You're wrong about battery performance on a windows xp based umpc and 3d gpu.
Atom Z5xx is apparently going to give 6-7 hours battery life on umpcs like wibrain I1 running windows on standard battery. (
http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/07/wibrain-...d-umpc-details/ ) The Gpu is poulsbo based in the gma500 is not a great 3d hardware but should get some 3d games working about 3 or 4 years old.
I mean, in 2 months we're getting windows xp based umpcs with 6-7 hours of battery life and basic 3d gaming support (older Wibrain B1 has some nice pc gaming performance, so I1 should be at least performing a bit better). Thus it's not impossible at all that in 1 or 2 years you can create a Windows XP Pandora with 10 battery life, nice 3d performance and pocket sized.
I have to insist, I'm talking on a next-gen Pandora, not the current one, in one or two years, not now.
How about 5-6 years? The tech is not now, nor will be invented by your time frame.
I postulate that the ARM of 2-3 years from now will be on the order of 5-10 times more energy efficient than a competing x86 product.
oblivioner said:
I'm well aware of the "resistance" part
I also agree that it will probably happen, so I wish the Pandora team will be part of that. In business hitting first is key, if they succeed, investors may be interested in a similar device with Windows, and having a successful well-know brand would help. We're almost at the point where techology and costs can allow a mass market windows based gaming device which has hundreds of awesome games available from day 1. Pandora proves that now you can make almost such a beast happen at 250 euro, the thing is who will be first and if they will nail accesibility / price / technology / size / interface / battery life.
OK, take a look at the prices of a Ti processor that does nearly everything in the Pandora, then take a look at a
SIMILARLY POWERFUL Atom or as-yet-unreleased more integrated x86 processor (video card, northbridge on chip). It uses much more power and costs on the order of 4 times as much.
I am sorry that you think the "wave of the future" is a much more expensive system on lower battery life.
A handheld system cannot run "amazing new games" on "Windows" any more than an ARM can. The games for the windows handheld will need to be written just the same as games for the Pandora or any other ARM or PowerPC based handheld system.
If you want a device that can play older games on the go you can investigate any of the proper systems with a Via or Intel chip.
Don't buy into the Atom hype, it is not the answer to everything, Intel releases a bunch of made up info and you can't believe it with credulity.
I like Atom, but it has its place. I am not sure you understand just how small the Pandora is, or how much electricity the Atom really uses (even the not yet released models).
I figure about 5 years, maybe 4 on the outside. We can't predict the future. If a miracle happens and the Atom successor is a viable candidate (nobody in the industry can honestly see that happening), then I am sure they will review it based on its merits compared with all the available processors.
Imaging trying to stuff a complete Xbox into a GameBoy micro and you will see why everyone is laughing. 5 years before this becomes possible at a ridiculous price, and I have my doubts if even then.
Even if the processor is in the system that is no guarantee that the system will run all the old software, some games need DirectX 5 or 6 on Windows 98SE, some need Windows 95, Some need DOS drivers etc etc. Assuming it would even be possible to do the hardware (and for the foreseeable future it is too expensive and energy hungry), wouldn't our time be better spent on new games or a Dos emulator, or making Wine run than fixing Dos drivers, DirectX drivers, and patching old games to be compatible with a processor they were never coded to run on?