Overclocking + Undervolting the PE

Byzantius · 07-12-2011, 03:57 PM

Howdy. Just got my PE yesterday. I managed to update it and get the Amazon App Store on it. It's a pretty neat little device.

I am wondering if it is possible to overclock + undervolt this thing in a similar fashion to how CM7 does to the Nook color.

Overclocking + undervolting makes a device faster while actually consuming less battery.

This would be a great addition to this underrated little device.

Any ideas?

Byz

emusan · 07-12-2011, 05:06 PM

People have tried overclocking with varying degree's of success(no one has actually /confirmed/ it as working yet though). Also, overclocking while undervolting sounds like its not possible, though I may just be ignorant of it, but the usual method of overclocking is to increase the voltage to the FSB.

There is under-clocking, but eventually that will get to a point where you will get no gains, the processor is already under-clocked to 800Mhz, much further and you probably wont gain much if any battery life back.

vicinc · 07-12-2011, 06:15 PM

yes undervolting will enable longer battery life especially if only reading on epaper. the cpu source code must be used by developer as our cpu arm5/arm6 is not standard android cpu

muranternet · 07-12-2011, 06:23 PM

I don't know how it would work on ARM5, but for example on ARM7 undervolting actually helps when overclocking due to heat constraints. It all depends on the tolerance of the specific chip (not line of chip). A stock OS generally ships at the minimum voltage and maximum speeds shown to be stable for the entire line to avoid failures and returns, but an individual chip might be able to run on less juice and higher clock with stability. The problem with the eDGe is there's not way to recover if you push too far and get into a boot-loop, for example; you can't even pull the battery out of the PE to reset it, and there's no recovery console to get back to a stable build after that.

One more request for a recovery bootloader. :P

vicinc · 07-12-2011, 07:07 PM

you can reset with a pin. the recovery is the biggest problem!!!! also the custom roms I have seen today are just a proof of concept that something can be cooked but not really any improvement. looks like nobody knows what is doing. I am waiting now for emusan to prove me wrong with a proper rom.

emusan · 07-12-2011, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vicinc

you can reset with a pin. the recovery is the biggest problem!!!! also the custom roms I have seen today are just a proof of concept that something can be cooked but not really any improvement. looks like nobody knows what is doing. I am waiting now for emusan to prove me wrong with a proper rom.

oy, I never said I was going to make a ROM, I said I was going to try and edit the update.sh within the update.zip in order to remove the checks(I'm working on that right now actually). My work with the eDGe has slowed down a lot lately as a lot of other things have come up.

Also, you're not going to get any kind of significant gains with this undervolting thing, the tolerance levels for these chips are quite low, so any difference between yours and the whole line is not going to be that great. Also, there is no way AFAIK to create custom code for these without licensing the SDK from the company.

vicinc · 07-12-2011, 10:10 PM

Thanks for your help.
I have seen pxa168 custom rom for blue panther (which is same hardware like ours with a GPS) but without eink. I already contacted the rom cook but no answer as yet. also how could robot create his own firmware without a SDK.
so some people figured stuff out but not much getting together. I do not know much android, but a diff on the chtulu 2 bluepanther rom and hrs could prove useful in identifying the differences and similarities?

vicinc · 07-12-2011, 10:11 PM

also the pxa168 source would not help anybody?

emusan · 07-12-2011, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vicinc

Thanks for your help.
I have seen pxa168 custom rom for blue panther (which is same hardware like ours with a GPS) but without eink. I already contacted the rom cook but no answer as yet. also how could robot create his own firmware without a SDK.
so some people figured stuff out but not much getting together. I do not know much android, but a diff on the chtulu 2 bluepanther rom and hrs could prove useful in identifying the differences and similarities?

except our ROM itself is not open source, no one here has really "cooked" anything(that isn't really the best term btw). They just copied files into a zip that a shell file had rules to copy into the systems filesystem.

vicinc · 07-13-2011, 05:44 AM

understood. Have you seen the update on bluepanther? is is nothing newer we can use from there or any idea to get the market working. we just got EUR100 for finishing a working rom.

Byzantius · 07-13-2011, 08:00 AM

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not talking about a major overclock here. I'd just like to bring the pe to a modest 1Ghz

vicinc · 07-13-2011, 08:49 AM

1 ghz could fry the damn thing

emusan · 07-13-2011, 10:40 AM

I tend to agree with vicinc here, an extra 200Mhz will not be noticible in /any/ application, at least not without better video support and more/faster RAM. You're not going to get that much of a change with undervolting, so you will likely get a lot more heat as well. Given that the PE already runs rather hot, the increase in heat could very well do some damage.

ivanjt · 07-13-2011, 05:19 PM

From what we have seen so far of the hardware problems caused by upgrading to 2.2, I think any up clocking will kill a lot of components.

There are many reasons, other than heat generated, to underclock the CPU, one of them being lower quality components can be used and they will still work.

Without the manufacturing specs it is impossible to say exactly what would happen by up clocking but it would, most probably, be bad, as in killing the unit.

kennyminot · 07-13-2011, 10:49 PM

Personally, I don't see much development happening on this device, unless someone from Woot decided to take the initiative. That said, overclocking seems like a bad place to start. The reason the processor is underclocked is pretty obvious: the device works really well at 800mhz. The only time I run into speed problems is with games. And that is clearly not a processor issue. I have a 600mhz Optimus V, and it easily runs most games without any problems. However, on my technically faster eDGe, these programs are absurdly slow. My guess is this has something to do with lackluster graphics support. If that's the case, the best route is to look into possibly working with the video drivers, but a chance exists that the hardware is simply not fast enough to play games at decent speeds.

Then, you have the issue of the lackluster e-ink support. While I love reading epub books, the e-ink software is buggy and lacking some important features. In particular, it would be awesome to have a *.pdf reader that allows you to easily zoom and annotate texts. But due to the fact that the existing software is licensed from Adobe, somebody would probably need to build this stuff from scratch.

Also, Honeycomb might be kind of neat, if someone were interested in a ROM project.

In my mind, figuring out how to overclock is a huge waste of time. It's not going to meaningfully solve any problems to have that little 1ghz by your processor speed.

07-12-2011, 03:57 PM	#1
Byzantius Mobile Tech Posts: 34 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Asus 1005PE, Pocket Edge, PSP3000	Overclocking + Undervolting the PE Howdy. Just got my PE yesterday. I managed to update it and get the Amazon App Store on it. It's a pretty neat little device. I am wondering if it is possible to overclock + undervolt this thing in a similar fashion to how CM7 does to the Nook color. Overclocking + undervolting makes a device faster while actually consuming less battery. This would be a great addition to this underrated little device. Any ideas? Byz

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07-12-2011, 05:06 PM	#2
emusan lol Posts: 472 Karma: 1031 Join Date: May 2011 Device: eDGe	People have tried overclocking with varying degree's of success(no one has actually /confirmed/ it as working yet though). Also, overclocking while undervolting sounds like its not possible, though I may just be ignorant of it, but the usual method of overclocking is to increase the voltage to the FSB. There is under-clocking, but eventually that will get to a point where you will get no gains, the processor is already under-clocked to 800Mhz, much further and you probably wont gain much if any battery life back.

07-12-2011, 06:15 PM	#3
vicinc Guru Posts: 733 Karma: 443 Join Date: May 2011 Location: UK Device: Pocket Edgex2(1unborked), Alex, Nook B&W, Nook Color, Nook STR	yes undervolting will enable longer battery life especially if only reading on epaper. the cpu source code must be used by developer as our cpu arm5/arm6 is not standard android cpu

07-12-2011, 06:23 PM	#4
muranternet Connoisseur Posts: 75 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: Kindle 3/Sony PRS-300/Nook Color running CM7/P eDGe	I don't know how it would work on ARM5, but for example on ARM7 undervolting actually helps when overclocking due to heat constraints. It all depends on the tolerance of the specific chip (not line of chip). A stock OS generally ships at the minimum voltage and maximum speeds shown to be stable for the entire line to avoid failures and returns, but an individual chip might be able to run on less juice and higher clock with stability. The problem with the eDGe is there's not way to recover if you push too far and get into a boot-loop, for example; you can't even pull the battery out of the PE to reset it, and there's no recovery console to get back to a stable build after that. One more request for a recovery bootloader. :P

07-12-2011, 07:07 PM	#5
vicinc Guru Posts: 733 Karma: 443 Join Date: May 2011 Location: UK Device: Pocket Edgex2(1unborked), Alex, Nook B&W, Nook Color, Nook STR	you can reset with a pin. the recovery is the biggest problem!!!! also the custom roms I have seen today are just a proof of concept that something can be cooked but not really any improvement. looks like nobody knows what is doing. I am waiting now for emusan to prove me wrong with a proper rom.

07-12-2011, 10:10 PM	#7
vicinc Guru Posts: 733 Karma: 443 Join Date: May 2011 Location: UK Device: Pocket Edgex2(1unborked), Alex, Nook B&W, Nook Color, Nook STR	Thanks for your help. I have seen pxa168 custom rom for blue panther (which is same hardware like ours with a GPS) but without eink. I already contacted the rom cook but no answer as yet. also how could robot create his own firmware without a SDK. so some people figured stuff out but not much getting together. I do not know much android, but a diff on the chtulu 2 bluepanther rom and hrs could prove useful in identifying the differences and similarities?

07-12-2011, 10:11 PM	#8
vicinc Guru Posts: 733 Karma: 443 Join Date: May 2011 Location: UK Device: Pocket Edgex2(1unborked), Alex, Nook B&W, Nook Color, Nook STR	also the pxa168 source would not help anybody?

07-13-2011, 05:44 AM	#10
vicinc Guru Posts: 733 Karma: 443 Join Date: May 2011 Location: UK Device: Pocket Edgex2(1unborked), Alex, Nook B&W, Nook Color, Nook STR	understood. Have you seen the update on bluepanther? is is nothing newer we can use from there or any idea to get the market working. we just got EUR100 for finishing a working rom.

07-13-2011, 08:00 AM	#11
Byzantius Mobile Tech Posts: 34 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Asus 1005PE, Pocket Edge, PSP3000	Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not talking about a major overclock here. I'd just like to bring the pe to a modest 1Ghz

07-13-2011, 08:49 AM	#12
vicinc Guru Posts: 733 Karma: 443 Join Date: May 2011 Location: UK Device: Pocket Edgex2(1unborked), Alex, Nook B&W, Nook Color, Nook STR	1 ghz could fry the damn thing

07-13-2011, 10:40 AM	#13
emusan lol Posts: 472 Karma: 1031 Join Date: May 2011 Device: eDGe	I tend to agree with vicinc here, an extra 200Mhz will not be noticible in /any/ application, at least not without better video support and more/faster RAM. You're not going to get that much of a change with undervolting, so you will likely get a lot more heat as well. Given that the PE already runs rather hot, the increase in heat could very well do some damage.

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07-13-2011, 05:19 PM	#14
ivanjt Guru Posts: 858 Karma: 1027478 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: South of France Device: kindle dx; eDGe	From what we have seen so far of the hardware problems caused by upgrading to 2.2, I think any up clocking will kill a lot of components. There are many reasons, other than heat generated, to underclock the CPU, one of them being lower quality components can be used and they will still work. Without the manufacturing specs it is impossible to say exactly what would happen by up clocking but it would, most probably, be bad, as in killing the unit.

07-13-2011, 10:49 PM	#15
kennyminot Groupie Posts: 183 Karma: 90022 Join Date: May 2011 Location: Louisville, KY Device: HTC EVO View 4G, HTC Wildfire S, Asus T91MT	Personally, I don't see much development happening on this device, unless someone from Woot decided to take the initiative. That said, overclocking seems like a bad place to start. The reason the processor is underclocked is pretty obvious: the device works really well at 800mhz. The only time I run into speed problems is with games. And that is clearly not a processor issue. I have a 600mhz Optimus V, and it easily runs most games without any problems. However, on my technically faster eDGe, these programs are absurdly slow. My guess is this has something to do with lackluster graphics support. If that's the case, the best route is to look into possibly working with the video drivers, but a chance exists that the hardware is simply not fast enough to play games at decent speeds. Then, you have the issue of the lackluster e-ink support. While I love reading epub books, the e-ink software is buggy and lacking some important features. In particular, it would be awesome to have a *.pdf reader that allows you to easily zoom and annotate texts. But due to the fact that the existing software is licensed from Adobe, somebody would probably need to build this stuff from scratch. Also, Honeycomb might be kind of neat, if someone were interested in a ROM project. In my mind, figuring out how to overclock is a huge waste of time. It's not going to meaningfully solve any problems to have that little 1ghz by your processor speed.