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The Cabin >> Raspberry and Other Pies >> The Pocket CHIP and other CHIP mysteries...
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1482199483

Message started by Fernando on Dec 19^th, 2016, 9:04pm

Title: The Pocket CHIP and other CHIP mysteries...
Post by Fernando on Dec 19^th, 2016, 9:04pm

Had it for over a month and forgot to post about it where.

Last month my friend Adam gave me a second CHIP (with the white stencil lettering), and a Pocket CHIP with its own CHIP already installed. Later that month and into the first week of this month I would help him put away his father's things after he passed away. Neither events are related. Adam bought several Chips and Pocket Chips and gave me a Chip and Pocket Chip, thinking that you need to put the two together to make it work. But the Pocket CHIP comes with its own CHIP already installed. So he ended up with double the Chips than he expected. He gave me a CHIP and PocketCHIP.

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1065/9514/t/22/assets/pcoverview.jpg

The PocketCHIP comes in a case with a 5in LCD Touch Screen, a tackky button keyboard and two holes to put a pencil in to make it stand up. Its bigger than a GameBoy and fits into a large pocket - hence the name "PocketCHIP." The PocketCHIP goes for around $69. The CHIP by itself goes for $9.

Like the CHIP , the PocketCHIPhas everything put into the system. But the screen is limited to just a few icons and does not scroll It does not open windows, but it does open the apps you set into one of 6 positions on the screen. The Keyboard works great if you are a thumb or gamer typist. But its arrangement is a bit weird. The cursor control is on the extreme left and the top. and the rest of the keyboard is pushed to the right.

The PocketCHIP uses its own system with its own Windows GUI which is very lacking. But for a system, it works.

Before I forget, it comes with a 5hr Lithium Ion Battery, just charge it up like a cellphone with a cellphone charger.

The the mystery part.
Apparently the makers of the CHIP has been selling many of them with an 8GB of FlashRAM. But they state that the FlashRAM used is unstable so it is doubled addressed - two memory cells used as one so the instability is minimized, making a 8GB FlashRAM into 4GB. I forget which chip this is on, they use Hynix and Toshiba, I suspect it is the Toshiba.

Other than that, it seems to function just the same. People are complaining why not unfold the FlashRAM and get 8GB for the CHIP/PocketCHIP. The company claims that it is not possible as that is done in hardware inside the CPU/GPU and not by software.

Since it is in hardware, what slowdown for a double FlashRAM Read is not noticed. Maybe if one writes a program that can read the FlashRAM a million times, will it be noticed.

When you Flash the FlashRAM with a new OS, will you see is your machine is 4GB or 8GB read as 4GB.

Hacks:
Several people have replaced the 5in screen with a 7in screen and update the config file to allow scrolling and other things. There are several Youtubes vids on it. It is not that hard to do. But the bigger screen takes up more power.

Title: Re: The Pocket CHIP and other CHIP mysteries...
Post by Hondo I. Sackett on Dec 20^th, 2016, 1:05am

Cool. Not messed with these at all yet