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AMD Demonstrates Linux-Based PDA at LinuxWorld

Posted by timothy on from the continuing-to-fail-to-fail dept.

Misha writes "AMD has demonstrated a new Linux-based handheld at LinuxWorld. The OpenPDA runs on low-power Alchemy chips, with support for USB, Ethernet, UARTS. Here is press release. Among the highlights are: A comprehensive Metrowerks suit as the basis of OpenPDA applications, Qt, Java, Opera browser."

22 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm. by James+A.+A.+Joyce · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This article reads like an advert to me, is packed with buzzwords and doesn't really give any details beyond that it'll be demonstrated at LinxuWorld, booth 647 today and tomorrow. Could those more informed than I enlighten me as to what advantages does this have over current portable Linux system? Or have insufficient details been released?

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    Bash script for FP whores

    1. Re:Hmmm. by softweyr · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Battery life. Check out the power consumption specs on the Alchemy processors, they're way down there, even compared to ARM cpus. I have a Zaurus SL-5500 I used for daily appointment keeping, address book, game playing, and as an MP3 player in my car and at work, and the 8-hour battery life isn't enough. Lower power is better.

      I don't know if this will be a useful device on it's own; AMD creates these things as reference/demo designs to get people to jump on the bandwagon and make commercial products, but I really like my Zaurus. Some competition in this arena, to drive functionality up and cost down, would help make a better Personal Geek Assistant (PGA).

  2. Handheld? Or just a simulator? by RobertB-DC · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The submission may a bit wrong. According to the linked release, they're running Linux on a (assumably PC-based) simulator, or perhaps their PDA simulator is running on Linux?

    AMD (NYSE: AMD) today demonstrates OpenPDA, a Linux technology-based software platform running on the latest version of the AMD Alchemy(tm) Solutions Mobile Handheld Reference Design Kit (RDK).

    I don't see any reference to a handheld device -- just to a "software platform". My read of the info was that it was like the Palm OS PC-based simulator.

    Or did I miss something?

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    1. Re:Handheld? Or just a simulator? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Alchemy reference board is a huge honking 1'x1'6" piece of hardware with a tiny QVGA touchscreen and a blazing MIPS processor.

      If it weren't that it takes up so much desk space, I wouldn't have anything to complain about. It blows away every XScale-based RDK I've seen so far (even the latest 255 and 260-based boards).

      The Linux that is running on it, is just some stuff thrown together to run on the hardware. AMD is interested in selling Alchemy licenses, so they've already got WinCE and Linux running on the RDK. Next up, NetBSD or iTRON, I guess.

    2. Re:Handheld? Or just a simulator? by RevAaron · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Roughly, what is the performance of a 400 MHz Alchemy performance compared to a 400 MHz PXA255 XScale at 400 MHz? Do the Alchemy CPUs have an FPU?

      I'm lucky enough to own one of the new C760 Zauruses- the 400 MHz PXA255 combined with a 100 MHz (!!) bus, it's a really fast machine- especially compared to the really slow (30 MHz or so?) buses found in most other PDAs with similar CPUs. I wish it ran WinCE rather than Linux, but soon enough, it won't be an issue. I'm always interested in hearing about possible advances in the speed of my PDA- which these days is my main computer.

      First the Newton MP2100, then the Jornada 720, and now the Zaurus SL-C760... With PDAs like these, I don't need a "real" computer for much!

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      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  3. Articles by NETHED · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here are some articles of merit about this PDA.

    Here

    Here

    and here

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    --sig fault--
  4. PDA Power by Solokron · · Score: 3, Informative

    The combination of the OpenPDA suite and the Au1100 processor sounds like a fantastic combo for the PDA market in opening new doors and ideas. "The Au1100 processor is a MIPS32(TM) technology-based system on a chip (SOC) processor, and is available at speeds of 333MHz, and 400 MHz with power dissipations of less than 200 milliwatts and 250 milliwatts respectively."

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    1. Re:PDA Power by Unregistered · · Score: 4, Funny

      the remote chance you will ever feel a woman's breast

      2^276,709 to one against.

      props to whoever gets the refernce.

  5. buzzword compliant by gfody · · Score: 4, Funny

    AMD seems to be using the buzzwords that attract geeks ("linux", "open", any cpu that isn't pentium or athlon) instead of buzzwords that attract money ("XML", ".NET") although they do mention "java" but I think that one detracts from both sides of the buzzword fanbase

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    bite my glorious golden ass.
  6. Cost by Erick+the+Red · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course SCO is going to want $699 added to the price.

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    ok
  7. Looks like a Zaurus, quacks like a Zaurus by RDPIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but doesn't use Intel components. The description of the software components is strikingly similar to that of the Sharp Zaurus 5x00 series. If it's cheaper than the Zaurus, I might consider buying one. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to include some of the hardware that's not standardly available on the Zaurus, most importantly 802.11b. What a shame.

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    Marklar: marklar
  8. Suit? by batkins · · Score: 3, Funny

    A suit? That'll be handy.

    "Hey, are you just gonna walk into this meeting in jeans and a t-shirt?"

    "Actually, no - I've got a suit right......here!"

  9. SCO adds $32 to the price... by emacnabber · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, expect to pay a little more thanks to McBride and Thugs...

    According to http://www.sco.com/scosource/linuxlicensefaq.html "The promotional license fee for embedded devices is $32 per device."

    Yet another reason SCO needs to burn...

  10. Perhaps I'm out of it by kapok_tree · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But I think the best thing about this is the increased integration with the PC platform. The specs read like a low-end PC, and the applications available seem about the same. What this means to me is that a PDA running OPENPDA will function less like a separate platform, and more like a piece of my network. I wonder if eventually PDAs will render laptops obsolete - or, rather, if PDAs and laptops will converge.

  11. or how i learned to love the karmawhoring by SubtleNuance · · Score: 4, Funny

    Remember, In SCO $699 owns LICENSE!

    1) $699 License
    2) ???
    3) PROFIT!

    Pour hot $699 down Natalie Portman's SCO!

    others?

  12. Space heater? Hardly. by LionMage · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm assuming that you're not trolling or posting flamebait. (You might have been trying to get a funny moderation, but I don't find your post that funny, personally.)

    According to the press release, the Au1100 processor is based on the MIPS processor architecture, which is used in many embedded applications and devices. Most MIPS chips are very power miserly, and hence, don't generate a lot of heat. Bottom line, I doubt this device will function as a space heater, as you suggest.

  13. No devices, just a reference design and dev kit. by WoTG · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Like a couple others have already posted, there is no actual product being launched for the end user! This seems to provide a good reference platform and development tools for groups looking to create their own non-Palm, non-MS handhelds. If no manufacturers pick up the designs, we may never see this "OpenPDA" platform in use. On the other hand, if just a handful of firms decide to base a product on the platform, we might see a standardized Linux based palm top platform develop to compete with Palm and MS PocketPC.

    I've never seen a Zaurus first hand, so I have no idea how it compares to "OpenPDA" in the grand scheme of things...

  14. Re:That's great but by Sloppy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, yeah, and just imagine a Grendel cluster of those.

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  15. Re:No devices, just a reference design and dev kit by FromWithin · · Score: 5, Informative

    The new Zaurii are OpenPDA.

    I've got a stunning Zaurus SL-C750 which uses OpenPDA (see the official spec and check out this quote from this article:

    "Sharp Electronics, the first OpenPDA licensee, had originally included Lineo's Embedix PDA software stack in the Zaurus. But when Embedix was subsequently acquired by Metrowerks last December, Sharp migrated to OpenPDA, which is similar in many respects to Embedix, especially in its inclusion of the Qtopia GUI framework and PDA app-suite, Opera web browser, and Jeode JVM. Additional OpenPDA licensees will be announced soon, Metrowerks said."

  16. Re:So..... by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dumb bastard! It is a MIPS CPU, not x86. It consumes less than a Watt. Without a heatsink you can't even feel the heat up when it is running 400MHz

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    Engineering is the art of compromise.
  17. How about trying something completely silly? by ratfynk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What would be really cool is if an SMP version of these processors could happen. Just imagine a 4 processor laptop version using lowpower SMP. I wonder if anybody has thought about this possibility.

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  18. it's not going to work by 73939133 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have really tried hard to like any of the Linux PDAs and I use Linux everywhere else, but they simply aren't competitive as mainstream PDAs; a $99 Zire makes a better PDA than any of the much bulkier and more costly Linux PDAs.

    What Linux PDAs need is a completely newly designed GUI, designed specifically for small screen devices, not some adaptation of toolkits that originated on desktops (Qt, Gtk+, Java).