Dingoonity.org

The title should probably have said : "Potential GCW0 dev kit for indie gamemakers ?" since the hardware's pretty similar and that was really my intent.
http://shop.imgtec.com/us/product/mips-creator-ci20/
http://elinux.org/CI20_Hardware

Just wondering ... maybe could serve as a testbed for GCW0 dev? its going for $65 i believe. Heres a quote from my offtopic "Other devices"post:

http://blog.imgtec.com/powervr/mips-creator-ci20-development-board-now-available
Technical specs:

    Processor: 1.2 GHz dual-core, MIPS32-based Ingenic JZ4780 SoC, 32kB L1 I- and D-cache, 512kB L2 cache
    FPU: IEEE754 Floating Point Unit, XBurst MXU
    Multimedia: PowerVR SGX540 GPU, hardware-accelerated video playback up to 1080p at 60 fps
    Memory: 1 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 4 GB flash memory, 1 x SD card
    Audio: AC97 audio, via 4-pin input/output jack and HDMI connector
    Camera interface: ITU-R BT.645 controller
    Connectivity: 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
    Display: 1 x HDMI up to 2K resolution
    USB: 1 x USB host, 1 x USB OTG device
    I/O peripherals: 2 x UART, 25 x GPIO, 2 x SPI, I2C, ADC, expansion headers, 14-pin ETAG connector

Tried asking on IRC? I did a little while back no answer though lol

This would make a nice arcade machine running on OpenDingux

I could swear I remember reading a long time ago that they had Dingux running on a cell phone. And of course in the other handhelds thread there was a guy who got it working on his Neo Geo X.

I assume that mth == Maarten ter Huurne & ayla == Paul Cercueil  based on information posted on the kickstarter page.

Yep, it's us.

Would you guys give us/me your 2 cents on how this board would perform as far as a platform for GCW0 HW/SW development is concerned? How much work would it take to get OpenDingux to run on it?  Or just general thoughts/perspectives on it?

I'll compare it to the Raspberry Pi, since that is a well-known single board computer. The CI20 board is a bit larger (about 50%). It has internal NAND storage as well as an SD slot. Debian runs noticeably faster on it. OpenGL drivers are not open source, the other drivers are. Unlike the Pi, the CI20 boots and runs just fine without the proprietary bits, you just won't have OpenGL then. There is WiFi on board, although some people on the maiilinglist report the reception isn't great (I've only used ethernet myself so far). Bluetooth is also on board.

When I first got the board the CI20 kernel was Linux 3.0.8, which was quite a bit behind OpenDingux. But now their 3.16/3.17 kernel is mostly feature complete, so that should no longer be a problem.

For the rootfs and applications, the JZ4780 should be able to execute the binaries compiled for the Zero just fine. In fact, if you link statically, even Debian on the JZ4780 can execute binaries built with the Zero toolchain.

However, there are some input issues to resolve, for example GMenu2X as used on the Zero has weird key bindings if you're using a USB keyboard and doesn't work with a joystick out of the box. Several built-in applications such as System Info, alsamixer, GCW Connect don't support joystick input yet, so currently you're stuck unless you plug in a keyboard. Also we'd have to check if the Zero applications that run at 320x240 are properly scaled to a high-res output. So to make it actually usable, customizations are needed.

To summarize, it can be done and it's not a huge amount of work but not a neglible effort either. I'm not going to make any promises since I'm working on other projects that consume a lot of time and I like to focus on one thing at a time.

Tried asking on IRC? I did a little while back no answer though lol

That I'm always logged in doesn't mean I'm always reading the channel

I could swear I remember reading a long time ago that they had Dingux running on a cell phone. And of course in the other handhelds thread there was a guy who got it working on his Neo Geo X.

DarthLlamah had an OD-like system running on a cell phone.

Is there any other means of connecting the board to a screen other than HDMI?

No, there is a mini jack on the board but apparently it's for audio in, not for video.

Full specs are on the eLinux.org wiki.

Do you think the absence of a vivante chip on the CI20 limit its usage as a GCW0 development platform?

Unless you write your software in MIPS assembly and need a platform to test it on - CI20 brings no benefit as a development platform, compared to a regular Linux PC. As all you need to develop for GCW Zero is a C compiler, set of libraries (such as SDL 1.2), matching input mapping and a 320x240 window.

In my opinion, the ability to write, compile and run/debug a program directly on the development platform is in and of itself a huge benefit.

And a regular Linux PC still lets you do that.

Not if you compile for it natively and then use it for debugging.
Same as you could compile for CI20 - it doesn't change the fact it is different hardware than GCW Zero, so no actual benefit of using it as a development platform over a PC.

Because you suggest to buy another MIPS board to develop for GCW Zero, while you could do it for zero cost on your PC.

Yes. SSH or Telnet. You can log into the GCW Zero with them and issue commands to it from your PC.