Pandora

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The Pandora is a seventh-generation handheld game console. When it ships in November 2008, it will be the most powerful handheld games 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 revision of the console will include 128MB of DDR RAM, and 256MB of onboard flash memory. Storage space will be available through 2 Secure Digital card slots since the internal memory is not designed for storage 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: 199 GBP(incl. VAT) (approx. $330 USD, 212 € (excl. VAT)
    • Release date: April/May 2008 for dev units, winter 2008 for full production units (can and will be changed if needed)
    • 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.
    • Real Time Clock (RTC) built in, to keep track of time. [7]
    • 256MB of internal flash memory.
    • 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:
    • 802.11g (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 SDHC slots.
  • Software:
    • Open2X-type Linux firmware. [20]
    • One-click install system - Debian ARMEL packages probably compatible with minor work.
    • 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 be capable of running X11 with a window manager and desktop environment, and probably will by default.
      • There should be the ability to run normal programs you can run on Modern Linux builds as well, provided it does not exceed 128MB 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 a lot of power.[24]
    • Will be able to suspend to RAM or suspend to disk for longer battery life and faster start up.
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