Things we need to take into consideration when treading new grounds

[Binky]

2. connectivity to other accessories, I think HDMI cables may not be needed in the future when videos are send around wirelessly, but what could that be? Blue tooth is slow, wifi is limited.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Home_Digital_Interface

 

[xiongxioi]

Note that not all Intel SoCs even run Windows, for example Medfield and CloverTrail+ didn't and probably Merrifield won't. BayTrail-T is fine though. If people want to run Windows on a Pandora 2, even if it's x86, I'm sure they'll be on their own.

Oh, thanks for the information, Exo. Though we are a small community, if we can start a partition, let our voices get out to them, then may be we will have more options. We don't know what AMD has up their sleeves yet.

You are definitely right on that, we should consider be aware of many x86 socs do not support windows.

 

[xiongxioi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Home_Digital_Interface

Oh, that's some good information. Are there any portable versions?

A conceptual product I'm aware of is this Lima thingy.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cloud-guys/plug-the-brain-of-your-devices?ref=category

 

[Grench]

Maybe not in 2 Months, but certainly in2 Months™...

@xiongxioi I'm not familiar with the process involved in shopping for SoCs for a product. Do the companies even hide the prices of the SoC before you sign the NDA?

-God Ginrai

You have to sign the NDA to get prices, they don't want everyone know about that. In my opinion that is stupid, but this is industry standard.

Small guys like ED usually get ripped off because those big companies don't care about setting up a long term relationship with them.

Nope - not in all cases.

Intel publicly listed the Z3770 at $37 each in quantities of 1000 (tray).  List price isn't necessarily paid price though.

Interesting - they have since removed the price from the product description.

http://ark.intel.com/products/76760/Intel-Atom-Processor-Z3770-2M-Cache-up-to-2_39-GHz

The Google cached version here still shows it:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8o7VTfb9V-EJ:ark.intel.com/products/76760/Intel-Atom-Processor-Z3770-2M-Cache-up-to-2_39-GHz+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

 

[Grench]

You have to sign the NDA to get prices, they don't want everyone know about that. In my opinion that is stupid, but this is industry standard.


Small guys like ED usually get ripped off because those big companies don't care about setting up a long term relationship with them.

There are some exceptions though, particularly if the company sells in low quantity through a distributor or directly on their website. TI and Freescale for example let you buy some parts online directly, so of course you get prices this way. Intel also sells a lot of parts through distributors and publishes prices on a lot of their parts. In all of these cases it's probably that big customers negotiate lower prices for huge volumes. In the other thread Grench found Intel's Z3770 costs $37 a unit, taking that as a worst case that's not that bad for what you get and isn't really that much worse than what OMAP3530s cost Pandora early on.


Note that not all Intel SoCs even run Windows, for example Medfield and CloverTrail+ didn't and probably Merrifield won't. BayTrail-T is fine though. If people want to run Windows on a Pandora 2, even if it's x86, I'm sure they'll be on their own.

Price link in above message.

I'm sure someone would want to load Windows on it - they would be free to buy their own license and go for it.  Personally, I'd probably try to get 64bit Mint or Medibuntu going on it.

 

[Binky]

On the theme of wireless video streaming, this might also be of interest:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1575970207/the-cross-plane-your-system-your-game-your-play?ref=search

 

[xiongxioi]

On the theme of wireless video streaming, this might also be of interest:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1575970207/the-cross-plane-your-system-your-game-your-play?ref=search

It's possible to incorporate that into P2. That's basically a controller module + a hdmi to wireless signal thingy.

However, is there any demand for this? Would you want to play call of duty on p2's screen while lying down?

I can help ED contacting those Chinese slave factories to make those controller module and hdmi to wireless signal thingy. These could be expensive though.

This introduces another potential issue, we need to design a new ui that takes that. This would increase the cost by a lot.

If any of us are interested, then I would open another thread try to work out how much this would cost. How much it would add to each pandora's price.

 

[Grench]

On the theme of wireless video streaming, this might also be of interest:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1575970207/the-cross-plane-your-system-your-game-your-play?ref=search

It's possible to incorporate that into P2. That's basically a controller module + a hdmi to wireless signal thingy.

However, is there any demand for this? Would you want to play call of duty on p2's screen while lying down?

I can help ED contacting those Chinese slave factories to make those controller module and hdmi to wireless signal thingy. These could be expensive though.

From what I've seen, there are about as many different 'standards' for wireless HDMI/video as there are big electronics companies.  Trying to pick one standard would be very difficult.

Maybe rather than building something like that into the unit, let the people who want or need to do wireless video use a USB3 dongle?

http://www.amazon.com/SIIG-Wireless-HDMI-Audio-JU-HM0211-S1/dp/B004VB9F50

 

[xiongxioi]

I'm sure someone would want to load Windows on it - they would be free to buy their own license and go for it.  Personally, I'd probably try to get 64bit Mint or Medibuntu going on it.

Pirating windows xp on pandora 2 should not be that big of a deal I guess. I've bought that trash for god knows how many times now.

 

[xiongxioi]

From what I've seen, there are about as many different 'standards' for wireless HDMI/video as there are big electronics companies.  Trying to pick one standard would be very difficult.

Maybe rather than building something like that into the unit, let the people who want or need to do wireless video use a USB3 dongle?

http://www.amazon.com/SIIG-Wireless-HDMI-Audio-JU-HM0211-S1/dp/B004VB9F50

If the demand is there, and it really is a selling point then we will work out a way to make it nice and cheap.

 

[Grench]

I'm sure someone would want to load Windows on it - they would be free to buy their own license and go for it.  Personally, I'd probably try to get 64bit Mint or Medibuntu going on it.

Pirating windows xp on pandora 2 should not be that big of a deal I guess. I've bought that trash for god knows how many times now.

Or maybe use a legit copy? :rolleyes:

Windows XP is out of support, so it might be harder to find drivers for this SoC than Linux or Android - you would likely be fine installing it inside of a virtual machine under the Linux host though.

 

[xiongxioi]

Or maybe use a legit copy? :rolleyes:

I would like to put it that way to state how much I hate microsoft. If it is a person, I will strangle him to death with his own guts.

 

[3_bit]

Wouldn't it be possible to pick an SoC from each category, then estimate hardware costs, get benchmarks (estimated), then ask the whole community? Or even better, the potential to have 2 very similar boards with almost identical components, allowing either architecture to be used.

 

[_jr_]

If you are interested in current stuff this information gets old quite quickly. Even if you aren't it isn't much better. The guys at http://rhombus-tech.net/evaluated_cpus/ did something similar last year focusing on a cheap system, but it seems a lot of the information is already outdated.