What Is The Version Of The Omap3 Engineering Sample?


Yod4z

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can we know the version used in the production for the Pandora? I have see that TI add more possible memory on the engineering sample 3.0 (256MB)
 
More memory == way more money. It was already suggested, discussed, shot down, brought back, rediscussed, buried, resurrected, exorcised, and now you're asking again. Can't it just lay in piece and worry about revisions when it actually becomes prudent to do so?
 
Production Pandora isn't using an ES device, and secondly the 128MB RAM is set in stone, so no point discussing it any more. (The 128MB isn't part of the OMAP, it's a POP design, so the ram fits on top; The OMAP3 core has always supported 256MB, and no you can't upgrade it.)
 
Yod4z:

"can we know the version used in the production for the Pandora? I have see that TI add more possible memory on the engineering sample 3.0 (256MB)"

Squidge:

"Production Pandora isn't using an ES device, and secondly the 128MB RAM is set in stone, so no point discussing it any more."


Well I'd like to discuss it:

I'd like to know where you heard about the 256mb rumor because I haven't found anything that even hints at it. Right now I'm assuming your confusing the onboard storage with ram.

This engineering sample might only be used for development. While the original XBox on had 64 MB the Dev version of the XBox had 128mb. This is because developers need to run debuggers and such in order to develop software where as a consumer doesn't. The version with 128mb was much more expensive than the regular one but it was needed to make the regular version useful.

The pandora is more of a general purpose computer so having extra memory would be a great benefit. However as Squidge points out the Pandora hardware is set in stone.

If however the 256mb version is planned to go into mass production at some point they may stop making the 128mb version and new Pandoras would be forced into using the 256mb version, and we suddenly have two platforms. What if the company that made the old nubs (2.5mm plus click) hadn't stopped making them until after the first batch of Pandoras?

This is all FUD and as such you should ignore it but it brings up the boarder community point about what to do if Pandora hardware is changed. Should they disable any extra features?

Craig's done a good job dealing with this so far. I remember an old version of the OMAP had a broken DSP, Craig delayed production until that was fixed, which was the right thing to do.

Anyway the only point of information I'm really interested in is where did you hear this rumor? I'd like to see it for myself.

I totally understand why you closed the old thread if it was FUD. But you need to dispel FUD before locking it, otherwise you end up looking overly defensive, which also creates FUD.
 
Pandora topic moved from GP2X forum into here and merged.

MagicPants said:
If however the 256mb version is planned to go into mass production at some point they may stop making the 128mb version and new Pandoras would be forced into using the 256mb version, and we suddenly have two platforms.
The 128MB/256MB is a storage chip (nand/ram combined), it's not part of the OMAP. People don't stop making 128MB RAM chips because they have brought out a more expensive 256MB version. The same will happen here. Maybe when the 256MB one is the same price as the 128MB it will happen, but I very much doubt it will be before that.
 
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Ok then the Soc featured with the Pandora first batch would have NEON fix and other OMAP fix?
 
Yod4z said:
Ok then the Soc featured with the Pandora first batch would have NEON fix and other OMAP fix?

The bug in NEON was earlier ES silicon, so yes, it's been fixed already.
 
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The interesting thing with the chip is it supports two types of memory controllers.

One is the GPMC which I believe is the one used for the external POP 128mb memory. There is also another one, SDRC, which can be used for LPDDR memory.

It would be cool if they had exposed the controller pins on the LPDDR memory so that if we wanted too we could mod the board to add more memory support if we wanted too, but I do understand why they might not have utilized this memory controller do to size reasons but it would be cool if they at least exposed it for future work.

I'm really looking forward to getting one of these in my hands and seeing what it can do.
 
It has been stated that the second memory controller is a chip select to which you could add an extra 128MB but the Panda's battery life would be reduced to half and it would be very expensive to do so.
 
kin said:
uhm.. i'm not all that technicall but why bother adding 128mb if it possible to swap from an sdcard? Or is it too slow?

way too slow.
 
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AFAIR it's more about the increase in SD mortality rate if you use it for swap - that whole "being written to perpetually" thing really isn't a good idea for solid state memory.

That said, with SDs it isn't quite as bad as with some other cards, since they have decent wear-levelling.

Plus, of course, it would be slow.
 
Swapping on an SD card, particularly a class 6 card, is reported to work very well on the Nokia tablets. So 'way too slow' isn't entirely correct. It's swap though, not RAM. It's used to get a larger virtual memory set so that you don't crash due to temporarily stretching the memory usage. It also makes it possible to free up some RAM for better file caching etc. and can make the whole experience feel a little faster than without swap (I know, it's maybe not what a desktop Linux user would expect, but it does seem to make the tablets faster at least.)
 
Squidge said:
Pandora topic moved from GP2X forum into here and merged.

MagicPants said:
If however the 256mb version is planned to go into mass production at some point they may stop making the 128mb version and new Pandoras would be forced into using the 256mb version, and we suddenly have two platforms.
The 128MB/256MB is a storage chip (nand/ram combined), it's not part of the OMAP. People don't stop making 128MB RAM chips because they have brought out a more expensive 256MB version. The same will happen here. Maybe when the 256MB one is the same price as the 128MB it will happen, but I very much doubt it will be before that.

just up this topic to see what it was said 20 days back ^^
 
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Isn't that quote still valid? All Pandora's will now be 256MB thanks to certain circumstances, there will not be 2 seperate platforms still.

Now, if you quoted my "the 128MB is set in stone", that would be a different story all together, as we now know that is false :)
 
:D the big secret the 17 october we will have 128 and now 20 days after we will have 256 :D
 
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