual core thing which is hard to fully utilize.

An extension slot of some kind?

See above, your first wish is useless, unless we were to get hand picked 300mhz overclocked MMSP2 chips.
It does however have IDE, PCMCIA support; can't figure why it isn't out to some pins so we can use it.


Now to my list, two of them, one that will take advantage of the MMSP2, and one that needs extra hardware.

I want the new PCB to have support for all useful options of the MMSP2 (these are in every one of your GP2X's already, just completely useless at the moment :angry: ):

Powerful image processing
-Two Independent Video Input Selection

Various Interfaces
Connectivity Interface
-USB Host/ Device(1.1) , IrDA (SIR only), I2C, 4Ch UART
Storage Interface
-IDE, CDROM, MMC/SD, CF, PCMCIA
Media
-AC97, I2S, MPEG I/F, SPDIF In/Out, Camera I/F
User Interface, etc
-ADC, IR Remocon, PWM

As long as they were making this to start with (and especially because they market it as a video player) they should have put in the IDE support, the TV-input support, and the SPDIF for those who hate the crap AC/97 sound onboard.

The Headphone socket is a joke, it doesn't shut off the speakers because it is desgned backwards.

I want to see it properly connected to the board, pins on the socket should be enough, then move it out a little so we can get our phones actually plugged into it.

Now, for the GP3X:

It wouldn't take all that much to get a Via embedded processor and a goforce( I was checking out the 4800, opengl ES and 640x 480 great )

I would want to see a Via embedded northbridge solution with the goforce attached, it would be SICK, also I would love it if AMD and Nvidia partnered to do a GeodeNX/Nforce/Goforce SOC, (athlon thunderbird 500-1000mhz, nforce 1/2, and a goforce 5500) I love to wish for crap don't I

 

[Radek]

Ditch the second cpu, and crank the main cpu up to 400mhz...

second cpu is fairly useless in its current form

Ahem, the MMSP2 is made by MagicEyes, it is a system on a chip, or SOC, don't ask it to do things it can't.

You know what? I'd like some expansion buses..like a sata port, or at least an data bus somewere on the side(with some sort of adapter to sata, or something like that) Preferably with a flip open cover...

Thus..direct connection to harddrive...or a graphics card.

It has PCMCIA support on the chip, I too am still stumped as to why it isn't available to us.

I would like to have some free I/O digital pads. Now for the next mod I will have to use some hacks.

A single(-core) 300 MHz+ CPU instead of this dual core thing which is hard to fully utilize.

An extension slot of some kind?

See above, your first wish is useless, unless we were to get hand picked 300mhz overclocked MMSP2 chips.
It does however have IDE, PCMCIA support; can't figure why it isn't out to some pins so we can use it.

Thought the MMSP2 is fully capable of being used for some kind of "normal computer" but it wasn't a goal for GPH obviously.

Providing all peripherals options would need a more layers for PCB perhaps? I would like to have all those as well but it's quite normal to use only some of capabilities of such universal chip.
(and we have the Ext port thankfully so it's not that bad as it could)

For an example the µC what I'm now using as option for my mod has:
- two PWM generators
- Voltage comparator
- USART
- programmable on-chip voltage reference
- three timers
- capability to act as clock source (the internal crystal can have it's output assigned to pin)
- something else I don't remember

I'm using only its digital I/O as it's exactly what I need. And I was searching for simpler chip and that's one is simplest what I could find.

Now, for the GP3X:

It wouldn't take all that much to get a Via embedded processor and a goforce( I was checking out the 4800, opengl ES and 640x 480 great )

I would want to see a Via embedded northbridge solution with the goforce attached, it would be SICK, also I would love it if AMD and Nvidia partnered to do a GeodeNX/Nforce/Goforce SOC, (athlon thunderbird 500-1000mhz, nforce 1/2, and a goforce 5500) I love to wish for crap don't I

No. Nothing from Via please.
And no normal 3D accelerator too.

It should be something special so my dream specs would be:
- Arm cpu @ 300/400Mhz
- 128MB of memory for it (32bit@DDR)
- for an extra kick a FPGA - it could be Xilinx XC3S500E @ 300MHz
- 32MB if memory for it (32bit@DDR)

It would totally rock for an emulation.

It would probably rock for everything else too as the FPGA could be reconfigured to perform any imagined task at hardwired level of efficiency.
(it can contain designs of over 10K logic gates and has 20 dedicated multipliers)

It would be a bit more expensive than "normal SoC". But nothing for free and machine with such specs would have fantastic flexibility and lots of processing power at the same time.

 

[Cyclops]

What the GP2X got right. Evolution not revolution!

What I would expect
=============
More Memory
Faster CPU
Higher Resolution

Hopefully
======
Wired connections at bottom of unit
Volume button replaced for vertical games
A little thought about the Joystick beforehand
Powered USB/Charger

What I lost :angry:
=======
Volume Jog Dial.
No rubber/Flaps

What I dont want
===========
Hard drive
Built in battery
touch screen(unless its free)
wi-fi(unless its free)

And a little backward compatability
======================
Linux done properly

A serious look at what went wrong at launch of the GP2X
====================================
GPL
Prototypes before final design
Western friendly
PSP comparison
Control being *most* important
Relationships with commecial game developers nurtured
Relationships with the community (all 5 of them) nurtured

 

[nubie]

No. Nothing from Via please.
And no normal 3D accelerator too.

It would be a bit more expensive than "normal SoC". But nothing for free and machine with such specs would have fantastic flexibility and lots of processing power at the same time.

I don't see how an embedded AMD GeodeNX and an embedded Nforce with graphics on one chip could be so bad?

If they could get it all into one 65 Nanometer (0.65 Micron) process in one SOC it could completely rule everything, it would even be plenty of processing power for WinXP in a regular PC (and use less or the same power as the GP2X is now ).

I wish someone would go for it because it could make desktop PC's obsolete, embedded platforms built around a SOC from AMD / Nvidia could make killer micro PC's.

And btw if you like an FPU the Thunderbird core and 500mhz has almost the same floating point power as the Xbox with a faster bus (Hypertransport).


Back on topic, how could I be so stupid as to forget my number one gripe with GPH right now :blink:

The chip that is being used for the TV-Out is FULLY HD and VGA compliant, yet no attempt was made to provide that functionality at all, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

I mean honestly it could be a desktop replacement here with a dock and they boned us, not to mention that it could be used for HD gaming (I would expect 480P at best to be useful, and awesome for emulation quality and 3D commercial games ).

 

[Radek]

No. Nothing from Via please.
And no normal 3D accelerator too.

It would be a bit more expensive than "normal SoC". But nothing for free and machine with such specs would have fantastic flexibility and lots of processing power at the same time.

I don't see how an embedded AMD GeodeNX and an embedded Nforce with graphics on one chip could be so bad?

Because at the same silicon process the Arm will be more efficient and will take far less chip space. The current "x86" cpus are hogs and could only dominate the market thanks to superior manufacturing technology.
(and "snowball effect" of software support)

The Arm is a simple, scalar cpu what is joy to program for even in an assembler. It's better to use chip's space for something different or just to lower cost.

If they could get it all into one 65 Nanometer (0.65 Micron) process in one SOC it could completely rule everything, it would even be plenty of processing power for WinXP in a regular PC (and use less or the same power as the GP2X is now ).

Then it will be better to have Arm on such advanced process again.
And the 920/940 what we have in GP2x aren't the best Arms what exists. The ARM926EJ-S is much better with floating point vector unit and Java acceleration.

I wish someone would go for it because it could make desktop PC's obsolete, embedded platforms built around a SOC from AMD / Nvidia could make killer micro PC's.

Yes but still - the same thing made using Arm + coprocs will be more efficient and cheaper. Binary compatibility isn't a mandatory today. The GP2x has already lots of software and that without any significant commercial support.

It best to see looking at GP2x's mainboard and then at the best microPC boards from Via. No comparison in efficiency, size or power consumption. And for many things (except general CPU power) functionality is the same.

And btw if you like an FPU the Thunderbird core and 500mhz has almost the same floating point power as the Xbox with a faster bus (Hypertransport).

And the Xilinx chip what I was talking about can do 20 multiply accumulate ops per cycle. No comparison especially it could contain the whole snes in logic exact version.

And it costs ~30$ in a detail.

Back on topic, how could I be so stupid as to forget my number one gripe with GPH right now :blink:

The chip that is being used for the TV-Out is FULLY HD and VGA compliant, yet no attempt was made to provide that functionality at all, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

Actually it is but... GPH made much more stupid things.

Then we should keep in a mind that GP2x's has around 400MB/s of memory bandwith. The 640x480x16bppx90Hz will eat 52MB/s and it would be starting to decrease perfomance. Higher modes would be only worse and what about redrawing such big screens first?

I mean honestly it could be a desktop replacement here with a dock and they boned us, not to mention that it could be used for HD gaming (I would expect 480P at best to be useful, and awesome for emulation quality and 3D commercial games ).

The GP2x?!

 

[Paradox]

Swap SD slot and EXT port, sucks for playing on the TV.

NO jacks or ports or anything on the sides, i cant fucking hold it with the usb cable and ac adaptor in it.