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AMD Moves Closer To Linux PDA
Ryan writes "Mobilemag is reporting that AMD has advanced the prototype design of their current Linux-based PDA handheld, adding full-screen video capabilities, and completing work on the device's battery charger. The device is based on AMD's 400MHz Alchemy 1100 processor." However, "AMD has yet to find a hardware maker that has committed to bringing the Alchemy-based reference design to market as a commercial product."
By the time anything like them hit the market, they were nearly obsolete.
Sure, YALPDA, but it looks as though it's as capable as any of the others out there. I see it runs Qtopia too... sensible choice considering the large number of people developing for it (and its various forks, in case Trolltech ever trys to call in fees on the technology, but I doubt they'd be stupid enough to do this!).
This appears to be becoming almost a "de facto" standard for PDA development. The useful thing though, when compared to PPC or POS is that it doesn't really matter what hardware it's running on, so unlike Microsoft or PalmSource, companies won't have their exact hardware specifications dictated in advance.
Hopefully this should lead to some real innovation (and looks like it already is) rather than heaps and heaps of PDAs that look and work exactly the same just because they run the same operating system, even right down to the number of hardware buttons they happen to have. I've always considered this a little silly.
The sneaky thing is that it will run WinCE as well. That just doesn't get mentioned because this is Slashdot after all.
AMD wants to make chips, not finished consumer hardware. This is a reference design for an ODM or OEM to pick up and run away with. It's basically a "Here you go, market this and build it yourself, then buy the processor and the flash memory from us. Love ya, AMD."
So, basically, if someone in Korea took the hardware design and optimized it for a small form factor, you'd get what you want. Don't be looking to AMD for it, though.
The point of a linux PDA is that you are never stuck with no upgrades. It's running linux! You have the source! You can personally update it. Meanwhile an assortment of tiny linux distributions are being quietly pieced together to unify all of these PDAs.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Most of the time, the Intel chips actually ran hotter. I had an AMD 486 running at 160MHz that didn't even need a fan, just a heatsink.
Even as late as the Pentium III, Intel chips ran very hot.
You also have to consider the typical "My chip is way too hot" source. My stock Athlon is running at 44C under load. However, my overclocked running at 2.2v Athlon rarely dips below 62C. People overclocking (and AMD is more overclocking friendly) are going to have more "I'm overheating" stories.
They will probably list this right under, "It makes perfect Julian fries!"I've taken the liberty of performing a little editing (i.e. replacing "AMD" with a fictional dot-com "Handtasia"...how much does this sound like something we've heard oh so many times before...
.Net, P2P, B2B, P2B, B2P, SOAP, DDC, Java, J2ME, plus many other buzzwords.
Handtasia has begun showing an updated reference design for a PDA running the Linux operating system to hardware makers, according to a company executive.
The announcement brings the reference design one step closer to availability as a commercial product.
Based on Handtasia's 400GHz FoolsGold 11000 processor, an early prototype of the PDA reference design was demonstrated in August by the company at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, alongside offerings from 1,376 other Linux handheld vendors.
Since then, Handtasia has advanced the prototype's design with the addition of full-screen video capabilities and has completed work on the device's battery charger, said Phil Poma, vice president of marketing for Handtasia's Personal Connectivity Solutions Magic Integration Synergetic group, in an interview on the floor of the local CompUSA here last week.
"Sears really helped us out on the battery charger issue. Looks like Diehard doesn't just know batteries - they make a quality 12 volt charging product. We're also pleased at a recent discovery that removing the back cover and laying the LCD on an overhead projector gave a nice full-screen picture. My son Billy thought he would be fired for dropping the prototype and breaking that cover off but we just approved a nice stock-option package for his brilliant idea. Between Sears and Billy, it's certainly at the point where we can go hand to this to an OEM," Poma said, adding that Handtasia is currently working on improvements to the design's power management capabilities such as a bundled 2 KW Honda gasoline generator that will allow you to use the product virtually anywhere.
The FG11000-based PDA runs Vaporwerks Corp.'s Linux-based OpenPEEDA software suite, which includes an embedded Linux kernel and a range of software, such as applications for playing music and video files. OpenPEEDA also includes Trollbridge AS's UtopiaMUD multilingual user dungeon, Diva Software ASA's Diva Web browser, and full support for XML, Enterprise Resource Management, Wi-FI,
Handtasia sees the ability to play full-screen video as a key feature of the PDA reference design, Poma said, demonstrating the design's ability to play Jenna Jameson's latest DVD, converted to MPEG1 on a 320-pixel by 240-pixel screen with no screen artifacts and without the assistance of a graphics processor.
"If you're really going to use this as a multimedia device, you have got to have the ability to play porn and still be able to see the pink parts. We're talking major hard...ware," Poma said.
Video capabilities aside, Handtasia has yet to find a hardware maker that has committed to bringing the FoolsGold-based reference design to market as a commercial product. But Poma said hardware makers have already shown interest in the reference design.
"We're showing it to our customer base, and have gotten good responses from Joe that works down the street at Frank's Liquor. We're a little worried about his production capacity, but I think that's something that can be worked out with a little more venture capital," Poma said, adding that one "hardware maker" had been given a prototype to show to a customer at the gas station next to CompUSA last week.
- X-Windows (for local and remote $DISPLAY)
- CPU with floating point (maybe a Transmeta?)
- 802.11b
Basically what I want is a miniature desktop that fits in my pocket. Heck, if I could run X11 just fine on a 25 MHz 68030 Sun 3/80 then it should scream on a 400 MHz RISC chip!At the last Linux World Expo in SF I asked an AMD rep about the Alchemy chip, unfortunately it is integer only and has no floating point. Come on, it is the year 2003 we have 0.13u technology, how much die space would a floating point engine take? I don't understand why embedded chip makers don't include it by default and I yes used to work at a fabless chip company so I know the issues. It is just ridiculous. Technology advances are supposed to make things easier. Floating point would be real nice because it would allow a whole range of scientific applications that are a pain to do with fixed point.
Also with an X-Server, porting any UNIX app would now be a breeze, no futzing with Trolltech's proprietary Qt (yes I know Qt is GPL and if you don't understand why this is an issue then you are clueless about the embedded business world).
I am really sad about the sorry Linux PDA state of affairs. All the PDA vendors are too busy making clones of each others design (the Zazarus), a design I might add that the public has voted it doesn't want (buy not buying it), that they have stopped asking the customer what they truely want.