DragonBox Pyra

DragonBox Pyra
Manufacturer OpenPandora GmbH
Type Handheld game console / UMPC / PDA hybrid
Operating system Debian
System-on-chip used Texas Instruments OMAP5432
CPU 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A15 dual-core with NEON SIMD
Memory 2 GB (4 GB option)
Storage Dual SDXC slots, one internal microSD slot
Display 5" LCD, 720p
Graphics 533 MHz PowerVR SGX544MP2
Controller input D-pad
Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB (all port sizes), MicroHDMI, headset port and 3G/4G/UMTS/GPS (optional)
Dimensions 139 x 87 x 32 mm
Predecessor OpenPandora
Website pyra-handheld.com

The DragonBox Pyra is an upcoming Linux-based handheld computer equipped with a keyboard and gaming controls. The project achieved protoyping state in 2015. On May 1, 2016 preorder became possible, with a final release date open.[1]

History

A Pyra developer prototype with Debian, running a terminal, GIMP, and LibreOffice (May 3, 2016).

The Dragonbox Pyra is the spiritual successor of the OpenPandora device, and shares some of the original Pandora team members. The Pyra is designed and developed in close connection with the OpenPandora community, taking their feedback and experience with the Pandora into account. The OpenPandora GmbH, sitting Germany, organizes design, prototyping and production.

The Pyra was presented officially at the FOSDEM 2014 in Brussels.[2] In 2015 several working developer prototypes of the Pyra have been produced and were given to software developers for evaluation and software creation. Development and fine tuning of the final specifications is still ongoing.[3][4] Preorder of six Pyra variants (4 GB RAM and 3/4G mobile options) became possible on May 1, 2016.

Architecture

Like the predecessor OpenPandora, the Pyra includes features from several architectures making it a cross between a handheld game console, a subnotebook, a PDA, and a smartphone.

The Pyra design aims for modularity and openness in software as hardware alike. For instance the PCB is separated in three parts: CPU board (CPU, RAM and storage), mainboard (ports, Wifi and Bluetooth) and the display board. The replaceable CPU board allows future upgrades of CPU and RAM. The Pyra is assembled with screws (not glued) and is therefore repair and modification friendly.

It was announced that the hardware schematics will be available (license unannounced), which would make the Pyra a kind of Open source hardware.[5] For compliance with the Free Software Foundation's "Respects Your Freedom" free hardware certificate the closed source SGX GPU drivers was identified as only remaining roadblock.[6]

Software

The operating system will be based on the common open source Linux distribution Debian which allows the use of already available desktop open source applications from the Debian repository, for instance Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, GIMP etc. The around 1,500 applications, created for the mostly open source OpenPandora software ecosystem,[7] are expected to be available for the Pyra in short time by source ports.

Technical specifications

Gallery

See also

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pyra (console).

References

  1. ↑ dragonbox-pyra-now-available-preorder on The Verge (May 2, 2016)
  2. ↑ Pandoralive post about the FOSDEM news
  3. ↑ DragonBox Pyra pre-orders begin (open Source handheld gaming PC) on liliputing.com (05/01/2016)
  4. ↑ DragonBox Pyra : les news on open-consoles-news.com (2015)
  5. ↑ Pyra on pyra-handheld.com "Full schematics will be available: You could. i.e. design your own custom mainboard and use Pyras CPU board to run it." (May 1, 2016)
  6. ↑ respects-your-freedom-certification on pyra-handheld.com
  7. ↑ repo.openpandora.org "Apps: 1583, Dl's: 1225287" (May 6, 2016)
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, May 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.