Things that are in the P1 we dont want/need for P2

[Prometheus]

I've just always liked the speed and good performance of PowerPC. (PowerPC stands for "Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC; Performance Computing." RISC stands for "Reduced Instruction Set Computing." If you think about it, it sounds like an awesome CPU.) Also, I noticed that In the game console world, every home console has PPC, and every handheld has ARM. But there are mobile PPC CPUs, so why not try packing some big into the small?

ARM stands for Advanced RISC Machine... (Originally Acorn RISC Machine, since it originated from the British computing company, Acorn, back in the early 1980s.)

Wow, you know quite a bit. I was going to mention all of that!

Heh, thankyou. I'm no expert, though, and what I do know is *vastly* dwarfed by the knowledge held by many others here.

Do you spend lots of time on Wikipedia too?

No, I try to avoid Wikipedia, as a general rule. It's all just stuff that I've picked up over the course of my life so far, due to a lifelong interest in computers and in video games.

 

[levi]

ARM have always guaranteed backwards compatability with their instruction sets. I can take ARM code designed to run on the ARM1 and run it on any other ARM chip ever made (except for the ones that only support Thumb). Sure, a few things have broken, so it would not need to use PC relative addressing (pipeline length changes used to break things, but I gather they've worked around that now, though I don't know how), not enter supervisor mode and not otherwise modify the processor flags (26 bit vs 32 bit PC broke a few things) but other than that 95% of instructions will run unmodified.


Please note I'm not trying to win the 'who knows the most pointless crud' challenge here.

 

[in3D]

Well...yes........THERE SHOULD BE SOME KIND OF KNOWLEDGE CONTEST TO SEE WHO KNOWS THE MOST USELESS FACTS ABOUT THE HARDWARE IN THE PANDORA!

Wizardstan? MWeston?


Anyway, there's no need to shout, we can all read your posts

heh heh... sorry, just hard to convey the right thought with nothing but text and smileys, no REAL speech, ya'know?

 

[Stephane Hockenhull]

Looks like we have an agreement: Pandora is perfect. For the v2 we only want more memory, faster processor and bigger screen.

Actually, I think that switching from ARM to PowerPC before it's too late is a good idea.

I really hope you are kidding.


or maybe you're fine carrying a car battery in your backpack to power the CPU for barely more than 5 minutes.


and if we're lucky, the battery will die before the PowerPC CPU melts the casing.

 

[ZeroOne]

I generally think most people would just like it as it is.. but some tweaks like improved case.. upgraded parts and few extras like accelerometer, camera, etc

Accelerometers are expensive and I am not sure the niche market which the pandora caters to would apprechiate the extra cost/function ratio.

 

[kuru]

Accelerometers are expensive and I am not sure the niche market which the pandora caters to would apprechiate the extra cost/function ratio.

I can't imagine that an item costing ~6€ will significantly impact the price when bought in volume.

 

[WizardStan]

Accelerometers can be had for under $3.

 

[Exophase]

Accelerometers can be had for under $3.

I had this conversation with MWeston once and he flipped out on me for how expensive the $2 or so part I was recommending was ;p


Of course since then they've probably gotten massively cheaper. If Sparkfun can sell a Freescale triaxial accelerometer for a little over $2 in bulk then you can get them for much less directly from Freescale. You can get parts from their current MM845xQ Xtrinsic line for $0.77 to $0.92 in quantities for 10,000. Or you could get the older MMA7660FC for $0.62.


So I'd say if you have room for it add it.


Gyroscopes, on the other hand, are substantially more expensive. You can be prepared to pay at least $6 for a triaxial one from STMicro, and Invensense charges $10+ per unit on their site. If you're buying in Nintendo or Apple quantities you can probably get them for massively less.

 

[Binky]

How expensive are GPS/magnometer chips?

 

[slaeshjag]

GPS + antenna will probably cost > $20 in OpenPandora quantities.

 

[Exophase]

You can get GPS combined with Wifi and BT, that'd probably be the way you want to do that. I doubt it adds more than a couple dollars at most but I don't have prices.


A quick search of magnetometer pricing appears to suggest about $4 in low quantity.

 

[kuru]

That reminds me of Golden Delicious, they wanted to redo the Neo Freerunner's sensor board so it would be compatible with the Pandora, AFAIR they were a tad on the expensive side and a minimum order volume had to be met. There was a discussion on the German boards.

 

[WizardStan]

I had this conversation with MWeston once and he flipped out on me for how expensive the $2 or so part I was recommending was ;p

Did he flip out over the cost or on the difficulty he'd have running the connection back to the OMAP?


He packed the board pretty tight, I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to add more complication.


That'd be another benefit to a Wifi/Bluetooth/GPS combo module: fewer lines for communication.

 

[Exophase]

Did he flip out over the cost or on the difficulty he'd have running the connection back to the OMAP?
He packed the board pretty tight, I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to add more complication.


That'd be another benefit to a Wifi/Bluetooth/GPS combo module: fewer lines for communication.

No. This wasn't about putting it in Pandora, he really thought that $2-3 was too expensive for a part like this. I agree with what you say though, Pandora is really tightly packed.. hopefully the next one will have fewer BOM items. There's a lot of level shifters and stuff taking up space that may be culled, plus hopefully zero or one nub controllers instead of two.

 

[NESnero]

I'd like some plastic square keyboard buttons for the P2 instead of the current rubbery circular ones we have now. I find them impossible to type on properly as my fingers always move to one side of them because of the roundness of them. Square flat ones would be great.

 

[Binky]

@ NESnero