GTA04A5 ready to be pre-ordered

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi,

Am 13.11.2013 um 22:46 schrieb thomasg:

> On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 11:20 PM, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller
> <hns at goldelico.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Am 08.11.2013 um 23:08 schrieb Michael Parchet:
>> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> Sorry I found only GTA04A4  but not GTA04A5 with LTE for pre order and
>> price.
>> 
>> Why
>> 
>> 
>> If you look at the date (22 janvier 2013), a long time has passed. We did
>> start for preorders
>> back then, but there wasn't enough response. So it was put on hold some
>> weeks later.
>> 
>> In the meantime the list cited below is still almost correct, but not
>> everything.
>> 
>> Now, we are *thinking* about restarting the project with *maybe* LTE
>> (option).
>> 
> 
> Hi Nikolaus,
> 
> glad to hear that, I'd be really happy to see a new device that might
> leave the exterior of the Neo's behind for something better.

No, the GTA04A5 will keep the Neo's exterior as it is.

It is still a motherboard replacement.

But as before you may be able to design your own case around it.

> A long time ago, people were interested in replacing the Calypso with
> a Telit modem for future devices; as you might think about a new
> platform, I wonder if the Telit modems might be considered, still?

Initially we tried with the Telit modems but they were not flat enough
and we would have had to sacrifice the speaker (handsfree).

Fortunately we found the GTM601 which is used in the GTA04A1-A4.

> The big difference to the Qualcomms is, that the user documentation is
> much better, including a freely available full AT command reference
> [2] and more.

They also have Qualcomm inside.

> They have, for example, the new L910 [1] with LTE
> support, and as they aren't used by most major phone makers, I'd
> assume that they might be more reasonable in delivering smaller,
> reasonably priced, batches.
> It also includes GNSS (GPS, GLONASS) support (with documented AT
> interface), and has VoLTE support (voice over LTE), which makes it
> reasonably future-proof.
> With an 28.2 * 28.2 * 2.2 mm (LGA 144) package it isn't exactly tiny,
> but not that much larger than alternatives I think.
> Their modules are all pin-compatible, so the NA and EU variants, as
> well as 2G, 3G, 4G variants can be replaced without further changes.

The same holds with the Cinterion PxS8 modules. Documentation is
also available w/o problems.

We are currently evaluating all these options, but there are technical
and commercial aspects to consider. E.g. the Telit xE910 modems
are 10% thicker and likely still too thick.

> An extra wish would be using a main SoC with ARM Mali graphics, so
> free GPU drivers would be realistic (in contrast to all other options
> it seems).
> I'd certainly be in.

There is no plan to change the CPU since the OMAP3/DM3730 is still
the best mobile processor that can easily be purchased in small
quantities. And (despite the GPU) it is very well documented and
supported by mainline linux.

So please don't expect a wonder to happen... Just small steps and
improvements.

BR,
Nikolaus