AMD Demonstrates Linux-Based PDA at LinuxWorld

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."

Comments

Hmmm.

[James A. A. Joyce]

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?

Re:Hmmm.

[softweyr]

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).

Articles

[NETHED]

Here are some articles of merit about this PDA.

Here

Here

and here

Cost

[Erick the Red]

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

Looks like a Zaurus, quacks like a Zaurus

[RDPIII]

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.

Perhaps I'm out of it

[kapok_tree]

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.

Re:Handheld? Or just a simulator?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:No devices, just a reference design and dev kit

[FromWithin]

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."