The Next Gp*x Revision

[Turambar]

2 reasons why the i.mx31 is better than the mmsp2+

1. It's more powerfull
2. Freescale will give you documentation so you can use the hardware, Magiceyes seem to want keep things a secret.

Theres more reasons but I'm lazy.

 

[Mudi]

Out of curiosity, have you read/skimmed the MMSP2 manual? It is actually fairly complete.

 

[Zeladin]

2 reasons why the i.mx31 is better than the mmsp2+

1. It's more powerfull
2. Freescale will give you documentation so you can use the hardware, Magiceyes seem to want keep things a secret.

Theres more reasons but I'm lazy.

It's probably more expensive, it doesn't exist (an SOC in the hand is worth more than two in the bush), and Magiceyes have a nicer website, also The MMsp2+ has a Jazelle HW Java engine, some very nice media functionality which I don't think is on the imx31 - and did I mention they're offering a rather attractive devkit?

Nevertheless the i.mx31 is a fairly impressive chip, and definitely worthy of serious consideration. Either way I would find it satisfactory. The imx31 also uses a smaller process, which means at the same clocks as the mmsp2+ Arm, it should be more economical to run. I rather hope though, we can leave the GHz wars behind. More Clock cycles does not necessarily equal more functionality. More power saving is good of course... and a down clocked(during normal use) imx31 might do well.

Also - Magiceyes have nicer block diagrams too , even if they did put the encoder at the video out and decoder at the video in...

Btw I have impressed with a GP2x vnc client running on qtopia

 

[icurafu]

2 reasons why the i.mx31 is better than the mmsp2+

1. It's more powerfull
2. Freescale will give you documentation so you can use the hardware, Magiceyes seem to want keep things a secret.

Theres more reasons but I'm lazy.

Yes, it looks nice, but it's also very expensive, released in 2005 but little uptake, not very powerful CPUwise considering the clock speed. The standard clock seems to be 533mhz, and I'm fairly sure 400mhz on a stromgARM style arch would destroy freescale arm9 in any application by a good deal. Heck, I'm sure the gp2x clocked at 266 would outperform it in non-FPU using apps. It's also on a 90nm process compared to ME.

I thought 3D acceleration would be a plus, cause freescale seem to come with a powervr, but this is the same arm 3d accelerator used by ME. (Or atleast, exactly the same specifications and speed)

Power consumption would be a good feature if you spent lots of time not playing games, but I don't know how much power this uses and what it is reduced to in power saving mode. I think the freescale would be a lot less only because it uses 90nm instead of 0.13um.

Overall, the i.mx31 looks availble now, as ME would probably jerk GPH around for a year while they prepare SoCs for the big players.

 

[MWeston]

2 reasons why the i.mx31 is better than the mmsp2+

1. It's more powerfull
2. Freescale will give you documentation so you can use the hardware, Magiceyes seem to want keep things a secret.

Theres more reasons but I'm lazy.

Yes, it looks nice, but it's also very expensive, released in 2005 but little uptake, not very powerful CPUwise considering the clock speed. The standard clock seems to be 533mhz, and I'm fairly sure 400mhz on a stromgARM style arch would destroy freescale arm9 in any application by a good deal. Heck, I'm sure the gp2x clocked at 266 would outperform it in non-FPU using apps. It's also on a 90nm process compared to ME.

Wow! Sorry if this offends you....but you have no idea what you are talking about!

Download AM203.pdf from Freescale's site (although file server on their website isn't working right now and you might need to register). This file compares the TI OMAP2420, IMX31 and XScale PXA270 (at 520MHz). The IMX31 beats the other two in pretty much all tests (memory, INT, FP, video decoding, etc.).

The XScale architecture gets smoked by the other two in everything. The GP2X processor would be destroyed as well. Sure, I may be a little biased towards the IMX31 for reasons of my own, but it's newer technology so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

 

[icurafu]

2 reasons why the i.mx31 is better than the mmsp2+

1. It's more powerfull
2. Freescale will give you documentation so you can use the hardware, Magiceyes seem to want keep things a secret.

Theres more reasons but I'm lazy.

Yes, it looks nice, but it's also very expensive, released in 2005 but little uptake, not very powerful CPUwise considering the clock speed. The standard clock seems to be 533mhz, and I'm fairly sure 400mhz on a stromgARM style arch would destroy freescale arm9 in any application by a good deal. Heck, I'm sure the gp2x clocked at 266 would outperform it in non-FPU using apps. It's also on a 90nm process compared to ME.

Wow! Sorry if this offends you....but you have no idea what you are talking about!

Download AM203.pdf from Freescale's site (although file server on their website isn't working right now and you might need to register). This file compares the TI OMAP2420, IMX31 and XScale PXA270 (at 520MHz). The IMX31 beats the other two in pretty much all tests (memory, INT, FP, video decoding, etc.).

The XScale architecture gets smoked by the other two in everything. The GP2X processor would be destroyed as well. Sure, I may be a little biased towards the IMX31 for reasons of my own, but it's newer technology so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/o...rH3114329733642

It's OK. I was confused with another architecture and needed to be put in my place.

I still didn't find the benchmark from the freescale site you mentioned for which I will trust whole-heartedly.

 

[Zeladin]

Wow! Sorry if this offends you....but you have no idea what you are talking about!

Download AM203.pdf from Freescale's site (although file server on their website isn't working right now and you might need to register). This file compares the TI OMAP2420, IMX31 and XScale PXA270 (at 520MHz). The IMX31 beats the other two in pretty much all tests (memory, INT, FP, video decoding, etc.).

The XScale architecture gets smoked by the other two in everything. The GP2X processor would be destroyed as well. Sure, I may be a little biased towards the IMX31 for reasons of my own, but it's newer technology so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

Had a look at the fact sheet, it's much clearer - the imx31 does have a Java HW accelerator, and plenty of the media functionality too. It only has a single core, but for a portable device thats probably a good thing. I do suspect that offering all these features, it bound to cost more than the Magic eyes.

It will probably come down to GPH's budget, and potential for lunacy. I don't think it would be a terrible disappointment if the used the Magiceyes, on paper though the imx31 definitely seems superior.

Can anyone find if they are offering a devkit for the imx31? I can't find one on their site...

Overall, the i.mx31 looks availble now, as ME would probably jerk GPH around for a year while they prepare SoCs for the big players.

I was under the impression that freescale were the bigger company with big players to cater for... was I wrong? Who are ME dealing with?

 

[icurafu]

ME are in a lot of the navigation, PMP and wireless TV devices that saturate the Korean market.

I'm not sure where freescale sell their devices to. I've know them, so they must be big.

What I wanted to say was that since the imx31 has been out since 2005, it's probably available now. mmsp2+ will probably take a while to trickle down to the small fish.

 

[Series-8]

Try buying just ONE 'i.mx31', just one.
Not gonna happen. 1000, ok wait 3 months while we spin up the factory.

The MMSP2+, is most likely available in Korea now, in physical hardware.
Its not baised on state-of-the-art hardware, infact its process is quite outdated. Thus it is cheap.

Shure in a mythical next generation system you would want the 'best' CPU available. In reality you ALWAYS get the cheapest the company can get away with.

The i.mx31 may crush the MMSP2+, but if it costs 2X as much, was that extra something percent faster worth the price being THAT much higher?

 

[Zeladin]

Try buying just ONE 'i.mx31', just one.
Not gonna happen. 1000, ok wait 3 months while we spin up the factory.

Ahhh! NRE alert - Take cover!!!

...Seriously, is that true (Link?/info source?) - not exactly easy to compare the two chips then, surely they have samples or something...

Yes, mmsp2+ does exist physically.. you can get a dev kit as I was saying.. If that is the case you can pretty much forget about the imx31 - an small company is going to go for a pre-existing acceptable cheap chip rather than a killer chip that costs a bucket in 'Non-recoverable Engineering' and is going to take forever to actually get running in a unit.

Anyway the mmsp2+ is arguably more powerful than a psp, it should make for an awesome games console. No its not 'next-gen' but one can't quite achieve ps2 in your pocket yet* - you can only do super powerful twice normal speed ps1. Homebrew is hardly going to require much more hardware, a 3d game is a lot more slog than a 2d one, and Commercial games will never be big, so also unlikely to use all the Hw to the max. In other words those extra mhz the imx31 are near useless (except down clocking in theory would yield better power saving). I could be wrong in my estimation, so feel free to correct me - just a random and quite vague opinion.

*Or would a 1ghz Qualcomm Scorpion do it? Don't think that exists yet either...