SoC: Back and forth!

[Hồng Thất Công]

Grench, you have a good point.  However, we don't wear ED's shoes to know all the issues he has to face.  We, as users, do not care about risks.  All we want is an ultimate handheld machine that can run stuff we want.  As ED has stated multiple times, he has to be cautious in venturing into unknown waters.  The Pandora experience for him and a lot of others has been a painful one.  He has single-handedly brought it back from the dead and has built a strong userbase as well as softwares under it.  He has dealt with TI and used ARM for a long time.  Jumping right into the x86 world would be a risk in that he has never worked with Intel before.  Understand PYRA is an open device but ED's budget and financial livelyhood is not.  He has so much risk that he can take and switching 180-degree all of sudden is a big risk.  I would say let's do ARM for PYRA this time then x86 for PYRA 2

 

[vcoleiro1]

That would make no sense eumnehS.   I'm not saying one way or the other in regards to the SOC to be used.  That said, if you were going to swap to x86, now is the time to do it. Not in 5 years time when there is a much greater library of games and apps built on ARM that would then need to be migrated.  IMO, it's now or never

 

[_jr_]

Never sounds good to me

 

[SNESFAN]

One thing I haven't thought about till now, the Shield is subjectively the Pandoras biggest competitor. (I know lots dont see it as a competition for various reasons) but could agree at least in form factor, architecture, and several use cases if not most. It doesn't seem to go away anytime soon and will keep pushing out revisions as new tegras come out. While it may not totally or even partially eat into your desired sales it is for some a point of fairly similar comparison. X86 would re-solidify the pandoras niche and compare it to things like the razor switchblade / blade which would be so loosely comparable its almost not worth mentioning.

 

[Null]

I hope ED announces his decision soon because i'm starting to lose the will to live.  :mellow:

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Yeah, me too.

What will he choose between x86 and snapdragon ? I really wonder.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Perhaps snapdragon or omap.

The best fit that meets all criteria.

It may well end up being omap and thats fine with me, but all the same i would be interested to hear about the snapdragon, pros and cons too.

Proper technical comparisons.

 

[Null]

What will he choose between x86, OMAP 5 and snapdragon ? I really wonder.

FTFY, as for which one it'll be, *shrugs*.

 

[EvilDragon]

I'll choose a MIPS.

End of story.

Seriously, whatever we will choose, someone will not like it.

Want a different SoC?

Design your own PCB. We're doing the same.

All you need is a bit of money and a loooot of time...

 

[Natsu]

This is not a democracy.

Kind of is. If he wants as much buys as possible.

That would make no sense eumnehS.   I'm not saying one way or the other in regards to the SOC to be used.  That said, if you were going to swap to x86, now is the time to do it. Not in 5 years time when there is a much greater library of games and apps built on ARM that would then need to be migrated.  IMO, it's now or never

Yeah, I can read it already. "We have been using Arm for 11-12 years and now you want us to suddenly just switch?"Although, that kind of the argument against it now. :lol:

I hope we get Snapdragon.

It doesn't just have the power, it has the recognition.

Want a different SoC?

Design your own PCB. We're doing the same.

All you need is a bit of money and a loooot of time...

Now about that much buys as possible thing,this isn't helping. :lol:

 

[vcoleiro1]

I vote  that a PYRA is created with MIPS, x86 and ARM SOCs.  When it boots, it randomly chooses a SOC.

 

[slaeshjag]

And for the MIPS, endianess is also random!

 

[wej]

just wondering: can you run virtualbox on z3770 or z3680D??

The Z3770 supports the VT-x virtualization extension, so running VirtualBox (or QEMU/KVM) would be possible and should perform well.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Can we get the SID sound chip in there too!!

 

[xiongxioi]

May be I'm too cynical, but working with Intel as such a small entity can be dangerous. First there's the possibility of missing out on all the great things arm could have in the future, we may need to switch back to arm at some point; second if Intel wants to screw us over just right after Ed has spent all his capital on making a fully functional and finalised product, it can and will. We will have no place to back up to at that point because there's not as many alternatives in x86 as in arm.


It's also worth of mentioning that it is the developers in the user base made pandora different, not the end users. It's a sounder approach to try our best to keep the devs happy and give them meanings to stay. Leaving them with much to do, much to solve is better. Staying with arm will at least keep the pyra unique if only as a niche product, jumping the hype train may convert it into another generic x86/windows smart device.


I would say if Ed has millions to spend then he can do what ever he could, but with only one shot at it, staying simple and stupid is always the best approach. (Engineering 101)

 

[klapse]

New X86 games are not well suited to the handheld form factor and cpu capabilities. Android games are a better match. In addition, the highly optimized emulators for Pandora wont get rewritten to x86.

OMAP5 is the best option.

 

[Null]

I'll choose a MIPS.


End of story.

But I wanted a Z80.





Edit:

 

[TrashyMG]

I'll choose a MIPS.

End of story.

But I wanted a Z80.

zikzak handheld.. work on it skeezix!

 

[CrazyIvan]

Do you want such a thing?

Sure! A pocketable one, please

 Or rather a fast ARM computer

Never heard of these (or do you mean 'fast compared to other ARM computers?')

So you're afraid that people are going to get a $700 palm top Linux OS computer confused for a full desktop with Widnows 8 and twin bleeding edge graphics cards?

correction: more like a 700 euro computer

Seriously, whatever we will choose, someone will not like it.

And we're returning to the basic thing: the point of this thread. Or rather, does it have one other then flaming

New X86 games are not well suited to the handheld form factor and cpu capabilities. Android games are a better match. In addition, the highly optimized emulators for Pandora wont get rewritten to x86

 
There are and will be many possibilities for solving small screen problem. Strange no one mentioned VR solutions.

Android games don't have physical controls support mostly and a lot of them are designed to work with a slate-type device. It's weird and not very safe to hold pandora/pyra that way.

Also highly optimized software will go anyway eventually as it was on PCs when computing power grew substantively. And current optimized software will be maxed out performance-wise on pyra with any SoC chosen

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Merry-go-round.