Author Topic: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\  (Read 52522 times)

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Offline Lancelot_du_lac

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #75 on: November 13, 2012, 01:30:31 am »
it's just a quick watch, nothing else.

Our dev board is Armadeus FP28.

Offline _Nicco_

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #76 on: November 13, 2012, 01:38:33 am »
it's just a quick watch, nothing else.

Our dev board is Armadeus FP28.

Are you talking about the APF28 Dev?  I couldn't find an FP28 board.

This is the one that I'm talking about
http://www.armadeus.com/english/products-development_boards-apf28_dev.html
They say that your signature is supposed to go here...

Offline willrandship

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #77 on: November 13, 2012, 02:53:09 am »
That's not a bad choice at all. It should be able to handle compiling just fine, and as long as you can keep the cost down it should make a great calculator.

Offline Lancelot_du_lac

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #78 on: November 13, 2012, 07:41:54 am »
http://www.armadeus.com/francais/produits-cartes_microprocesseur-apf28.html

The board for people that don't know it yet.

the dev board is used when you want dev something on the apf28 ( sorry wrong name before ).

unit cost is 55€ without taxes.

it's powerfull, & full integrated.  :evillaugh:

Offline Keoni29

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #79 on: November 13, 2012, 10:07:28 am »
Ah, so you are planning on making an asic with an onboard cpu? I can't read.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2012, 10:08:20 am by Keoni29 »
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Offline willrandship

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #80 on: November 13, 2012, 02:36:46 pm »
Well, that's interesting. Apparently it will have an attached FPGA. That would be very useful, not only for programming but also for general math and such. (Imagine setting it up as your FPU)

I would love to see some games make use of it too!

Offline Keoni29

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #81 on: November 13, 2012, 02:54:49 pm »
That FPGA will probably not make it into the final design. That's going to be replaced by an asic I think.
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Offline willrandship

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #82 on: November 13, 2012, 06:59:44 pm »
An asic doesn't actually mean anything, you know. It's just a chip with other chips inside. No reason to include one unless you need the contents.

Plus, designing your own ASICs is pricey, unless you're going mega-massive production.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2012, 07:00:31 pm by willrandship »

Offline Lancelot_du_lac

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #83 on: November 14, 2012, 02:11:18 am »
apf 28 don't have any FPGA, it's not usefull for that project, it's the the apf51, that is bigger and cost a bit more.

No asic will be done ( even i'm able to design them ). too costly.

the only thing that we can do ( without big cost ) is re-design the board with same chips.

Offline willrandship

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #84 on: November 14, 2012, 02:43:39 am »
That's what I figured you'd do, mainly because you'd need to design it to fit your enclosure and input methods.

Any thoughts on the screen? If you go B/W then you'll save power, but the board's easily capable enough to handle much better. If you go with a color screen, get one with a decent backlight please, or maybe even transflective (but those are more expensive)

Too bad about the FPGA, but that was just a coolness factor, and I agree that it's not really that useful in this scenario.

Have you considered using GnuPlot as your graphing system? It doesn't have to be your CAS, but it's really nice. All it really needs is an interface, which you already have to write.

Offline Lancelot_du_lac

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #85 on: November 14, 2012, 01:22:15 pm »
it's gonna use 'X' window server.

<a href="http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=901987installationSDK.png"><img src="http://img15.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_901987installationSDK.png" alt="Heberger image" /></a>

We'll use Qt SDK.
I'm gonna order in a few days the hardware, including screen and dev board.
For screens i'll see later witch one we choose. But one thing, code must be smart to be able to run on multiple resolutions.

Hope a lot more people to be interested in, and are going to help coding. ;)

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #86 on: November 14, 2012, 08:00:29 pm »
Regardless of how powerful the machine is, it will need to meet the following requirements:

-Be cheaper than the TI-Nspire CX (including shipping costs). Preferably cheaper than the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition as well.
-Charge the same price regardless of the country (unlike TI, who charges $40 higher in Canada than United States)
-Have no QWERTY/AZERTY/DVORAK keyboard that could potentially get banned from tests
-Have a teacher mode so that features can get disabled with no way to be enabled by the student through hacking and stuff, to ensure that the calculator is admitted at as many american tests as possible.

Cheaper price is a must, because you're in direct competition with TI, and since what people want is a calculator, they might not necessarily spend more just to get a much more powerful machine. (In such case, they'll just get a $70-100 tablet or something)

Offline willrandship

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #87 on: November 14, 2012, 08:48:40 pm »
Gnuplot runs under X windows. It's a graphing program i.e. it plots functions, not a graphical display system. I just figured it's a LOT easier to use existing code, and since it's GPL we can easily include it. (No violations since we're just including the whole program, not merging it into non-GPL code.)

Why would you care about multiple screen resolutions if it's one device? Will there be external video capabilities.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2012, 08:48:59 pm by willrandship »

Offline Vijfhoek

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #88 on: November 15, 2012, 12:40:34 pm »
Doesn't using Qt introduce a huge overhead, seeing that Qt is made to run on many kinds of platforms - won't it be best to directly interface X?

Offline Matrefeytontias

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Re: [new_calc] New Calc project ... with cas engine /!\
« Reply #89 on: November 15, 2012, 12:47:31 pm »
+1 for Qt. In my opinion, it would definitely be the best way to develop GUIs easily.