Will It Be Able To Run Sdxc When It Comes Out?

[willrandship]

When the SDXC standard comes out, it will support up to 2 TB, according to the SD association's website. My question is, will it be a simple patch to get it running, like on the wii, or will it require some fancy work-arounds? I would be satisfied if it would work through a usb adapter!

 

[mali]

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/49679-diy-sdxc-mod/
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/47558-sdxc/page__p__721509
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/46039-sdxc-support/

 

[Vitel]

Right. Everybody has to read 7 pages to get a simple answer yes/no/probably.

 

[Nintendo]

Answer: Yes, but not an easy task to get it working. andora2ut4:

 

[kloplop321]

not an easy task to get it working.

Elaborate briefly?

 

[danielliu88888]

Right. Everybody has to read 7 pages to get a simple answer yes/no/probably.

dude, it's in the first few posts on the second link. chip says "probably not".

 

[Squidge]

The answer is: Possibly.
and if it doesn't, you could possibly patch it easily.
or it might possibly need physical modifications (possibly).

So, the word is 'Possibly'.

We can guess, but not give you a yes/no answer until we have a Pandora and a SDXC card.

It's unlikely to work when the Pandora is released, as the only SDXC card available is $600, so no testing/modifications will be done.

However, since the OP says they'll be happy with a USB adaptor, we can say it will DEFINITELY work. There WILL be a USB adaptor that the Pandora can talk to in order to utilise SDXC. When? Nobody knows. We need to get a USB adaptor + SDXC + Pandora and test.

Is that a good enough answer?

(I've no idea what Sony is talking about. Maybe he wants to appear in the guiness book of records as the person most banned from internet forums.)

 

[Chip]

SDXC is a non-issue for the near future. 2TB is only the theoretical maximum - nothing has even been announced yet beyond 64GB, and those cards are listing for a fracking fortune. It will be a year or more before larger-than-32GB flash chips to be priced reasonably enough to be worth considering. By that point, it is nearly certain that you will see larger-than-32GB SDHC cards on the market. Yes, 32GB is the official limit, but that is a soft limit imposed by the SDCA. Just as there were unofficial SD cards that broke the 4GB limit, there will be SDHC cards that break the 32GB limit. There are too many SDHC-capable devices (and not nearly enough SDXC capable devices) for these cards not to be made.

 

[amnesiasoft]

My understanding of SDXC is that it's basically SDHC with the 32 GiB cap removed (As SDHC theoretically allows for 2 TiB as well, but they capped it to 32 GiB), and a speed increase. I don't see any reason the firmware can't be updated to officially support reading of SDXC cards, but you wouldn't get any speed increase.

 

[paulguy]

Is the speed of those specific SDXC cards because of part of the specification, or is it simply that they just wanted to make something as expensive as possible to sell to ricers?

What it's sounding a lot like is that there don't seem to be any or at least superficial changes (Enough to require new or updated hardware grrrr) to the protocol and it's more just creating higher "classes" for the specification itself.

 

[hch]

My understanding of SDXC is that it's basically SDHC with the 32 GiB cap removed (As SDHC theoretically allows for 2 TiB as well, but they capped it to 32 GiB), and a speed increase. I don't see any reason the firmware can't be updated to officially support reading of SDXC cards, but you wouldn't get any speed increase.

this is unfortunately *probably* not the case.

 

[Pleng]

this is unfortunately *probably* not the case.

It's quite probable that it possibly may not probably be the case.

I think.

 

[cobaltage]

If you can afford to get an SDXC card when it's released, you can also afford to have a custom made SDXC board from TI for a new Pandora. While you're wearing your gold rings and having your servants count your money while you sit back drinking your crude oil.

 

[Pleng]

nevermind. missed the when they are released bit

 

[Squidge]

What it's sounding a lot like is that there don't seem to be any or at least superficial changes (Enough to require new or updated hardware grrrr) to the protocol and it's more just creating higher "classes" for the specification itself.

We already know that to "take full advantage of SDXC" requires new firmware and hardware. It is extremely unlikely that existing hardware will support bus speeds of 100Mhz (the SDXC spec).

It's true that its not really a major improvement each time.

SDHC comes out and they just change the spec to refer to a 512-byte block rather than a 1-byte block which must be on a 512-byte boundary. They increase the speed from 25Mhz to 50Mhz.
SDXC comes out and it seems (so far) that they increase the speed again from 50Mhz to 100Mhz. Firmware changes are unknown, and may simply be the removal of the 32GB cap.

Note that some implementations of SDHC code follows the spec exactly - a card stating it contains more than 32GB of free space is considered invalid and is therefore unusable. This means people producing 64GB SDHC cards may be few and far between, due to them not working in all equipment.

It may be possible to hack the firmware in the Pandora to support SDXC, or it might not be necessary at all. We just don't know until some reasonably priced cards hit the market.

 

[Jourdy288]

I have the feeling I've asked this before...

Just saying, I bet that if we had terabytes of space, we'd be able to make absolutely brilliant games if we took advantage of it! You never know.

Anyway, it's quite likely the SDXC will cost you a kidney when it first comes out, though, so it's highly unlikely that they'll pick up widespread usage for about 5-7 years when the new ones start pulling yottabytes.
Also, if I remember properly, SDXC innards are different from SDHC, differently wired (I think, could be wrong) so the Pandora will need modification to the SD slots to take it.

In short? We'll probably have it on the Pandora 2.

 

[Pleng]

I have the feeling I've asked this before...

asked what? there's nto a single question in your post!

Just saying, I bet that if we had terabytes of space, we'd be able to make absolutely brilliant games if we took advantage of it! You never know.

Yea because 32Gb storage space is going to be the real stumbling block for community-created apps.

You know what? My favourite game of all time takes up less than 1.5Mb

Storage space will be good for additional PSX/Dreamcast ROMS, Higher volumes and quality of music/video files, and more games on a single card. NOT for developing mega 2Tb epic titles.

Anyway, it's quite likely the SDXC will cost you a kidney when it first comes out, though, so it's highly unlikely that they'll pick up widespread usage for about 5-7 years when the new ones start pulling yottabytes.

5-7 years. And you base this estimate on what exactly?

Also, if I remember properly, SDXC innards are different from SDHC, differently wired (I think, could be wrong) so the Pandora will need modification to the SD slots to take it.

In short? We'll probably have it on the Pandora 2.

Do you even bother to read the rest of a thread before jumping in with your uninformed misinformation? It has already been stated by people of far superior credibility than yourself that we simply won't know until somebody is able to try it.

 

[Squidge]

Also, if I remember properly, SDXC innards are different from SDHC, differently wired (I think, could be wrong) so the Pandora will need modification to the SD slots to take it.

That would be just plain daft. There's just no reason for it. Everything the SDXC offers can be done using the existing pinout, and it would also prevent SDHC and SDSC cards from working, so they wouldn't do it. SD Org has always used backwards compatible specifications, there's no reason to change that now.

 

[zevdawg]

I have the feeling I've asked this before...

Just saying, I bet that if we had terabytes of space, we'd be able to make absolutely brilliant games if we took advantage of it! You never know.

Anyway, it's quite likely the SDXC will cost you a kidney when it first comes out, though, so it's highly unlikely that they'll pick up widespread usage for about 5-7 years when the new ones start pulling yottabytes.
Also, if I remember properly, SDXC innards are different from SDHC, differently wired (I think, could be wrong) so the Pandora will need modification to the SD slots to take it.

In short? We'll probably have it on the Pandora 2.

Thing is, the games/applications aren't taking advantage of space (most apps/games run fine off very little space) - games, and applications are (or should be) taking advantage of the hardware that it runs on instead. Space should never be a problem, but it's always nice to have. And applications should not have unnecessary bloat.

We very well may see games using higher capacities in terms of storage - but is anyone in the opensource community creating highly rendered 2D/3D (a la HD encoding) cutscenes for games?

Slightly unrelated to the topic, but relevant to what you're saying about space:
I have a DS, with my games respectively backed up for my own use. I did a little searching around just out of curiosity, and the largest DS ROM I could find is just under ~300MB (uncompressed), I forget which game but according to reviews had a large/tolerable amount of cutscenes as well. The DS carts themselves are said to be able hold 2GB of data. Good games can be had for less space.

 

[Pleng]

Slightly unrelated to the topic, but relevant to what you're saying about space:
I have a DS, with my games respectively backed up for my own use. I did a little searching around just out of curiosity, and the largest DS ROM I could find is just under ~300MB (uncompressed), I forget which game but according to reviews had a large/tolerable amount of cutscenes as well. The DS carts themselves are said to be able hold 2GB of data.

Wow impressive figures! Every DS Rom I had was either 32 or 64 Meg, but then again I only had a few of the bog standard Nintendo games.