@Belxjander

I loooooovve Akihabara. I was there last year for Tokyo Game Show. Tokyo Rocks! You can catch some of my exploits in my twitter feed @agami

What are you doing in Japan? Apart from learning Japanese

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All the way, with 68k

@tlosm

Quote:

Roberto Innocenti is not interested in amigaos or in amiga community he only love PPC hardware and LinuxPPC

With a name like Robert he sounds like a Linux guy.

But, if it's for Linux, why bother? When you can run Linux on a PC? Seriously, I end up in the same conversation talking to this woman with an Amiga interest about PPC. When ever I bring up running Linux on a PPC machine, be that an A1 or a Mac, I always get the same response. "Why would I want to do that? I can run it on a PC."

Now I find myself asking the same question.

My experience with Linux on A1 PPC has been terrible. It requires custom boot CDs that are slow to boot, may not auto boot and then need post-install setup to install a kernel and boot menu.

It wasn't any better on Apple hardware, with a tiny font OF menu, which acted like an AppleII expecting you to type in options. And then you had to set up a boot volume after which the nice booting Mac then booted up with tiny font expecting you to do old fashioned things on the keyboasd everytime you booted it! If you got the CD to boot at all which usually doesn't on a laptop. Shocking.

If this guy wants to make the easest PPC machine to boot Linux I' m all for it!

Last edited by Hypex on 01-Dec-2015 at 02:41 PM.

I haven't got excited by Novena. It sounded like a good idea at first, but I've only seen either a weird, hack-looking luggable, or a ludicrously expensive wooden shell. I much prefer the idea of Roberto's PPC laptop to make a new motherboard for a real laptop shell. That's what I'd do myself. If I could make my own custom shell, then it'd be a carrier for Com-Express CPU module... But Roberto's project is the ideal.

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All glory to the Hypnotoad!

@thread

updates:

http://www.powerpc-notebook.org/category/novita/

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retired

New laptop / tablet hybrid with an 8.9 inch 2560x1600 touchscreen display and a modular design that should enable owners to easily replace the motherboard...

http://liliputing.com/2015/08/one-educations-infinity-modular-laptop-priced-at-249-and-up-for-early-birds.html

The display, keyboard, etc. are driven via "USB Type-C" from whatever motherboard is connected.

@ASiegel

Its designs like this that make me call even more for the Four Pin Pi.

USB host socket, where the power flows in from the powered USB hub passive baseboard.


You want sensors? Make them smart, Plug them into the USB network. Networked sensors.

Want a Gaming PC? buy a PC.

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The older and more respected a scientist is, the longer it takes to prove him wrong.

@ASiegel

Well, driving a display like that would mean a pretty hefty GPU, unfortunately.

However, something like an Acer Aspire One Cloudbook 11 can be had for below USD200, if this could be gotten at a bulk order discount and coupled with a variant of the EUR200 motherboard we've been discussing in this thread then that should allow us to put a checkmark in the "laptop" column. A custom cooler is possible if it's needed.

However, does anyone know if the freescale DIU can do 1366x768? It can do triple-play-field up to 1024x768 and single-play-field up to 1280x1024, but is 1366x768 consider below 1280x1024 or not? I'm not making any sense of the reference manual on this (no reasoning WHY 1280x1024@60Hz is the max, just a single line saying this is the maximum). Offsets and sizes are all 11 bits in both X and Y. And I do love the 16 bit 32x32 hardware cursor.

Funnily enough the datasheet specifies a maximum pixel clock of (1 / (6.67 nanoseconds) = 149.925037 megahertz, which makes the whole 1280x1024@60Hz from the reference manual look REALLY stupid (as this is about 105MHz and 1366x768 is 96MHz).

I think the MPC512x and 8610 uses the same DIU and there used to be some documentation mentioning WXGA on at least the 512x.

Other than that, creative ways of fitting an MXM is always cool

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This weeks pet peeve:
Using "voltage" instead of "potential", which leads to inventing new words like "amperage" instead of "current" (I, measured in A) or possible "charge" (amperehours, Ah or Coulomb, C). Sometimes I don't even know what people mean.

@RodTerl

You mean like a reduced Pi for computing and normal size Pis for IO, then? I'm sorry, I just can't condone something like this. If anything, I would like a hundred more GPIOs for sensors, I don't want to fiddle with USB just to read a switch. I've been hating USB actively since about 1997, not going to stop now.

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This weeks pet peeve:
Using "voltage" instead of "potential", which leads to inventing new words like "amperage" instead of "current" (I, measured in A) or possible "charge" (amperehours, Ah or Coulomb, C). Sometimes I don't even know what people mean.

Akihabara used to be great for computer geeks, but nowadays it's mostly about AKB48, comics/animation and the same home appliances stores you can find anywhere else. No wonder, most geeks know what they want so they simply buys it all online nowadays. In Japan, most big internet stores even offer over the day delivery for free.

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Amiga Forum - Sweden's best Amiga Magazine

My MorphOS Blog

"Free speech includes other peoples right to offend you."

@thread

ARM laptop project info.... cross-pollination?

http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Allwinner-BYO-Laptop

@olegil

150 Mhz 3 channel video DACs were the cheapest available back in the 90s? Certainly from Maplin, I only wanted a TV class chip and it was from what I remember over twice the price.

As for GPIO, USB 3 is 5 Gbaud, but is that bits or bytes per second, on the 1 khz poll ratemeaning maximum data ppckets of 512kbytes?

Use the old time slice method? Alternate sectors get synchronous, asynchronous data options, and GPIO is just like mass storage, write a set of register values to set pins In or Out then shove buffers of data one way or the other, and not 1 byte per sample unless explicitly selected?

Would be nice if stuff was was coded so that persons didnt have to know how the hardware worked in order to get speed out of it?

Whats wrong with C64, ZX Spectrum Tokenised BASIC. If set up right, that Token is a system call to the handling machine code routine? But in source listing, human readable text?

If the GPU is built into the screen, how cheap can a laptop be, given its just another TV. For $200 I can pick up a 24 inch LED TV with USB in for media play. therefore it has a GPU decoder built in. Smaller screens are cheaper.?

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The older and more respected a scientist is, the longer it takes to prove him wrong.

@thread

Seems they were looking for an organization or "foundation".

http://www.powerpc-notebook.org/category/novita/

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retired

@olegil
7
Quote:

However, something like an Acer Aspire One Cloudbook 11 can be had for below USD200, if this could be gotten at a bulk order discount and coupled with a variant of the EUR200 motherboard we've been discussing in this thread then that should allow us to put a checkmark in the "laptop" column. A custom cooler is possible if it's needed.

I've found the Asus E402MA retailing for £149.99 here in the UK. The same 2GB Ram and 32GB flash but you get a 14" screen instead.

Quote:

However, does anyone know if the freescale DIU can do 1366x768? It can do triple-play-field up to 1024x768 and single-play-field up to 1280x1024, but is 1366x768 consider below 1280x1024 or not?

According to information on their website and data sheets; XGA (MBX Lite)for the 5121e, SXGA for the 8610 and WXGA for the 5123 and 5125.

Quote:

Other than that, creative ways of fitting an MXM is always cool

I thought sourcing suitable MXM cards might be tricky but Zentrica are selling R9 270X MXM cards for £149 in minimum quantities of 10. Perfect for use with A-EON's video drivers.

http://www.zentrica.com/product/amd-radeon-r9-m270x-mxm/

How much would adding all the support circuitry for MXM3 add to the overall cost?

I think MXM would be essential from the point of view of most people interested in using it for OS4. Not many people stuck with the Sam460's onboard video for long.

Last edited by Rob on 13-Apr-2016 at 12:03 AM.

@Rob

Quote:

How much would adding all the support circuitry for MXM3 add to the overall cost? I think MXM would be essential from the point of view of most people interested in using it for OS4.

Mxm would save motherboard design and testing compared to soldered gpu and memory on motherboard. But it makes chassis selection very limiting. Today there's the msi gt72 and one 15 inch and one 17inch chassis from clevo. I haven't found anything else with mxm anymore. And these ones are thick and heavy, part of why I guess mxm lost favor, as it does not allow for anorexic thin laptops that are the thing to do these days for anything not yet a tablet.

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All glory to the Hypnotoad!

@billt

I hadn't realised how thin almost all laptops had become in the last few years.

That kind of stuffs thingsup for MXM and off the shelf chassis. Buying an expensive gaming PC for this purpose makes no sense.

There's the option external cards but it's expensive, not elegant and becomes tied to a desk so you'd still be limited to weak, feature limited video on the move.

I don't think there's any cheap solution. If you haven't got decent video hardware very few will want to buy it.

Double post. Blooming mobile.

Last edited by Rob on 13-Apr-2016 at 11:30 AM.

@Rob

I don't fully agree that thick gaming rig means mxm makes no sense. My personal preference today would be the msi gt72 as a chassis. I do very much like the idea of mxm cards, and would pick a bigger chassis to get it over being stuck with whatever soldered gpu is chosen. I wish there was even more possibilities for modular laptops...

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All glory to the Hypnotoad!

@billt

My only problem here is that you have to buy an expensive rig just for a case that's either geared towards MXM or has enough space inside to fit one anyway. Sure you can sell the motherboard as a service part but you'll lose a lot more money compared to budget system.

@Rob

I agree that no oe wants to pay a ton for something most people would consider unimportant or fundamental expectation. But we're in the small market position of paying a lot for chassis ot paying yet that much more for pcb design manufacture and test. Spend more on chassis, save a bit since we can use proven mxm cards. Save on chassis, and pay more for motherboard. Hard to guess which is cheaper for end user...

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All glory to the Hypnotoad!

@billt

I'm a firm believer in T1022 with eGPU through ExpressCard slot for 3D.

Might even be possible to export framebuffer back through PCIe to the LCD like they do on PCs.

Yes, I realize it's not a perfect solution, but neither is a luggable MXM-monster

_________________
This weeks pet peeve:
Using "voltage" instead of "potential", which leads to inventing new words like "amperage" instead of "current" (I, measured in A) or possible "charge" (amperehours, Ah or Coulomb, C). Sometimes I don't even know what people mean.