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Subject: Re: RAM size: 8MB (who uses less than that?)

Re: RAM size: 8MB (who uses less than that?)

From: Matthias Wächter <matthias_at_waechter.wiz.at>
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 09:03:04 +0100 (CET)

On Fri, 17 Jan 2003 for_spam_at_gmx.de wrote:

> > available. I hope to find someone taking all three devices and again
> > shipping the unused parts to the next volunteer and so on. But don't
> > hurry, let's talk about this next week.
> ok. maybe i`m crazy enough then, doing the mod, too :D
>
> Matthias, could you tell us about your experiences regarding battery-runtime
> ?
> Can you give some calculated and some "real-world-experience" regarding that
> ?
> How much power does the 2MB/8MB DRAM need ?

First: The battery runtime enhanced by 1h or so. At first enhancing the
battery run time was the primary goal of the project and I was a little
bit disappointed that it showed to have that little impact. It was already
discussed on the ML that this is explainable because the HD spin-ups
(what's the only current consumption we can save here with more memory due
to fewer accesses) don't have a high impact already with 2MB of memory.

But after doing the mod I saw that there are three other good causes for
doing the mod:

* The hard disk is spun up less frequent thus giving it a longer life time
* The hard disk is spun up less frequent so shaking the device will be not
  be as dangerous (expect 7+ minutes run time without a hard disk activity
  using 8MB RAM and 128kbit music)
* It's easier to decide spending some of the large memory area for
  application data, f.e. playlist entries, directory entries you
  don't have to spin up the HD first for.

> If I do get only 1h more of runtime - then I think it`s not worth doing the
> mod for me -
> buying 2100mah Cells will be better then.

I hope I can find a way to reduce the power consumption of my AJB6K so I
will gain this expected effect by other means. The iron isn't cold yet, so
maybe I will do some more soldering...

> But if runtime doubles??? triples??? - I think this mod could be worth the
> risk :)

No, that's definitely not true. I think the guys from Archos already did
the correct calculation about what's a good value for the MP3 buffer from
the power consumption point of view.

Sehr Wus,
- Matthias

-- 
                    "To get control over people, make them trust you.
                                            To make people trust you
                      don't try to tell them the truth about history
                 but make happen what you told them about the future."
Received on 2003-01-17

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