Xscale 'monahan' 1.25ghz Coming Soon

[Da_Blitz]

Yeah i was wondring about interconnects with this new chip, can we expect to see ddr ram support or USB2.0 client/host - that seems to be popular amoung other embbeded chip manufactrers at the moment and the other products in thier xscale line already have that stuff

just as refrence you might want to look at the rest of the xscale range (it already goes up to 1Ghz, PCI express Dual processors, up to 4GB of ram (one model supports 12GB) unfortunatly these are not for power limited devices but it shows you what you can do with the xscale line ( i would kill for a dual core 1ghz IXP 2xxx xscale w/ 4GB mem  and 10Gb ethernet (takes standard dimms  for compiling at the moment - price for the test board starts at > $2000  )

http://www.intel.com/design/iio/index.htm
http://www.intel.com/design/network/produc...ily/ixp2xxx.htm
http://www.intel.com/design/network/produc...mily/ixp4xx.htm

i also wonder what they are up to whith thierpda video card line, brighthand.com mentiond intel was reworking them as well and with nvidia producing compatible chipsets we could be in for some intresting stuff

[ev1l]

It's pretty fun to see all the companies rushing to provide the latest and fastest technology updates when what we really need is more usable devices.
Do they think things like the ipod is popular because it's got superior storage?

[clofland]

It's pretty fun to see all the companies rushing to provide the latest and fastest technology updates when what we really need is more usable devices.
Do they think things like the ipod is popular because it's got superior storage?
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I'm glad you brougth this up. It is such a good point. IPOD's annoy me to no end. Why are they so stinking popular? They weren't the first MP3 palyer, and they aren't the best. There are probably hundredes of other "MP3" players, but the "IPOD" is still a household word. Apple is even going to announce an IPOD/Cell phone soon. For crying out loud, cell phones have been MP3 players for years now, but no, everyone wants an IPOD-cell phone.

Like you said, sometimes I think manufacturers miss the point of what consumers really need and want. Rather than take the time to see why the IPOD is succesful, they just jam more "cool" into their box and hope they can lure in some poor soul to plop down cash on it, knowing he will probably ditch it in a month and buy an IPOD.

Funny though, they keep making money doing it . . .

As for the Z, I get a lot of questions about it. I always have to say the same thing, "It is a lousy PDA, and a lousy Computer, but it is the coolest toy I've ever had! If you want a PDA, get a palm, if you want a computer, get a laptop. If you are a true geek like me, then you wouldn't be asking me if it is easy to set up, or what software comes with it. If it dosn't blow your socks off when you hear that I can run my Python scripts, unmodified, on my Linux box, my Windows box and my Z, then you don't want one." =D

Oh, but the topic, yeah, faster processor would be cool, but I haven't seen Sharp do anything yet to warrant me buying a new box. They are just too expensive to upgrade every year. I'm happy to just add CF cards to mine and SD cards as they get bigger (if the 2gig cards would only work).

[ev1l]

I'm glad you brougth this up. It is such a good point. IPOD's annoy me to no end. Why are they so stinking popular?

Why does it annoy you? They're just a good integral design.
And they're popular for a couple of reasons, but the main aspects are the discoverability of the interface, and the good integration with the desktop. That and the cool factor, of course.

[sriley]

It's pretty fun to see all the companies rushing to provide the latest and fastest technology updates when what we really need is more usable devices.
Do they think things like the ipod is popular because it's got superior storage?
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Excellent point.  A lot of the college kids in my town have ipods not because they have any clue who or what Apple Computers is, but because they like music, can carry lots of it in their pocket, and are all able to use it without spending a lot of time learning how.  They can buy an add-on that broadcasts their music to their car radio while they're driving.

Functionality counts, but usability is everything.

[bam]

as for the ipod remark, the functionality is very good, I owned an iriver and a creative labs micro, they were both missing ease-of-use. for example, i like a song i hear its 2 clicks a swirl and a click away from marking it with 5 stars, i can do it without looking at it and while driving, so when i go thru my 6 gigs i find the ones I want to keep and dump the rest, and fill it with more.

As for sharp, they make great hardware, too bad they completely(almost) failed to innovate on the software. thats why we love the guys from pdaXrom, cacko and oz so much they innovate(hope i didnt forget anyone)

[ltrm]

Although this topic is all over the place I have to say it's been interesting to follow.

So far I haven't been too bothered about upgrading from my 860 to one of the new machines.  The processors haven't seemed to offer much in the way of new functionality.  That may be because they're not specifically catered for....yet.

What would be interesting, to me anyway, would be if a new processor had enough 3d grunt to run something like Google Earth or NASA World Wind.  Since I use my GPS on the move I'd like to be able to use either of these with out lugging a laptop with me.

As for other upgrades to the design: C750's size, 6K's screen and built in wireless, 8G microdrive, USB host, 256MB+ and Bluetooth.  With Bluetooth I can connect every thing else I might want anyway (Keyboard, GPS, Mouse, GPRS, play music through the car's hands free system).   Most of that list seems to be the same things that everyone's else is also asking for.

As for useability well.....  Sharp is, for me, really just a hardware manufacture for the community.  All the inovations in the software has come from the Cacko, pdaXrom and OZ/OE guys.  So hopefully a new Intel processor would help to further open up the specs....  I have no loyalty to Sharp because of their minimal support of the software platform and the community.  If another manufacture produced a better design which I could buy without paying MS tax then I'd jump ship as long as I could get community support for it.

[Da_Blitz]

you might want to have a look at this, http://www.teamasa.com/npwr_dp.shtml its a dual CPU xscale machine @ 733Mhz with up to 2GB of ram (laptop memory) and supports up to 8 SATA drives along with 2 1Gbps ethernet ports. if you chucked a minipci video card in it you could easily do somthing like google earth, bit big thogh

i want to get a couple for home use/ hosting my website/ Public avalible cross compiling cluster (like handhelds.org's public ipaq cluster only faster).

if i can get the 2700g working then google earth would be a no brainer, providing you can convert it to opengl ES however if you just want 2D maps then any PDA should be powerfull enogh.

[speculatrix]

What would be interesting, to me anyway, would be if a new processor had enough 3d grunt to run something like Google Earth or NASA World Wind.  Since I use my GPS on the move I'd like to be able to use either of these with out lugging a laptop with me.

I think that the flybook or OQO would be very popular amongst OESF users if they were affordable... ok, so they're significantly larger than the any of the Zs, but they're still easy to carry and they do have all the interconnectability and performance that Z geeks want.

When I want to do real programming, I use a desktop machine. For casual work, browsing web, email in the living room, I use a 14" display laptop. In bed, for reading ebooks, and occasional web browsing, I use the Z. A flybook *might* enable me to stop using the laptop and (heresy) the Z, if it ran linux perfectly.