Pandora

The Pandora is a seventh-generation handheld game console. When it ships, it will be the most powerful handheld gaming console available.

The Pandora open-source game system.

Overview

The Pandora will run a Linux distribution. There will be no fees for developer tools and hence anyone will be free to develop and release games for the system.

Core

The Pandora uses a Texas Instruments OMAP 3530 System-on-Chip. This includes the ARM Cortex-A8 processor, the TI C64X programmable DSP, the PowerVR SGX 530 3D accelerator and supporting components.

Storage

The first revisions of the console included 128MB of DDR RAM, and 256MB of on-board NAND flash memory. However, the final revision that is sold to consumers has 256MB of DDR RAM and 512MB of on-board NAND memory. Storage space is available through 2 SDHC card slots and via USB host capabilities for connecting any standard USB flash drive and hard drive.

Input and output

The Pandora includes two analog pads, a directional pad, 4 action buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, 3 function buttons (start/select/home), and a QWERTY keyboard.

Display

The Pandora's display will be a 800*480 display, which additionally will have touchscreen functionality.

TV-out

The Pandora will have the ability to output S-video and composite signals to television sets. In addition, picture-in-picture and seperate signals for the TV and LCD will be supported.

Sound

The Pandora will have a high-quality sound DAC, and an ADC and internal microphone for recording. A pair of stereo speakers is built into the display. The volume control is a wheel.

Keyboard

The Pandora will have an almost-full QWERTY keyboard, with additional keys using Function. Control will likely be mapped onto one of the action or shoulder buttons.

more here.

Full Specs

These are constantly changing. Hopefully, this page will be updated with them. When adding information please remember to correctly reference the new information to a reliable source.

• General
  • The name: Pandora [1]
  • Dimensions: 140 x 83 x 27 mm (slightly larger than a DS Lite: vs 133 mm × 73.9 mm × 21.5 mm)
  • Price: First Batch (sold out): 199 GBP(incl. VAT) (approx. $330 USD, 212 € (excl. VAT)

Second Batch: $339 USD pre-tax. Regional prices will be adjusted at the time of order to reflect current USD conversion rate.

• • Release date: Pre-orders for the first batch of 4000 Pandoras sold out in six days. Units from this batch are expected to start shipping in December 2008. Orders for the next batch will be announced at a later date.
  • Case will be a bit smaller the GP2X, and will be a mix of metal and plastic. [2]

• Core Hardware:
  • Texas Instrument's OMAP3530 System-on-chip. [3] [4] Specifications can be found at this link: [5]
  • PowerVR SGX GPU (OpenGL ES 2.0, several million polygons per second). OpenGL ES demonstrated: [6]
  • 128MB of DDR SDRAM in the developer units and 256MB in consumer units.
  • Real Time Clock (RTC) built in, to keep track of time. [7]
  • 256MB of internal flash memory on developer boards and 512MB on consumer pandoras.
  • Will be "unbrickable".

• Display: 800x480 widescreen (5:3), 4.3 inches, touchscreen LCD.[8]
  • Brightness:300 cd/m2, Contrast ratio:450:1, Response time:tr+tf=30ms[9]
  • Dimensions: 93.6 x 56.2 mm (4.3 inches, 5:3 aspect ratio).
  • TV-out included in hardware, A/V-OUT Port (similar in appearance to a large USB OTG port) outputs S-Video and Composite and inputs 3,5mm Headphone/Microphone cables..
    • Separate TV-out signals, picture-in-picture capabilities. [10]
  • Powerful 2D and 3D hardware acceleration, see above. [11]

• Input:
  • Buttons, keyboard, microphone, and touchscreen. [12]
  • Directional pad will be a D-pad. [13]
  • Two real analog nubs, with rubber grip, but no click function. A video of the analog nub to be used in Pandora's construction. Update: a custom designed plastic nub is now being used and will remain in the previously planned location.
  • QWERTY keyboard cellphone like thumb typeable. [14]
  • Built-In Microphone [15]

• Connectivity:
  • 802.11b/g (Wi-fi) included. USB host included. USB-on-the-go (one-port host and client) included. [16]
  • Integrated Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (3Mbps)[17]
  • The USB will be fully powered (500 milliamps). You'll be able to use anything that has drivers. [18]
  • RS-232 will be included, but a level converter will be needed for the UART. [19]
  • Twin SDIO-capable SDHC slots.

• Software:
  • Open2X-type Linux firmware. [20]
  • Custom package system for software installation and updates.
  • Potential Emulation: Nearly any game console which predates the Playstation for which an open-source emulator exists. Nearly any 8 or 16 bit computer system for which an open-source emulator exists.
    • Atari 2600, 7800, 5200, and Lynx
    • Nintendo NES, SNES, Gameboy, GBA and NDS (with combination of inbuilt touchscreen and external TV)
    • Sega Master System and Genesis
    • NEC PCEngine (TurboGrafx-16)
    • SNK NeoGeo, NeoGeo Pocket, and Pocket Color
    • Sony Playstation [21]
    • Atari 400, 800, and ST
    • Amiga
    • PC (DOSBox)
    • Apple II
  • Possible Software:
    • Will run a version of the X11 window manager and has the option of a full desktop environment.
    • There should be the ability to run normal programs you can run on Modern Linux builds as well, provided it does not exceed 256MB of RAM (excluding any virtual memory for performance reasons) and is ported. This includes a full build of Firefox! Firefox 3.0 uses much less memory and resources, and should run fine on the Pandora.
    • Macromedia Flash is possible on the Pandora with web browsers with some work. Maybe not full Flash support though, but http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ can be ported to the Pandora and run up to FlashV7 guaranteed, play Youtube videos (mplayer and VLC can play FLV files just fine, play other movie files from Firefox, and VLC can stream FLV easily) and can work with Firefox or as a standalone program.
    • Advanced multimedia support, including streaming: mplayer, VLC, xine and any other program that is open source is possible. For a general idea of file support for VLC see http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html, and for xine see http://xinehq.de/index.php/features.

• Power:
  • Lithium-polymer battery, ~4000mAH.
  • Up to 10 hours battery life under reasonable load 8.5 hours under max cpu load. Up to 100 hours playing MP3s. [22]
  • Can charge through AC adapter or USB. [23]
  • Advanced power management capabilities: only need to set a max clockspeed, when the CPU is not doing anything it automatically HALTs and does nothing to save power.[24]
  • Will be able to suspend to RAM or suspend to disk for longer battery life and faster start up.