The nD


I care because I don't want him getting himself in to a bad financial situation due to imagining that the costs he predicts are possible, I'm trying to show him the reality, he could still make this device if he gives a more realistic price.


I also care because I would not like to see people investing thousands in this product when the predicted result isn't viable.
 
Craigix said:
Well why hasn't he posted a picture of this dev board? I see several people tried to ask him to and he either deleted their posts or told them the answer was no.

Do you really think it would be easier to get that running on an eval board than on the Wiz? I doubt it. Or rather I'd not like to try to do it.


Still, the obvious question remains, why isn't he posting a picture of this devkit? Why purposely film in the dark?! The added coincidence of the diagonal tearing just sets off my bullshit radar.
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He isn't posting pictures because he feeds off of hype. He's said outright that he wants to limit how much information he reveals so he'll always have more to slowly feed people.


If you really think it'd be much harder to port something to various eval boards than Wiz then you're out of touch with what a lot of eval boards are providing.
 
I bet it is. Unlike the nD, it doesn't promote development. Hell, it's not even programmable.


Actually, it's fully original. http://club.dealextreme.com/forums/Forums.dx/threadid.910448


Apparently, the games suck. Comparable to that VG Pocket Max thing. Hope Mr. Ban-Craig-Not-GP32X doesn't mind using really cheap parts like that thing supposedly has.
 
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Craigix said:
Gads, someone has beat him to it!
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Heh. Except for that this is missing NAND, WiFi, the LCD looks like even lower res than he wants and there are no batteries included...


So the most expensive parts are still missing ;)
 
^ The NJ Pocket, as far as I can tell, is based on JungleTac's 16-bit SoC (I'm pretty sure that the games on it are theirs, which is what leads me to this conclusion), so it's pretty far from the PopStation line, which are simply monochrome LCD games. ;)


EDIT: My mistake, it's Nanjing's, not JungleTac's (hence the "NJ" in the name, I presume). The point about it being miles from a PopStation does still stand, though. :lol:
 
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EvilDragon said:
Craigix said:
Gads, someone has beat him to it!
Click to expand...

Heh. Except for that this is missing NAND, WiFi, the LCD looks like even lower res than he wants and there are no batteries included...


So the most expensive parts are still missing ;)
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Oh we know the difference between that $17 unit and what he wants to make, but does he know the huge differences? Or does he just see that and think it can be done?
 
I almost want to buy of those things just to open it up and see what's not inside it. I bet it doesn't even have external RAM and is fully limited to whatever is embedded on a low-end microcontroller (most NES games for instance only had 2KB).. these days even some of the lowest end < $1 microcontrollers still have as much as 8KB or more of RAM, and can execute code straight from internal flash. The 128MB NAND might be going through a serial interface, which would really cut down the amount of layout work which has to be done. The small number of components may be QFPs or something rather than BGAs, making assembly cheaper.
 
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^ Is this of any interest, Exo? (Does it save you $17? :lol: )
 
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Prometheus said:
^ Is this of any interest, Exo? (Does it save you $17? :lol: )
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That is really very strange inside, why have they got three boards, could the central part be some kind of million manufactured base board/devkit?


I'd also like to know how the RAM is laid out, and to know if it is indeed running almost everything from NAND.
 
Prometheus said:
^ Is this of any interest, Exo? (Does it save you $17? :lol: )
Click to expand...

Woot, thanks Prometheus. Like I expected, only two major ICs are even identifiable: the BGA on the back that's inside the footprint for a DIP or something that is most likely the flash chip, and whatever bare die is underneath the black blob. It could very well be a custom ASIC that contains whatever memory and video functions are deemed necessary, and manufactured expressly to be sold in millions of these boards.


One of the other ICs is a serial EEPROM for some reason (the Atmel part) which probably costs under 10 cents: http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc0180.pdf


I can't see the writing on the other 8-pin IC. I wouldn't be surprised if the flash was really 128mbit instead of MB.


All in all, you wouldn't be able to get this kind of part specialization for nD, nothing close.. The SoC he buys there will probably exceed the entire component budget for this.
 
@Exophase - No problem. Glad to provide something useful.


Incidentally, your comment about how the innards of this thing are likely manufactured just for millions of those boards made me think of something... If Nanjing's system-guts are anything like the ones JungleTac uses (in JungleTac's case I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that it is custom, but I don't know about Nanjing), they're probably powering at least half a dozen other vaguely similar products, as well - most likely plug-and-play TV-game joysticks, as well as these handhelds (there's a mention in one of the threads on DealExtreme's product page for the NJ Pocket that seems to indicate this, even). That's a ton more things they're probably going into, at least. :p


EDIT: I wonder if that's why there are three boards? I've seen that before in Famiclones, come to think of it.
 
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Exophase said:
This was posted earlier:


http://the-nd.com/wiki/SDK


Of course, a package of mingw, SDL, and Code::Blocks can hardly be called an SDK for some unique handheld, but who is keeping track of things like this?
Click to expand...

Yeah that also was my comments months ago when he first spoke of his SDK and I told him that at least a toolchain should be included to call it a SDK, but well you obviously can't include a toolchain without knowing what chip you will eventually program for.


Then again there is not much in starting to program when you don't know how you are going to compile eventually.


Most people probably won't have problems when just using plain C and SDL, but whatever I guess we are just worrying about unnecessary details :p
 
Craigix said:
Well, I just got this from the 'developer':


Your forum account is currently banned. Ban Reason: trolling. several consoles already exist at this price point. you don't know how far along we are, you are coming in here and spewing false assumptions. you did not have the proper contacts and you don't know how chinese industry works.


Ban will be lifted: 2011-07-21, 02:15 PM


Sounds like he is about to be robbed blind by the Chinese.
Click to expand...
https://www.youtube.com/embed/yldgS-ySo24?feature=oembed
 
If this fails miserably, Robert Pelloni's house/room will end up like this again.


http://kotaku.com/5128206/%5Bupdated%5D-bobs-protest---and-bobs-game---is-over


medium_bobsgamecam.jpg



http://kotaku.com/5198411/reggie-fils+aime-comments-on-bobs-game
 
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