I've been hearing some chatter about a new model from GPH called the F800 due by the end of 2008. It seems too little too late already imho, but for more info refer to my blog post at:

http://zodttd.com/index.php?/archives/17-R...k-Holdings.html

Well I may be getting an early start for an official F800 speculation thread. Details are pretty slim.

My best guess on the SoC is they are sticking to MagicEyes still.

did you have to wait with the disclosue until the pre-order period for the f-200 was almost over?

If they basically just make it a GP2X with 4x the CPU clock, except that it's incompatible with GP2X binaries, and that it comes out in 2009, they've already lost. I guess..

By the way, does anyone know what's the maximum clock speed for the OMAP 3430?

chaos engineer: No.

I'm not putting too much stock in this rumour.

It has probably been started by investors in the craig machine, worried that people will not have any money after buying the F200. What better way to put people off getting an F200 than hinting at an 800 version ?

In the meantime the craigerbater comes out and everyone has full piggy banks. Brilliant.

Why so much cpu power? They want to end like GamePark?

Golly-gee, Batman! The bullshit-meter is off the charts! Looks like ol' Zod is up to his old tricks! To the batmobile!

Na, NA, na, na na na na na batman!!!! na na na na batman!!!

ontopic: to be completely honest why is gamepark pushing this out in 2008? do they feel that dejected about the f200. That they have to release another one.

Although granted the f800 will have a higher clockspeed...Is it really worth the time...with craiginator on the horizon.

The mobile open source market is branching out anyway. Let's hope it grows enough to support all the awesome devices coming out. It's important that it becomes easy for developers to make their games work on all the different devices. Then there will only be friendly competiton and diversity will lead to choice, not fighting.

All I have to say is that wifi, a touchscreen, at least one analog, and a price under $300 are absolutely necessary to compete with craig's new console. And I want to know why they would want to downsize the screen.....unless they are planning to make it uber-small.

Why is everyone so quick to assume that craig's console is going to to come out next month, or something? I don't even remember him giving a release date. This will(assuming it exists)come out in 2008, and it is more than likely that craig's console will come out in 2008 as well.

And how are they going to compete when everybody who wants one has a Craiginator?

EDIT: 2.8 inch screen? It's dead already.

Alex: Like I said, I confirmed this information with two reliable sources of mine. I don't know what you mean by me being up to my old tricks.

The really sad part is that the DS has bigger screens on it(2x 3" @ 256*192).

Anarchy, the Official GP2X Distributor for Spain has been told that this is untrue by people at GPH.

So, it's either top secret or top somethingelse

That was a fun read but is it for real? maybe. The bit about the screen makes 'polar sense' like I've come to expect from GPH- I wouldn't really want to trust them even if the craiginator stats and these were swapped.

Like I said I'm not sure if it's worth thinking about even but let's say it is- so what on earth is the point of giving an upgrade to an existing format a smaller screen but no back compatibility? AND THAT'S WHAT THEY DECIDED TO RELEASE AS FIRST INFO

or did I read it wrong? anyway X-Code said it.. one or the other I guess

At that point wouldnt it be a GP3X already?

GPH is currently releasing the F200. It took them this long to manage a small improvement like that. To believe that they could be releasing one machine AND thinking about the next is more than I can credit them with. Walking and chewing gum at the same time just does not fit their m.o.

Hey Zod,

Sorry if I appeared offensive, I was only joking and nothing more.

I'm skeptical about this whole thing because its 'specs' make very little sense. A 2.8" screen is small even by the current GP2X's standards, and unless they'll have a very high-quality internal battery, that 800Mhz processor won't be much fun to use at full power. But then again, they're GPH, right?

A small screen would be fine if it were accompanied by a small form factor. Add in full backwards compatibility with the F(1-2)00 and it would replace my Game Boy Micro as the device that is constantly in my pocket for boredom emergencies. But, like Alex says, they're GPH. Even if this rumour is true I'm sure they'll botch it somehow.

Still, could be neat, but we'll see in 2009. Depends a lot on how Project Craiglebee turns out.

Hmm well maybe there might be a sliver of a chance.

remember nintendo used a 2.9inch lcd with the gba and the sp.

while gameboy color had a 2.6 granted thats very old now.

but the gamegear screen sitting at 3.2 and lynx sitting at 3.5 as well...

and then there is DS with 2 screens although slightly bigger don't give to much in res. dept.

or maybe on the whole side probably looking cut some costs and streamline a better design. XGP mini back in action with bigger screen, wifi, and sdhc support woohoo

but granted this is GPH...you only wish they had better project engineers

Actually, GPH did talk about such handheld with me a few months ago... before the F200 even had be annnounced.
Th still were in the idea collecting phase, so I actually have no idea how far this project is and what specs are true and what not.

Hmmm, a console designed by a some of the members here, based on ideas and comments from this community, or a console from GPH which will probably need several revisions before it even works properly (and even then probably still randomly trashes your nand for no particular reason).

I know which I'd go for

Give up, GPH, you've already lost the race!

Thanks ED

Anarchy didn't quite speak to GPH, it was a semi-official conversation it seems .

I just want to add: best of luck to you GPH. I won't condemn them for considering it.

If they are taking about 800MHz then the only real solution I can think of that is currently on the market is the XScale based processor. It is well known for having Linux ports so it would be quicker for them. So many people here will tell you about the weaknesses of the XScale core and its requirement for a dedicated video processor if they want great gaming. I would even to go so far as to say that they will need a gfx chip that handles the floating point because as far as I know VFP is still not included on the chip? I doubt they could get an Nvidia chip or one of the weaker ATI mobile chips as the required volumes would be hard to commit to.


I have to say that the one thing that I am most proud of when working on the craiginator is the COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT. You have no idea how much all of the posts over the last year have helped to shape this new handheld. In fact, there are cheaper ways to design some of the features needed but they go against what the community wants, so they weren't even considered. The other benefit is that we are all here, all the time. When the console is released and someone finds a feature lacking or missing, I for one will start working on adding it right away. There could be a new kernel release each month for the first little while if it becomes necessary as opposed to waiting six months for a whole bunch of fixes. Hopefully most software released will be in userspace, but no one is going to dump $350US (if the conversions people list are correct) on this amazing device and be left high and dry!!!

I guess, in one way you/we were all lucky that anything was made in this sense- something open and fun to code/play on. But in another how much better would it have been if they'd spent a bit longer in the development stage? it was a real F'n mess no denying.. the revision of the f200 is nice (ish) and I might pick it up if I hear good things about it to pass the time 'til the 'nator- then again I thought that on initial gp2x release too and somehow I managed to wait until now.. sorry if I upset any loyalists but considering their track record I wouldn't trust 'em to make a decent successor..
I mean, I know that this craiginator lark isn't exactly a sure fire thing- who knows what will happen there regarding setbacks or faults etc but the one reason I trust it more is that craig and co. have been here all the way through and are looking to get things right for us, them, everyone. That 'nator thing sounds like, as long as it works lol, I'll not need another toy for the next 6-7 years and actually has real world usages too.. the 32 seems like a work of art up to the 2X from what I've seen.. but I know- different companies/circumstances.
So, will GPH learn from their mistakes and offer a solid platform that does what it says on the tin next time round? heh I still doubt it god knows when we'll finally see it too, the f200 needs to get selling yet!


PS did I read it wrong? or is it right that this new 2x thing wouldn't be back compatible? anyway.. back to sleep

MWeston, I'll lift my beer in salute... Make me my portable AMIGA!


All these years waiting... Can't be healthy.

Is it just me or does it sound like another GPkids attempt.

more like xgp-mini...wouldn't do kids its way to crippled...just slap some nand in it...but I doubt this thing will come to pass.

I'm all for the f200 but this just sounds stupid. don't even see why they would still call it a gp2x. they really need to make something completely different.

GPH is just really damn pathetic.
Why couldn't there be a place, with the funding and well-knownness of GPH, with the management of Craig?

GAMEPARK FO LIFE!

no u

Hmmm...I wonder how this will effect the Craiginator

Anyways, this doesn't look to interesting. The processor seems nice, but that's a pretty small screen...

But, then again, thats the size of the screen on the Creative Zen Vision: M. Not sure how well that would work for games though...the system ought to be really small then.

Better be cheap too.

what about the Commodore/Amiga?

The Amiga came to market in this order;
1000, 2000, 500, 1500, 2500, 3000, 3000UX, 500+, 3000T, CDTV, 600, 4000, 1200, CD32, and 4000T.

The Commodore came to market in this order; Commodore KIM-1 - single board computer, Commodore PET, Commodore VIC-20, Commodore CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore SX-64, Commodore 16, Commodore Plus/4 Commodore 128.

If GPH releases a new hand held it's a good thing, especially if it backwards compatible, the name gp2x f800 kinda makes it sound possible.

Money, get away.
Get a good job with good pay and youre okay.
Money, its a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think Ill buy me a football team.

Money, get back.
Im all right jack keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, its a hit.
Dont give me that do goody good bullshit.
Im in the high-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a lear jet.

Money, its a crime.
Share it fairly but dont take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.
But if you ask for a raise its no surprise that theyre
Giving none away.

Huhuh! I was in the right!
Yes, absolutely in the right!
I certainly was in the right!
You was definitely in the right. that geezer was cruising for a
Bruising!
Yeah!
Why does anyone do anything?
I dont know, I was really drunk at the time!
I was just telling him, he couldnt get into number 2. he was asking
Why he wasnt coming up on freely, after I was yelling and
Screaming and telling him why he wasnt coming up on freely.
It came as a heavy blow, but we sorted the matter out

I thought the fastest ARM cpu made was only 624? Perhaps I was wrong.

Well, 800 should have no probs with SNES, Genesis, even PSone should be doable.

Rather have the Craiginator, but I'm still wondering how much is vaporware, or if it is released what price point it will be. I'll go up to 450 IF it runs full Linux, as in I want to work in an X environment for that much cash.

Hoping it comes out, and hoping its worth it.

There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark

Not sure what is up with the Floyd reference but a 2.8" screen?! Just what I wanted, to go smaller in screen size to that of the headache inducing Giz or GBA Maybe for the F1200 they can go ballls out and give us a 1.5" screen YAY! GPH is so dumb. I am suprized the GP2X ended up as good as it was in many areas except for the stick, must have been luck.

Maybe they are saying 2 ARM10 at 400Mhz. That would indicate the MMSP3 which was supposed to come out this year some time.

Also it could be the xscale with the PXA320 SoC which can clock up to 806Mhz. (which will be quite dated end of 2008)

Anyway, both are good enough for this tiny device. I'll get one if it is cheap enough and I can play SNES on it. It'll find a spot in the market if it is much cheaper than the craiginator. Just won't be as biug a market as before.

EDIT: maybe PSX is not such a good idea.

all those commodore listings make me eager to also write some lists:

the atari 8 bit series came out in this order:

2600, 400/800, 1200XL, 5200, 600/800XL, 7800, 65/130XE, XEGS

the 16/32 bit series came out in this order:

260/520ST, 520ST+, 520STm, 520/1040STf, 520/1040STfm, MEGA ST, ATW (had a mega inside), STacy, 520/1040STe, STBook, TT030, MEGA STe, Falcon030. some prototypes (Falcon040) and clones (medusa, hades, milan (boooring machines)) were made afterwards.

All these computer ranges had something like ~10 years of life span. I wonder if the GP32, GP2X F100, F200, (F800?), etc will also have the same.

a big difference, i think, is the hardware compatibility. a 130XE could play all 800 stuff, even if there was 6 years in between the models. similar to a MEGA STe playing all 520ST stuff (also 6 years later). GP32 and GP2X are largely incompatible. I hope the F800 will have increased power and will keep compatibility. If it's incompatible I'd rather stick with Craig's machine.

The increasing rate of new technology will show that any piece of hardware will become obsolete in less and less time, as time goes on... or does that only make sense to me in my drunken state?

Moore's law states that the complexity of computer chips increases about factor 1.6 each year (don't kill me if i got that number slightly wrong). that still holds after quite a while. so, actually, the rate at which things become obsolete stays the same. i think the GP32X scene has some good years left

i indeed wonder if the F800 could be using the MMSP3, but i would reckon it'd be more like the MMSP2+, disappointing in terms of CPU (only twice as fast) but of course having 3D hardware is still a dream come true. then again, it could be a totally different SoC. maybe some other samsung (like the iphone's).

In theory there must be a theoretical threshold limit in some cases. I.E when transistors are just so small that you cannot subdivide them to any smaller size.

Probably very little. I don't expect the F800 to be available less than 6 months after the Craiginator, and by then the Craiginator will have sold quite a lot and have a strong following and the F800 will be by far less good etc etc.. I think people in 2009 will care about the F800 about as much as we care about the XGP now.



There's no increasing rate, it's rather steady, and actually, we're going through a slow-down in desktop/laptop PC frequencies, in case you haven't noticed, it's been for about 5 years that everybody and their mama's around 2 GHz. They try to make up for it and follow the Moore law with multi-cores, but it's still kind of not making up for it.

Assuming, of course, that the Craiginator lives up to it's promise...

Which, I hasten to add, I have full confidence that it will

as i mentioned in chat, 550mhz is the only number i've seen quoted anywhere on the web. Just because the Cortex A8 *design* can be implemented in versions up to ~1000mhz doesn't mean any particular implementation will clock that high. The OMAPs are also SOCs designed to handle media-intensive work in portable/embedded devices, so emphasis is on a 'well rounded' performance with emphasis on offloading cpu-hungy media tasks to dsp. Driving up clockrates increases voltage and current requirements well past what is appropriate for portable-sized li-ion battery packs and SOC packaging constraints.

So will OMAP3430 in craigulator ship at 800-1000mhz? Not on your life. Will it be overclockable to 1ghz like you've been spouting in IRC? Fat fuckin chance, funboi.

Hard to say what the competition will looklike near the end of 2008. A lot of PDA-like devices will have the horsepower to run 8/16-bit emus (unoptimized), but their controls will suck. So what kind of portable will give people enough additional value to purchase one year from now? My feeling is that by then most people will expect to emulate the early 3D consoles well, and doing them well with only software 3D will be challenging, (yes, i know psx4all could run fine).

So what remains for the F800? Without the licensed game franchise of a Sony/Nintendo it looks to me like they are basically offering no-skip 8/16 bit emulation and hoping for some hardcore community hacking to bring 3D to life.

Whatever the odds, I'll be rooting for them. Anybody serving up an open platform + linux deserves our support.

TI has demonstrated an OMAP3430 clocked at 1GHz. It's entirely possible. This shouldn't be very surprising. I'm sure it draws a lot of power at this clock, but that's what overclocking is about.



Using Linux is easy when it's available for your hardware and your platform isn't going to attract commercial developers (that would bring in substantial royalties at least). Not using Linux would make very little sense for a company like GPH if it's an option for their SoC.

I don't think being open is a deliberate selling point as much as it is the only real option.

Hallelujah! Glad to hear someone who knows what he's talking about (no offense pupnik, feel free to take offense OMars)

Someone might want to add that to the wiki. By the way, just out of curiosity Exophase, where did you learn about that?

All I'll say is that the only experience I've had with linux is when I installed it on my old computer, it worked for one day, and the computer never worked again. I didn't get that into it, so that is where my "noobishness" with linux comes from.

I kind of figured, knowing this if I had been you I would have put less confidence in my posts and listened earlier on to people who have obviously more experience

Credit to retroDude for finding this, he posted the link in the Our New Machine thread. http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showt...55&st=2670#