dreams do come true, arm big.little [4x4] exynos 5 octo


takato14,  Are you saying that the Next Pandora (if it ever happens) will only be used for emulation?.  Given the strong likely hood that it will also run Android , it needs the extra power to run the top of the line Android games.  Thinking of the next Pandora as a game emulation machine only is not seeing the whole picture.
The Pandora's main function is emulation. It can also do anything a computer does and run Android on the side. The Pandora 2 should be powerful enough to run Android but that should not be its primary function.

No Android game is going to be written to take advantage of 8 cores. Period. It's unnecessary to have that many cores in this device and it's just driving the cost up without reason.

The Pandora's main function is emulation, the P2's functions which have already been talked about to exhaustion including numerous polls, will be a little different .  Judging from the last poll , it will be dual boot and support Android and Linux.  The thing is, Android now offers a landscape where new games/apps people want to play/use are accessible .   It would be crazy to have a device which could only emulate games and not take advantage of the newer games/apps Android has to offer.  If you just want it for emulation, then stick with the P1.

Also, as has been mentioned, the 8 core soc in question is not really designed (although it can) to use all 8 cores, the main purpose of the 4 extra cores is to provide a low power offering when less demanding tasks are performed.   You really only have 4 powerhouse cores. Will Android apps use these cores , in time they will. Your comment is like saying apps will never need more than a pentium 486 in the PC world back in the time. The more power HW has , the more apps that need that power get developed or ported. It's the way it has always been.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sod android.

Sod emulation.

I want a hackable computer in my pocket!
 
One thing that all those cores would definitely help with is compile time.

I would never compile on my Pandora over cross compile + scp because it takes so much longer (sorry, I know some people are into this). With my Chromebook I don't mind so much. This of course has the convenience of not having to worry about synchronizing your source files with the Pandora in order to get good debug info, for instance.
 
Something not mentioned yet is that one of those A7s can be used for things that previously the DSP was supposed to do, but hardly anyone was able to code for the TI dsp because it was so difficult. With an A7 you can run symmetric code meaning you can put for e.g. the dosbox Soundblaster emulation on a seperate core without reprogramming the entire thing.
 
Something not mentioned yet is that one of those A7s can be used for things that previously the DSP was supposed to do, but hardly anyone was able to code for the TI dsp because it was so difficult. With an A7 you can run symmetric code meaning you can put for e.g. the dosbox Soundblaster emulation on a seperate core without reprogramming the entire thing.
I dont think it shows as a generic core, from what I understand the firmware switches the workload between the big.LITTLE cores depending on amount of activity, maybe something like the omap 4470  with its companion m3 cores could work as independent cores.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top