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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 19.09.2011 - 19:46 ]

> This 5125 board another MZ participant has been talking about

I take it you mean the TWR-MPC5125, right?

> Can RAM beyond 512 megabytes be added?

You give the answer yourself:

> I do not see that the board has slots to actually put some memory sticks in there.

No RAM slot means no extra RAM, so the soldered on-board 256 MiB is all you'll get with this board.*

> Does the 5125 board have any specialized multimedia hardware?

No.

> How is this 5125 board any better than the prior 5121e board,

Lower wattage, lower price. For an extensive spec comparison of the SoCs (including MPC5123) alone, see page 66 of this document:

http://www.freescale.com/files/ftf_2010/Americas/FTF_ENT_F0770.pdf

> beyond the increased graphics resolution?

MPC5121e can do WXGA/720p as well.

*Edit: Seems THTF/LimePC, which is the TWR-MPC5125's designer/manufacturer, also offers the board with 512 MiB RAM:

http://www.limefree.org/mpc5125.asp (already linked to that page half a year ago)

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf on 2011/2/4 23:33 ]

Quote:
Price. The 5125 is offered from 10.95 US$.

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 10.09.2011 - 09:17 ]

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 10.09.2011 - 09:18 ]

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 10.09.2011 - 09:18 ]

> the board at least goes to 512 megabytes, says LimePC.

Yes, that's what I just found too. You were faster :-) Only thing is that I couldn't find anyone actually offering the 512 MiB version for sale.

> I don't think the 5121e board can do 1280 horizontal resolution

"The integrated display controller (DIU) allows for cost-effective support of thin film transistor (TFT) LCD panel displays with up to 1280 x 720 resolution. [...] The DIU integrated display controller can support a wide variety of TFT LCD displays with resolution upto 1280 × 720 (720p) at a maximum refresh rate of 60 Hz and a color depth up to 24 bits per pixel. [...] Display interface unit [...] Supports LCD display resolution up to 1280 × 720 or 1024 x 768"
http://www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/prod_brief/MPC5121ePB.pdf

"The MPC5121e device's 32-bit Truecolor display controller provides the multi-plane blending capabilities to drive a wide range of display resolutions including 720p (1280x720) and WXGA (1366x768)."
http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1091691

Further sources:
http://www.freescale.com/files/microcontrollers/doc/roadmap/BRAUTOPRDCTMAP.pdf (page 2)
http://www.freescale.com/files/microcontrollers/doc/selector_guide/SG187.pdf (page 22)
http://www.freescale.com/files/training_presentation/WBNR_ROBOTICS.pdf (page 25)
http://www.freescale.com/files/shared/doc/selector_guide/sg1000mini.pdf (page 36)

> To get the $10.95 rate on the boards, you've got to order 10,000.

Nah, it's just the old "board vs. chip" thing again ;-)

The 10.95 is for the 5125 chip, not for a complete board. The TWR5125 is a development/evaluation board for the 5125 chip.
My proposal thoug is: Take the 5125 chip, add 512MB RAM, a sound codec, the network connector and usb jacks, a little glue electronic but no bells, no whistles and sell it for 50-80 EUR. The naked board.

[ Editiert durch Zylesea an 2011/2/5 0:12 ]

> The TWR5125 is a development/evaluation board for the 5125 chip.

I think we shouldn't mix development and evaluation purposes.

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7001&start=514

Depends on the actual definition of evaluation. The TWR-5125 is pretty swell suited to evaluate the power of the5125. Evaluation is (in my books) already the process to get to know the basics of some parameter. Of course not all compund parameters can ve evaluated, but quite some. To make it even more clear: Every item I use/buy 1st time is also an evaluation kit.
If a new bakery opens up in my neighbourhood I buy a pretzel there 1st time (be it their welcome offer or just a pretzel from their everyday service at norma price) I may call the pretzel the evaluation pretzel. Depending on taste and price I decide upon that very item whether it is worthwile to buy my pretzels there in future or elsewhere.
In first instance that is of course an evaluation of the pretzel as whole, but I can draw my conclusions from the compounds of that pretzel, say the oven, the salt, the weat and so on.
But sure, the boards have their primary intension and there dev/eval may differ. But partially a dev board can work as eval board and vice versa.

> Depends on the actual definition of evaluation.

No objection to that. But it seems that in the case of the MPC5125 Freescale defines the prerequisite for evaluation as being 17 times as expensive as the one for development for the customer ;-) For instance, the TWR-MPC5125 leverages only one of the two Ethernet ports of the MPC5125, whereas the eval board (ADS5125) has both connected. This illustrates quite nicely the different approaches of dev boards vs. eval boards.

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 10.09.2011 - 09:13 ]

> based on page 67 of the previously linked document [...] you'd
> seem to be required to purchase 10,000 to get that price.

Yes, that's also the price and quantity stated on Freescale's "Buy" page for that chip:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=MPC5125&tab=Buy_Parametric_Tab

> that seems high for the chip assuming you buy so many.

I think it's a bargain even at that large quantity. While Freescale doesn't seem to ship lower quantities of that chip, some distributors do, but for a higher per-chip price of course (all prices in USD):

Arrow: 22.05 (single quantity)
Avnet: 23.15 (single quantity), 19.93 (25 pcs.), 19.13 (100 pcs.)
Digi-Key: 25.83 (single quantity), 24.40 (10 pcs.), 22.96 (25 pcs.), 14.38 (100 pcs.)
Mouser: 25.95 (single quantity), 24.43 (25 pcs.), 21.39 (50 pcs.), 15.30 (100 pcs.)
Newark: 20.45 (single quantity), 19.91 (10 pcs.), 18.30 (25 pcs.), 16.90 (100 pcs.)

It seems that of those Digi-Key's offer (100 pcs. for 14.38 USD per pc.) is the best one can get atm.

> maybe slot for RAM

I think that for cost effectiveness reasons Zylesea would vote for soldered RAM, against a slot.

> and dedicated video chip for high-def codecs like Theora.

How much USD do you think that would add to the BOM?

> Beagle Boards are like 137 euros now

They're even as low as 92 EUR now:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7001&forum=3&post_id=81447#81447

> I guess yours would be cheaper if your estimates are anywhere close.

Zylesea estimates a price of not exceeding 80 EUR. So yes, that would be cheaper than 92 EUR ;-)

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 10.09.2011 - 09:15 ]

Quote:
Currently I don't think of doing such a project myself - I just lack the expertise. Though I may have some knowledge I am a biologist and not an electronics engineer.
Quote:

Yes, basiclly I think to establisch some similar community like the Beagle board community. But at lower price, lower physical dimensions and lower computing power.My approach would be the simplest approach. No bells, no whistles. The only added extra would be sound. WIFI can be added by usb, a video codec, while nice, would probably also not be included, would probably raise the price too much (cost of the codec chip, development cost to integrate it, increased board complexity).
My goal would be the smallest possible price for a little versatile board. 80 US$ as maximum. Stay below the beagle board in everything: price & power.

Quote:

Once you have the boad, you can of course offer it as bundle with case and a 5V power adaptor, maybe a kbd/mouse, too. But with some extra cost though.

> "Beagle Board Xm" at $137 or thereabouts

I couldn't find it for below 149 USD.

> I dunno how popular the Beagle Board hobby is really.

I can imagine that by now some of those hobbyists have changed their hobby to the successor:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6726&forum=11&post_id=78315#78315

> It could be 50 or 75 geeks making noise or it could be a lot more.

The official BeagleBoard discussion group at Google has about 3,400 members. The PandaBoard group has about 450 members.

http://groups.google.com/group/beagleboard/about
http://groups.google.com/group/pandaboard/about

Of course, becoming a discussion group member doesn't require actually using/owning the board, though. On the other hand, it's safe to assume that not every user/owner of the board is a member of the Google discussion group.

> There's also still the LimePC X-1, if one can find a good place to order it from China.

One can order it as "C120" from Cherrypal for 249 USD.

> I'd prefer the "LimeOS" Linux one. It's complete.

Do you happen to know by now if it comes with a driver for the MPC5121e's PowerVR GPU?

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7001&forum=3&post_id=74133#74133

> I saw it listed [...] for Yuan equivalent of $130

Nice. That's about half of what Cherrypal asks for it.

> 80 US$ as maximum.

That's even 25% less than the 80 EUR you had proposed before. Did the 125 USD price tag of the BeagleBoard provoke that change? :-)

I could confess I mixed up EUR and US$, but to keep my face I just say it's 80US$ (w/o VAT) and 80 EUR with VAT. I think it is usual to give prices in the US w/o VAT and in Euroland with VAT. Fits more or less then.

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 10.09.2011 - 09:11 ]

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 06.09.2011 - 08:00 ]

> Mine has LimeOS on it.

I know, that's what you said.

> I always figured it didn't support the PowerVR, but thinking
> about it I don't really know. How would I?

You could try to run 3D software. But then, I don't know if (unhacked) LimeOS allows for installation of 3rd party software.

> It plays videos with "LimePlayer" (it's mPlayer variant) at
> medium resolution okay. But not high resolution.

I think that (non-accelerated) video replay can be handled by the e300 core and the DIU, so no absolute need for PowerVR support for this task (not taking performance into account, just the ability as such).

> Since Android is for smart-phones, and PowerVR is smart-phone technology,
> perhaps this means the Android X-1s have PowerVR support.

I'm afraid there's more to it than that.

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7001&forum=3&post_id=74153#74153

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 06.09.2011 - 07:58 ]

> the X-1 is listed for sale at a Chinese website at a good
> price (Yuan equivalent of 95 euros) here:
> iseeuon.com webshop listing.

Ah, so you found it again. Unfortunately, it's the 256 MiB RAM version (the "C114" in Cherrypal speak). And it's not coming with Android.