I just discovered Virtual Cog:
Virtual Cog

some specs:
The basic features of the platform are:
- i.MX21 ARM9 266MHz processor with 64MB SDRAM and 16 MB of FLASH
- TFT LCD from the PSP (our thanks to Nathan at Spark Fun for helping us out with that)
- stereo audio CODEC
- stereo speakers
- headphone jack
- microphone
- couple of joysticks
- loads of buttons
- battery pack
- SD/MMC slot
- expandable (can add GPS, bluetooth, ethernet, camera, accelerometers and gyros, etc...). We will be releasing our RF COG board shortly that will add GPS and Bluetooth functionality. An Ethernet and Camera COG are already available for it.

what do you think?

Gross!

Little more than vaporware.

I don`t like psp screens... other than that, it looks cool, but we can only say its a competitor for the 2X when we see a community building itself around the device.

if this thing gets released, I am getting one! sounds like a great platform if they actually get as far as releasing something useful. I don't think it will be competition for the gp2x though. way too expensive probably.

they havnt "finalized" the design yet.

i think they have a lot of expensive components, its really a 'wish' project.. oh i wish it had a touch screen, oh i wish it had a gps, oh i wish it had a camera.

idea is nice but i see this as costing a fortune...

they need to rethink button placement (2 buttons, back to the dark ages, on each side....)

You know that looks like a lot of fun. I want to go out now and buy an lcd, touchscreen, a few processors and controls and make my own portable computer!

Hi all.

My name is Tarun and I am from Virtual Cogs Embedded Systems Inc.



It will definately be going into limited production near the end of this month for mainly hobbyists to start playing with.



Have a look at our Wiki. We already have GPS and a camera on it. We have also sourced the touchscreens, so these will be going in as well.

And yes, I agree -- it isn't meant for the mass market (unless we can get the volumes up there) but those with very specialized needs/the hobbyists liking to get in and tinker with it on every level.

-Tarun

so how much we talking here? It does like the same as a gzimodno but is a cool project.

But it is WIDESCREEN yuk!

Now if it had a 640x480 touchscreen then it may be interesting.

Thats why I said it looked like a 'wish' project. someone in the background said 'camera' and the response was 'lets add one!' and someone in the back said 'What about GPS' and the response was 'Yeah lets add one!' etc etc etc.

shame about the buttons/button placement. two buttons under each stick bleah.

whats the video accelerator on the mx21 like? what can it accelerate? 2d? 3d? i know it can 'help' with some OGL stuff but not to what extent.

shame you are using the MX21 instead of the MX31 since the MX21 lacks an FPU. Id willingly give up jazelle for real fpu.

what kind of runtime do you get from 3 AAA's of any quality?

This:

open.neurostechnology.com is a real GP2X boon.

I hadn't realised you could record to an external USB hard drive with that. That's much cooler than I originally thought. I might have to grab one. If I could run bittorrent client on it, it would be perfect.

I think this has inherent problems that'll prevent it from taking off in any real way. They may provide packaging eventually, but the stacking modular design basically means that you can't add modules while keeping a given package.

Until it at least has a standard package option I can't see anyone really wanting it for anything, and even then it's just too cost prohibitive. From what I undestand, the iMX21 cog gives you a CPU, RAM, and USB, and a simple LCD controller (that's only capable of 18bpp output) for $150. The CPU here is only a little better than GP2X's (and we don't know how well it overclocks), and the memory is about the same (both in speed and quantity). Then you need a cog for the screen. The only option right now is the $200 multimedia cog, which gives you 320x240, a touchscreen, microphone, and basic audio capabilities. Nice feature set, but steep price.

Then you need the SD daughter board. I don't know how much this will cost but we can assume at least $50. Finally, you need a case, buttons, button pads, battery interface, and speaker(s) to even get to the same level as GP2X. Those things will probably cost another $50 at least.

So for at least $450 what do you get? Roughly speaking, a GP2X with a touchscreen and microphone, but no second CPU core nor any video acceleration or hardware encoding/decoding whatsoever. If you go for a cheaper multimedia screen you can knock out the touchscreen and microphone and get something comparable to but weaker than GP2X for $400. Nice. I hope the Linux support is good, at least. Unfortunately, if the sample code is any indication you don't even get libraries (I wouldn't hold out for solid device drivers), so it's going to be coding right up against the hardware until someone changes that.

Of course right now you can't get what I described, so you'll have to settle for a set of PCBs stacked together that allows you to download content over USB to a very limited NAND space and perhaps connect a USB peripheral to control it (have fun writing code for that one). For $350.

It's easy to be sceptical on projects like these.
I think it's great that people just do these kind of things.

But then again i don't know much about hardware...

Hi Exophase. I understand your opinions but would like to correct some of your errors and misunderstandings and hopefully clarify this systems purpose.



We have FULL Linux support (including device drivers). The sample code is meant to be just that - very simple sample code for a user to take and modify as necessary. The fact it is so simple means that putting them into dedicated libraries will just add bloat.


We strictly use NOR flash, not sure where you got NAND from. The USB is incredibly easy to use as it is simply enumerated as a standard UART/serial port.

Anyways, this board wasn't meant to replace or revolutionize any other portable gaming systems. It was meant as a technology demonstrator. The fact it can be used to play games is just a bonus.

If you require the flexibility, then this may be the way to go. If you are happy with a fixed set of hardware that another system provides, then maybe that will work better for you. It isn't the cheapest, but is probably is one of the most flexible.

-Tarun

Okay, then I think the question is, why include them at all?



The technology used is irrelevant. It's 16MB of flash space.



Wait, so it's just a serial to USB adapter on the board, NOT a USB chip? Then scratch what I said about it having USB completely. Add another board for that I guess (I imagine that this makes transferring things to the onboard flash pretty slow)



That may be so, but other devices add the optional functionality via SDIO/CFIO cards, USB, bluetooth, etc. I believe that there are only a few core features that truly benefit from being mounted directly onto the hardware.

I think other ?handhelds? like the VC system (btw i really like the idea of extending a base by additional optional modules) will help getting developers experience & software with/for those devices - effectively helping the gp2x too.

Welcome Tarun