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> you'll see components disconnect from one another and the thing crash, a lot Isn't the whole point of project Ara that you can disconnect components and the

by smellf 12y ago

> you'll see components disconnect from one another and the thing crash, a lot Isn't the whole point of project Ara that you can disconnect components and the phone doesn't crash? > you'll lose performance as data is transitioned in and out of generic interfaces I was thinking about this - I doubt they'll have a single interface that is generic enough to attach CPU and memory as well as other peripherals - I'm guessing each connector will bundle separate connectors for the CPU and RAM, so that whichever slot the CPU and RAM modules go into, they'll still be on "their" bus. Then you'll have the generic bus, which will be like a USB or PCI bus on a computer - you can attach anything else to it and it's all treated the same. The performance loss would come from the bus itself being inferior, not having to shoehorn disparate devices into using it. > There is no empty space, a Project Ara phone needs room for connectors, housing, and similar. Where does this space come from? No doubt, these will be larger phones. > I genuinely hope they succeed and I'd buy a Project Ara phone if they can engineer something [awesome] Me too :)

Someone1234 12y ago
> Isn't the whole point of project Ara that you can disconnect components and the phone doesn't crash? I'm not sure what you're asking here. I was talking about the design/construction challenges. If they are successful the product wouldn't be designed to crash, no.
seanflyon 12y ago
> Isn't the whole point of project Ara that you can disconnect components and the phone doesn't crash? If the CPU is disconnected from the device it will not continue to function. Failing gracefully is the best you can do and even that is incredibly hard. Are you going to give the CPU its own battery so it can keep its cache when removed?
- smellf 12y ago
  In the initial materials I read about Ara, they indicated there would be a very minimal, secondary CPU, memory and battery in the frame itself. So, when you want to hot-swap the CPU, it falls back on/suspends to that tiny system temporarily.
  - tonyplee 12y ago
    In theory this is doable, I did it 6 years ago for equipment designed for Comcast. A few different programs running in embedded system - only one program was keeping the states. The rest of them are stateless - snmp, web, etc tasks. When 2nd CPU board was plug into the system standby mode, it synced all the states/config DB info from the master and become hot standby. After that you can stop, reboot, regrade the first CPU. BUT, that was for one vertical application which the complete application stack is under my total control - all configurations are sync when in hot standby mode. Android system which anyone is able to install any type of Apps are completely different stories. The design will be much more complex to handle all the cases - I am not sure if that's even possible. BTW, I watched the Ara demo for Io14 youtube - they can't even boot the system in the IO "demo". I worked on a few projects for Mobile SOC + android AOSP porting including JB, KK. Ara project has a long long long way to go. It is a good science project - not sure about any commercial potential.
    - wiwiw 12y ago
      In the video where PhoneBloks visits NK Labs in Boston the phone boots. http://blog.phonebloks.com/post/101254153023/video-project-ara-update-by-dave-hakkens http://blog.phonebloks.com/post/101254153023/video-project-a...
  - jkestner 12y ago
    Why is it important to hot-swap the CPU? Who is this phone for? This is either a mobile high-availability server or engineer wanking.
    - madeofpalk 12y ago
      Engineer wanking. I believe this is like an eternal prototype, not meant for mainstream. Make a fat, ugly device with low battery life and experiment with different concepts. I assumption is they'll take learnings from Project Ara and apply it to a new, 'production' phone that has like a detachable camera or something.
  - kalleboo 12y ago

by smellf 12y ago

Someone1234 12y ago

> Isn't the whole point of project Ara that you can disconnect components and the phone doesn't crash? I'm not sure what you're asking here. I was talking about the design/construction challenges. If they are successful the product wouldn't be designed to crash, no.

seanflyon 12y ago

> Isn't the whole point of project Ara that you can disconnect components and the phone doesn't crash? If the CPU is disconnected from the device it will not continue to function. Failing gracefully is the best you can do and even that is incredibly hard. Are you going to give the CPU its own battery so it can keep its cache when removed?

smellf 12y ago
In the initial materials I read about Ara, they indicated there would be a very minimal, secondary CPU, memory and battery in the frame itself. So, when you want to hot-swap the CPU, it falls back on/suspends to that tiny system temporarily.
- tonyplee 12y ago
  In theory this is doable, I did it 6 years ago for equipment designed for Comcast. A few different programs running in embedded system - only one program was keeping the states. The rest of them are stateless - snmp, web, etc tasks. When 2nd CPU board was plug into the system standby mode, it synced all the states/config DB info from the master and become hot standby. After that you can stop, reboot, regrade the first CPU. BUT, that was for one vertical application which the complete application stack is under my total control - all configurations are sync when in hot standby mode. Android system which anyone is able to install any type of Apps are completely different stories. The design will be much more complex to handle all the cases - I am not sure if that's even possible. BTW, I watched the Ara demo for Io14 youtube - they can't even boot the system in the IO "demo". I worked on a few projects for Mobile SOC + android AOSP porting including JB, KK. Ara project has a long long long way to go. It is a good science project - not sure about any commercial potential.
  - wiwiw 12y ago
    In the video where PhoneBloks visits NK Labs in Boston the phone boots. http://blog.phonebloks.com/post/101254153023/video-project-ara-update-by-dave-hakkens http://blog.phonebloks.com/post/101254153023/video-project-a...
- jkestner 12y ago
  Why is it important to hot-swap the CPU? Who is this phone for? This is either a mobile high-availability server or engineer wanking.
  - madeofpalk 12y ago
    Engineer wanking. I believe this is like an eternal prototype, not meant for mainstream. Make a fat, ugly device with low battery life and experiment with different concepts. I assumption is they'll take learnings from Project Ara and apply it to a new, 'production' phone that has like a detachable camera or something.
- kalleboo 12y ago