The Next Gp*x Revision


I couldn't be bothered to study this afternoon & decided to learn a bit more on using the Gimp & my new graphics tablet.

I knocked this up in about 10 mins, just to see what the 2x would look like with 2 sd slots..

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I like it :D
 
sehs33 posted on Jan 10 2007 said:
FM tuners cost nothing, so are microphones, I suggested them to GPH and they liked the idea and said it is easily doable, but it was too late because that was few days before they shipped the "First Edition" units.
FM tuners and microphones are basic additions for any entertainment player, it is a shame they are not already available.
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You may be right about the cost but putting those things on a gp2x is just silly. Instead of trying to make a machine that DOES everything they should try to make a machine that CAN DO everything. A usb host port and sdio support would allow you to have both of those things especially if the gp2x had dual sd slots. I have seen to many devices that try to do everything and just end up being stupid. The whole idea behind the gp2x is cusomizablity and openness.
 
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Jackd posted on Jan 11 2007 said:
sehs33 posted on Jan 10 2007 said:
FM tuners cost nothing, so are microphones, I suggested them to GPH and they liked the idea and said it is easily doable, but it was too late because that was few days before they shipped the "First Edition" units.
FM tuners and microphones are basic additions for any entertainment player, it is a shame they are not already available.
Click to expand...

You may be right about the cost but putting those things on a gp2x is just silly. Instead of trying to make a machine that DOES everything they should try to make a machine that CAN DO everything. A usb host port and sdio support would allow you to have both of those things especially if the gp2x had dual sd slots. I have seen to many devices that try to do everything and just end up being stupid. The whole idea behind the gp2x is cusomizablity and openness.
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I respect your opinion, but again, this is sold as a personal entertainment player, whu pay for an expensive SDIO card that wont have linux drivers and would suck alot of current while I can have radio tuner built in for less dollars? btw, I never knew there are SDIO microphones, do they exist?
Everyone is so excited about SDIO, trust me, I got myself an SDIO Wi Fi for my pocket pc, man it had 6 drivers for windows mobile, it is not that flexible at all, it draws alot of my battery power, and it can be broken easily if you are not careful, add to this you will need an additional SD slot as the guys proposed to have memory beside the NAND's, which will increase cost more than those nifty two features (sorry for being so stubborn, but I was really pissed of GP2X didn't have all what I wanted and considered as basic features, and I wish GP*X will fulfill my dreams, same as everyone hoping it makes their dreams come true).
 
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Jackd posted on Jan 11 2007 said:
You may be right about the cost but putting those things on a gp2x is just silly. Instead of trying to make a machine that DOES everything they should try to make a machine that CAN DO everything. A usb host port and sdio support would allow you to have both of those things especially if the gp2x had dual sd slots. I have seen to many devices that try to do everything and just end up being stupid. The whole idea behind the gp2x is cusomizablity and openness.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more. It would just end up being another tacky device that can do loads of stuff half arsed, instead of a few stuff very well.

2 sd slots would be one of the most usefull things. It would allow a wifi/bluetooth card at the same time as a storage card & you could copy from one cards to another without a pc. It would also allow internet radio recieving, auto downloading & installation of updates, the ability to recieve video streams, multiplayer gaming via online severs, multiplayer gaming via adhock mode with the person sat next to you, the ability to check gaming stats online for all the different console & pc games & all the usual email etc. that you can do with an internet connection.

Another hardware addition that would be useful, would be if the audio/video in was enabled throught the EXT port (as well as audio/video out). This would allow a microphone & webcam to be connected, as well as the ability to use the device for recording saved video from Sky+ etc.

USB should have been enabled by default IMO anyway so enough about that :)

Also.. On the GP2X, an extra 2 way slider switch could be fitted between the power LED & battery LED.
The left part of the switch could be a designated menu button for devs to assign menu's to, and the right part of the switch could be used as a modifier for all of the other buttons. This would effectively double the amount of buttons on the device, allowing a modifier + normal key combo for extra tasks like screen streching, save states etc.

If it was upto me, I would also swap the power switch for a double one. This would let the devs assign a suspend to ram feature to the extra contact :)

EDIT: I forgot one other very simple, yet really useful feature.. one of those screw holes that cameras have. This would allow a stand to be attached easier & would also give you a secure way to attach addons etc. :)
 
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Tripmonkey_uk posted on Jan 10 2007 said:
I couldn't be bothered to study this afternoon & decided to learn a bit more on using the Gimp & my new graphics tablet.

I knocked this up in about 10 mins, just to see what the 2x would look like with 2 sd slots..

top.png


I like it :D
Click to expand...
Wow, if there was that big of an update, I'm surprised you didn't think about putting the headphone jack IN THE PROPER POSITION.
 
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Well this whole conversation is hypothetical.

IMHO the GP2X is here to stay.

For (annother example):

The Gameboy hardware:

6 Versions with backwards compatibility to the very first version.

(NOT counting the 2 DS variants, and 2 SGB and other compatible hardware)

The 'Next' GP2X will merely be updated with perhaps a faster MMSP MagicEyes SoC, a higher resolution screen, and more memory and a proper D-Pad and USB Host. (along with the standard EXT and power/headphone jacks)
(and Possibly a Li-ION Polymer battery, in a cartridge that could be swapped with 2AA NiMH-LD)

The cost will 'only' be slightly more than when the first Mk.1 came out.

That is what I think GPH will have as their next version. They simply don't have the money or resources to design a new console with a expensive Freescale I.MX31 SoC. Also the MMSP is Korean, so is GPH....

My bet is a MMSP2+ or perhaps the MMSP3.

Similar specs, but a 360Mhz rated clock, and 3D acceleration. Still the lame USB Host 1.1, but noobody is perfect. Should also be backwards compatible...
 
Portable hardware design on this scale is well and truly out of my league, but would it be possible to use chips from the Nano-ITX (120mm x 120mm form factor) pc's? I realise these aren't SoC's but Via's goal is low power consumption and they sport some fairly fast cpu's with great features. Also, the architecture would make game porting easier.

As to why there isn't a standard with Li-ion as there is for other chemistries I don't know.
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From what I understand, Li-Ion has very specific charging requirements, with dangerous results if these requirements aren't met. No manufacturer wants the liability of someone being hurt when they try to charge their AA Li-Ion cells in a normal NiMH charger.

Series-8 posted on Jan 14 2007 said:
Should also be backwards compatible...
Click to expand...
It'd certainly be a smart move.
 
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No manufacturer wants the liability of someone being hurt when they try to charge their AA Li-Ion cells in a normal NiMH charger.
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Ah yes of course, but they wouldn't have to be AA shaped - Ideally it would be a flat rectangle of some kind.. Not only would there be risk AA sized Li-ion cells being charged incorrectly, but also the voltage for a single cell is about 3.7V or something like that (I think its supposed to be directly linked with the chemistry) - which would be really bad to put in instead of AA's unless there were some power adapter...

Its not going to happen anyway - or it would have already happened - so goes my theory.

I'm happier with the safer chemistry of NI-MH anyway, charging Li-ion cells is nightmarish.
Portable hardware design on this scale is well and truly out of my league, but would it be possible to use chips from the Nano-ITX (120mm x 120mm form factor) pc's? I realise these aren't SoC's but Via's goal is low power consumption and they sport some fairly fast cpu's with great features. Also, the architecture would make game porting easier.
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A geode might be a better option for a portable console, the requirements of those boards are still quite high I suspect. We could even just use a modified OLPC (One laptop per Child - see wikipedia) motherboard.

Though I my opinion a UMPC is not really what is desired, these SOC's are much much cheaper too - as far as I know - AND as I pointed out, you can get a 1Ghz ARM if mega power was really desired.

We would certainly have more games if it was a console sized PC and developing would probably be easier too. That is certainly a big advantage, and from my reading AMD seem quite keen to bring the x86 architecture to the portable world.

- If an x86 mini PC (aka gaming console) were offered with good battery life and at the price of the GP2x, It would be difficult to ignore it... The OLPC's might be sold in the EU at about 300E... It's definitely as credible idea in my opinion.

Of course it wouldn't be compatible with the GP2x, I do like that MMSP-2+. :)
 
CPU's such as the Geode draw FAR too much power to even consider.
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Well it does claim 5hrs on that little sublaptop or whatever I linked to a bit back - and that's the 500mhz one. Of course that's probably more like three, and that's on a Li-ion cell.

Not saying I like the idea or that it is possible, just that these x86 processors are becoming much lower in their power requirements. If there are ultra tiny pcs, we might see some portable pcs aimed at gamers/ doing the kind of thing the GP2x does currently - especially if they get much cheaper.

Those OLPC things for example are supposed to cost less than 150 euro (but they're suggesting that if you buy one you have to buy a second for the developing world.).

So I think its a bit up in the air - of course the arm systems will draw less power, and I think be cheaper for a good while. It's quite likely these portable x86 cpus will never compare on those two counts - but the big attractive feature, is that just about everybody has a x86 PC and there are tons of games, apps, OS's and etc, that already run on that architecture.

Today, you would definitely pick an ARM but in a year or two, you might consider a low power x86 geode by AMD - they are targeting the portables market with it..

x86 everywhere

AMD's marketing manager, Charles Dittmer, says AMD has long anticipated that technology, process, and design improvements would increase the viability of x86 in power- and size-constrained embedded systems. "It's our vision that x86 will migrate over time, with technology advances, from the typical PC and server space down into cross-over devices and consumer devices. The LX800 is a proof point in [that] 'x86 everywhere' strategy. It will bring the Windows and Linux experience into new classes of devices,"
Click to expand...
link; http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS2872282951.html

So watch out for broken phones and gaming consoles running windows! No, wait they already exist...

*****
This is not what I envisage for the next revision/ Gp*x. I was just trying to explain how Chronic was not a complete ninny for suggesting an x86 gaming console (and thinking out loud on the subject myself). I'm just saying that it can be considered, but not what I would pick at the end of the day... Also I doubt GPH would go this direction either.
*****

Edit; From the horses mouth as it were;
http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolut...5E13057,00.html
 
Yeah, that LX800 would make the sweetest handheld ever! Sure you could make a design that was very close in size to the GP2X, but battery technology is the weakness. If you could get a battery the size of a DS or PSP battery that had a capacity of about 5500mAh, then it would be doable.....but not yet! :)


Oh, and that doesn't even include 3D which some of us, including myself, would definitely want if I were to start running native Windows/Linux games. That would put the battery closer to 6800mAh by my casual guesses of power consumption.
 
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