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Viliv X5: CE 5 on a MIPS processor

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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2013-05-04 9:49 AM
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I recently picked up this device:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111059489184?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trks...

It boots directly into the CE desktop, and seems pretty fast. There's a separate UI with PIMs and other stuff (accessible through the X5 icon on the lower left in the screenshot below), but once you get into that UI you can't exit it and return to the CE desktop without resetting. (Fortunately, it appears to retain all installed data and settings.) As such, there are no PIM apps or databases in the core OS, even though it does connect via ActiveSync. (There's a utility for setting the USB OTG port for either mass storage or ActiveSync function. Thus far I haven't been able to get any of the MIPS versions of Pocket On-Schedule to work on it, including a CE .net MIPS version.) There's also a USB host port that supports USB storage drives natively as well as wireless mice and keyboards. Battery life is pretty good: it appears to be able to provide 4-5 hours of moderate use on a single charge.

.NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP3 comes pre-installed. I've been able to upgrade it to .NET CF 2.0, but the MIPS CABs for .NET CF 3.5 don't seem to want to install. Just the same, there are tons of .NET CF 1.0 and 2.0 apps that are running nicely on it. And the MIPS processor means I've been able to play with apps all the way back to CE 1, such as the little desktop clock you see in the screenshot below.

The only downsides I'm finding are the same old complaints: lack of Flash video and decent GAPI support. Geared2003's HPC Media Player had a MIPS build in its first release (1.05), and it installs and opens fine on this device, but of course can't support all the video options that ARM devices can. (Of course, this was arguably by choice as OEMs and software developers abandoned the MIPS architecture about a decade ago. I have to wonder how much more this device could be able to do if Windows CE device manufacturers hadn't turned their backs on that CPU class.)



(Viliv X5.JPG)



Attachments
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Attachments Viliv X5.JPG (51KB - 2 downloads)
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2013-05-04 10:27 AM
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Very cool, very nice. If it only had wifi.....
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2013-05-04 11:33 AM
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Yeah, I dunno why it doesn't. I'm also a little disappointed that there are no RichInk DLLs in the core OS to support several handwritten note apps. But an old CE 1 handwriting program called PenScript seems to work nicely.
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Alt Bass Page Icon Posted 2013-05-04 12:28 PM
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>lack of Flash video and decent GAPI support

TFGBD's GX.dll pack has a version with configuration file where you can set the framebuffer adress manually.

If you search the registry you may find the frame buffer adress occasionally in HKLM/Drivers or somewhere else.

Edited by Alt Bass 2013-05-04 12:28 PM
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2013-05-04 2:39 PM
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Still it is not that old a machine...released in 2009. Does your have the built in sIRF GPS chip? If so it will make a nice GPS. I guess Viliv made quite a few varients of this device...
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2013-05-04 9:01 PM
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How would I find that out, Rich?

Quote
Alt Bass - 2013-05-04 4:28 AM

>lack of Flash video and decent GAPI support

TFGBD's GX.dll pack has a version with configuration file where you can set the framebuffer adress manually.

If you search the registry you may find the frame buffer adress occasionally in HKLM/Drivers or somewhere else.


Which gx.dll version is that, Alt Bass? I have all the MIPS gx.dll files I'm aware of the existence of (including all the ones from cmonex' site).
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2013-05-04 11:45 PM
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Further research shows that the AIO version of the X5 is labeled differently along the bottom...

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2008/01/viliv-x5-aio-all-in-one/

Still a very cool machine though.
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Alt Bass Page Icon Posted 2013-05-05 9:24 PM
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>Which gx.dll version is that, Alt Bass?

Cannot remember. ARM pack has it along with the sample of configuration file.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2013-05-13 7:49 AM
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I had vague recollections of TecAce cePIMS having a MIPS version for CE 3, and checking the TecAce site, I found that indeed they claim a MIPS version (as well as an x86 version), though they don't offer downloads as they have always provided the program only to OEMs to pre-install on new CE devices. Since some of us have gotten hold of the ARM demo elsewhere online, I'm wondering if anyone has tracked down or seen the MIPS demo anywhere.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2013-05-27 9:58 PM
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There's a French site that has some cool software that is supposed to be compatible with the Cowon Q5/P5 (also Windows CE 5 MIPS):

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2...

The "P5 Tools" on the third page looks particularly cool, but I can't get any of those programs to run on the X5, even though none of them call for any special DLLs. (The X5 does have versions of some of those, but not the ones I like the most: WorldClock and Notepad. ) There's also a MIPS version of Windows Media Player 9, though again it won't run on the X5: I get the "Unable to initialize Player!" error message. There's also a version of DosBox 6.0 that works nicely in full screen. Maybe some of these apps can also work on some older MIPS devices.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2013-05-29 5:19 AM
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The iAudiophile forums also seem to claim that CoreCodec has developed a version of CorePlayer that provides FLV support for MIPS devices, but the posts seem to suggest that it's still buggy.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2013-08-09 11:29 PM
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I finally found a version of Pocket On-Schedule that works: version 5.3.1 for H/PC Pro (the H/PC 2000 version doesn't appear to work). Of course, it's only available through the Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030207120854/http://www.odysseyinc.com...
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2013-08-10 1:05 PM
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Wow...I was beginning to wonder if you would ever find one that worked...that machine must be finicky...
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2013-08-11 12:14 AM
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There are a lot of variables in play with this device, including the fact that it has a Korean version of the CE interface. That makes some versions of POS look for poshkor.dll, poslkor.dll, etc instead of poshusa.dll, poslusa.dll, etc. (Dunno why this version doesn't complain about that.) The older versions (2.0, 2.5, etc) require inkx.dll, which as I've already mentioned I haven't been able to locate anywhere.
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2013-08-11 12:48 PM
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Inkx.dll...is that MIPS specific?
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