Pandora (Open Hardware) now available to pre-order

[xoen]

Originally Posted by john4p

Looks fullspeed, doesn't it?

notice that Amy emulation is far more complicated than that(uh...)..console.
Until i see real vid i'd be cautious then.
624 mhz pxa273 xscale i have in my old but powerful PDA (with probable wifi chip support) is not able to keep Amy emulation even at 80% without sound(usually situation's far worse, sometimes it is 100%, muted - Ruff n'Tumble, i.e.) while being able to emulate everything up to ps1 with full speed.

Pandora's seems to be better, but how good...we will see, maybe.
So far i haven't seen ANY vid with fullspeed, fluid emulation with sound.

i asked about that on pandora forum about yr ago, no conclusions so far, though;/
i am not convinced so far then.

well i am not able to buy one anyway, so...i may need to repair my second c64...pm if someone can help.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by xoen

notice that Amy emulation is far more complicated than that(uh...)..console.
Until i see real vid i'd be cautious then.
624 mhz pxa273 xscale i have in my old but powerful PDA (with probable wifi chip support) is not able to keep Amy emulation even at 80% without sound(usually situation's far worse, sometimes it is 100%, muted - Ruff n'Tumble, i.e.) while being able to emulate everything up to ps1 with full speed.

I used to get (actually, I still do) full speed Amiga emulation (A500 OCS only) on my GP2X running at 250mhz. This was with the majority of titles; of course there were a few that were just too demanding.

D.

[john4p]

Originally Posted by xoen

notice that Amy emulation is far more complicated than that(uh...)..console.
Until i see real vid i'd be cautious then.
624 mhz pxa273 xscale i have in my old but powerful PDA (with probable wifi chip support) is not able to keep Amy emulation even at 80% without sound(usually situation's far worse, sometimes it is 100%, muted - Ruff n'Tumble, i.e.) while being able to emulate everything up to ps1 with full speed.

Pandora's seems to be better, but how good...we will see, maybe.
So far i haven't seen ANY vid with fullspeed, fluid emulation with sound.

i asked about that on pandora forum about yr ago, no conclusions so far, though;/
i am not convinced so far then.

well i am not able to buy one anyway, so...i may need to repair my second c64...pm if someone can help.

This is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture:

PXA27x: 800 MIPS @ 624 MHz

Cortex-A8: up to 2000 MIPS (2.0 DMIPS/MHz in speed from 600 MHz to greater than 1 GHz)

At the default 600 MHz the Cortex A-8 does 1200 MIPS - but every chip is guaranteed to run stable at 720 MHz (only slightly more battery drainage) meaning 1440 MIPS.
The dev-boards so far have all been able to run stable at 900 MHz meaning 1800 MIPS.

Combined with the 68000-assembler core Cyclone I'm sure that'll be enough for OCS-games at 50fps with clear stereo sound and no frameskip.
Fullspeed AGA-emulation is unlikely - but that's not very important to me. Having an "ultra mobile Amiga 500" is enough. I can play those few interesting AGA games at home with WinUAE.

Btw., the PSP can do fullspeed PS1-emulation, too. But not N64 (and I'm sure neither can your PXA273).

I'm looking forward to finally getting that little device - just in time for christmas.


P.S. Does the Amiga-emulator for your PDA utilize Cyclone?

[T_hairy_bootson]

xscale isnt arm technology is it?

[john4p]

It is ARM: ARMv5TE. Still maybe the emu's creator hadn't used Cyclone for it.

[Photon]

Originally Posted by john4p

I'm looking forward to finally getting that little device - just in time for christmas.

Eh... are you jesting or will it really be that long? (I'm only asking cos it's Pandora, and not to piss someone off.)

[john4p]

No, that wasn't serious. I think a May-release is the worst case scenario.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by john4p

No, that wasn't serious. I think a May-release is the worst case scenario.

Tut, tut. Now, you know what happens when people do silly things like predict a release date. Look at what happens when CraigIX does it.

Just take that back right now, young man, or we'll all be here while xmas.

D.

[Photon]

Any young men in here?

[john4p]

No, I only see grampses.

@Dunny: Okay, I now predict March as "worst case scenario" - that way we might have a chance of getting the Pandora until summer.

[T_hairy_bootson]

(Current Date) + (two more months) =

[chiark]

. Latest is showing a plan to have the factory make all 4000 cases before the Chinese new year. There is no room for slip, no contingency, and if they don't get shipped before, add a 2 week delay.

If the cases ship before the CNY, I will be astonished...

Best of luck to everyone involved, seriously.

[Paul_s]

if this comes to fruitation I'll run round my street naked singing the amiga song

[T_hairy_bootson]

Originally Posted by Paul_s

if this comes to fruitation I'll run round my street naked singing the amiga song

hehe, I'm going to hold you to that.

[whiteb]

Originally Posted by T_hairy_bootson

hehe, I'm going to hold you to that.

I'll bring the camera !!!!

[whiteb]

Originally Posted by chiark

. Latest is showing a plan to have the factory make all 4000 cases before the Chinese new year. There is no room for slip, no contingency, and if they don't get shipped before, add a 2 week delay.

If the cases ship before the CNY, I will be astonished...

Best of luck to everyone involved, seriously.

Which Chinese new year ? LOL

[xoen]

the PSP can do fullspeed PS1-emulation, too. But not N64 (and I'm sure neither can your PXA273).

i am in PDA emulators for >6 yrs, man.
sry for ot, but like i said - it does. i have it in my device now, so i know what i am saying, not every game, but yup, it is working fine. far better than Amy emulation(godDAMN ;/). ff7-9,fft - 60 fps with sound, vids fullspeed, dd1 - 48-60 fps. sh1 has 35 fps, but it's playable, gta 1/2 - 60 fps. no frameskip, of course.
(if i only could have such thing 20 years ago..lol).
actually pxa273(almost 4 Y.O. device, not fockin HTC, just Asus p525) is enough to have xl,st,c64,sega mg, zx, neogeo/pgm/cps1,2,3, nes, gb, snes, gba, scumm and Amy(well..barely) in my pocket.

i assume that pandora will be ultimate portable device then.

Still maybe the emu's creator hadn't used Cyclone for it.

if i remember right, nope ..project is also abandoned, actually.
in general - winmobile has no luck with cyclone core so far(sega is buggy with that, perfect without, though, mame w cyclone is buggy too, ffs)
that's why gp2x user is ABLE to have fun, while wm device user is not :S
shame that sources are not available..
funny thing i managed to launch LIGHTWAVE just to see it, lol(although c4d seemed to be more suitable for such small screen).

1200 MIPS

may be tough(to emulate Amy), but while oc'ed, why not

Post some vids after you get it, someone.

[john4p]

Originally Posted by xoen

i am in PDA emulators for >6 yrs, man.
sry for ot, but like i said - it does. i have it in my device now, so i know what i am saying, not every game, but yup, it is working fine. far better than Amy emulation(godDAMN ;/). ff7-9,fft - 60 fps with sound, vids fullspeed, dd1 - 48-60 fps. sh1 has 35 fps, but it's playable, gta 1/2 - 60 fps. no frameskip, of course.

I didn't question PS1-emulation. As I said even the PSP can do fullspeed PS1-emulation.
I was talking about Nintendo 64-emulation.

PSP can't do N64 well. And I doubt that PDA could emulate it at playable speeds either.

The Pandora will be able to do that, meaning Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Mario 64. Probably not GoldenEye though - since that's a game most emulators struggle with/need more CPU-power than for the other games.

Originally Posted by xoen

if i remember right, nope ..project is also abandoned, actually.
in general - winmobile has no luck with cyclone core so far

Thought so. I think with Cyclone your PDA should've reached almost fullspeed on many OCS-titles with sound. Maybe with frameskip 1 - which would still be 25 fps and thus acceptable on a handheld (still I'll be disappointed if we need frameskip 1 for any OCS-game on the Pandora).

[xoen]

I was talking about Nintendo 64-emulation.

sry then.
i am not into modern consoles, ESPECIALLY n64. so i dont care much(i did not find nothing interesting on that one).

btw

even the PSP can do fullspeed PS1-emulation.

this is rather funny statement. it is WAY faster.

I think with Cyclone your PDA should've reached almost fullspeed on many OCS-titles with sound.

think so too.
but - no sources - no fun...
sega megadrive emu has HUGE(but not especially needed) speed boost with cyclone core, but it is buggy, tends to crash.
(ok, end of ot, before someone will kill us )

[john4p]

Originally Posted by xoen

this is rather funny statement. it is WAY faster.

Dunno. Don't think the PSP's 333 MHz MIPS CPU is WAY faster than your PDA's 624 MHz ARM CPU (although MHz don't mean much when comparing different architectures).