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N3: An open source portable audio player

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may1937:

--- Quote from: saratoga on June 18, 2007, 10:10:50 PM ---The Samsung cores in particular are attractive.  They're much faster then the TI ones, and are completely open (all parts are documented).

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--- Quote from: Bagder on June 19, 2007, 07:13:43 AM ---
It doesn't make it a better arch in my eyes, it just shows that we can always overcome whatever obstacles they put in our way. It just seems a pity that someone one actively tries to make an open source player take this route  - again.

--- End quote ---

Maybe I am wrong about the amount of effort required to switch CPUs, but as I have tried to express before, we do not have a hardware engineer. This means we will likely end up contracting with one, and I have not even begun looking into that. I imagine the rates would be somewhere in the $100-200/hour range. Between adding the DACs, ADCs, whatever other audio circuitry is needed, an FM transmitter, now possibly a hard drive, SPDIF, shrinking the design, getting the thing powered from a battery (including a recharge circuit) and whatever else needs to be done, we already have a substantial amount of hardware work that needs doing. Even after the design is completed, we will also likely need their time for board bring-up. If they can complete this work in a man month at US$150/hour, we are looking at a bill of around US$24,000. This is for a community project, which, as of yet, does not have any funding. Unless they can integrate a new CPU in a man day or two, which I highly doubt, I am not seeing another option besides sticking with dm320. I acknowledge, even agree, that dm320 is not the ideal candidate for an open source player.

Am I missing something here? If anyone has a different take on this situation, I would be very interested to hear it.


--- Quote from: Bagder on June 19, 2007, 07:13:43 AM ---
And may1937: Rockbox already plays mpeg2 movies perfectly fine so you have to make an effort to not support movie-playing on a new Rockboxable device...

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My comment about video was based on me and those I have talked to in our community not being interested in video on the N3. Its great that Rockbox supports it, and I didn't mean we should cut the feature, just that it was not a target feature for the project at this point.

johnson4:

--- Quote from: Llorean on June 15, 2007, 03:40:45 AM ---
Having the ability to use a 2.5" drive is a start. Yes it makes it a bit bigger, but if it offers expandability that's very valuable to the kind of people who are interested in open source.

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As I see it, Rockbox is already on it's way to having a 2.5'' drive DAP. Once USBOTG is supported, all that you'll need is
-the HD obviously
-a $25 2.5" USB HD Enclosure,
-a little solder and a male USB connector
-some creative mods to the Enclosure housing.
 Im imagining a expansion sleeve (like it iPAQ PDAs have) for my Gigabeat now.
 

GodEater:
Your plan sort of implies you're going to be carting your original DAP *and* an external hard drive around with you. No thanks :)

johnson4:
ya not very sexy, but size doesn't seem to be the main consern to those who wish to have 300GB in tow

GodEater:
I'd *love* 300GB of DAP storage space - but just not like that!

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