Monday, September 17th 2018
AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 Processor to Power SMACH Z Handheld Gaming PC
Remember the SMACH Z? Me neither. It was a long attempt in the making, with multiple Kickstarter campaigns that finally resulted in an actual product coming to market later this year. The SMACH Z is a handheld gaming PC with an x86 processor, that was originally supposed to use a 5" 720p screen powered off an AMD G-series SoC (System on a Chip). It was then updated to use an AMD Merlin Falcon (Excavator) R-Series RX-421BD clocked at 2.1 GHz SoC with an integrated Radeon R7 series GPU at 800 MHz to run a 6" 1080p display, that was in turn embedded in a handheld gaming console, effectively making it a portable gaming PC. Perhaps it was a good thing that the product took its time, since they have now decided to use updated internals for the final product- once more from AMD- in the form of the Ryzen Embedded V1605B SoC with AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics.
eBOM reports that AMD has announced it will be showcasing the SMACH Z in their booth presence at the Tokyo Game Show which commences later this week. This marks yet another gaming platform that AMD will be powering, although it is less powerful than the other ones. The SMACH Z isavailable for pre-order in three different variants (Z, Z Pro, and Z Ultra) which have different starting configurations, but can be customized as with most pre-built PCs. All variants can run off the Linux-based SMACH OS or Windows 10, retain the 6" 1080p touch screen, support up to 16 GB of dual channel DDR4 memory and 256 GB of solid state storage, and have an optional camera as well. Prices begin at $699 and go up to $1199, with a 10% discount for pre-order for the console expected to be available December, 2018. For those interested, there are some preliminary benchmarks released by SMACH from earlier this year.
Source:
eBOM
eBOM reports that AMD has announced it will be showcasing the SMACH Z in their booth presence at the Tokyo Game Show which commences later this week. This marks yet another gaming platform that AMD will be powering, although it is less powerful than the other ones. The SMACH Z isavailable for pre-order in three different variants (Z, Z Pro, and Z Ultra) which have different starting configurations, but can be customized as with most pre-built PCs. All variants can run off the Linux-based SMACH OS or Windows 10, retain the 6" 1080p touch screen, support up to 16 GB of dual channel DDR4 memory and 256 GB of solid state storage, and have an optional camera as well. Prices begin at $699 and go up to $1199, with a 10% discount for pre-order for the console expected to be available December, 2018. For those interested, there are some preliminary benchmarks released by SMACH from earlier this year.
56 Comments on AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 Processor to Power SMACH Z Handheld Gaming PC
Edit: the update is from two years ago and it's stating that's it's running of the Bay Trail APU, not the V1000
Imo comparing it to a laptop is kind of meh, I mean if you'd rather have a laptop, then you should always buy one, it's bigger, cheaper, and as you say more powerful(although not 10x ) What makes the Smach Z advantagous over a laptop imo is that you can play games on it without hassle, try playing Doom 2016 on a laptop without also having to break out a mouse or controller. This would be a simple matter of pulling it out and start playing. Uhm, no, they haven't? When you say fake that implies they were trying to mislead, they weren't.
Yes the update tells backers and everyone(remember this was while the campaign was still going) that the Prototype doesn't contain final HW, which at the time wasn't Ryzen, but a Bulldozer based SoC.
So once again, no attempt at misleading anyone, they were straight forward with us from the beginning, at least with the relevant parts, it's hard to know exactly how much they knew about the prototype, I lean towards them not knowing it didn't contain clickarm, because if you're them and you receive a prototype, you don't expect the company making it for you to be lying about what's inside.
boilingsteam.com/tgs-2018-smach-z-news-and-upcoming-milestones/
And some footage of a dumb box:
BTW, there's another core flaw in this project: they've forgotten about Valve Corp. patent no. US20150105152A1...
That's another lawsuit waiting to go kaboom.
The demo using a laptop wasn't a prototype, the prototype was the board they also showed people that at that time didn't boot(it boots now). Not entirely sure what this is referring to, although if I had to guess it's the dev board reporting Vega 11 instead of Vega 8, now you don't have to believe the team, however I don't see why they would lie, they say that the bios provided by AMD limited the APU to V1605B specs, I believe this partly because they showcased it using the Smach Z cooler, and the driver string likely wouldn't report it any different, but also for the simple fact that there'd be no reason to lie here. :| Luring backers to guide attention away from indiegogo? What kind of half-baked conspiracy is this? I helped some of those Indiegogo backers get onto the forum, so not sure who made up this incredibly silly talking point, I mean that is by far the craziest I've heard about this project, and we haven't even gotten to the "fake doctor" nonsense.
Also go check, the initial kickstarter wasn't closed by kickstarter, but by the team themselves when it was clear they wouldn't reach their goal. This is how a suspendedcampaign looks like on kickstarter.
As for the investor, once again, no lies, this was all detailed in a lengthy post by Daniel Fernandez I posted at our community run subreddit. Although I've heard people refusing to read from anyone with an interest in the project succeeding, as an excuse to ignore what they have to say :rolleyes:. Also known as the "finger in your ears screaming la la la" method. So you acknowledge that they at the very least have an investor, but they're also broke?
Btw. They still have ontesting engineers hired, and obviously traveling to Japan isn't free, so I don't really see any proof of this. Smach Z has been anAMD partner for a while now. When Smach Z announced to backers that they were going to update the SoC to a Ryzen based APU, it was before the first Consumer Ryzen APUs were even released, it was AMD that offered them the upgrade. Sounds like you're simply trying to make the definition fit so that you can call it a mockup, despite it being a prototype, even if it doesn't have all it's features working yet. It boots, it plays games, it just doesn't run the internal screen yet. I've sent an email to the team asking regarding this, however it's my understanding that they have an open dialogue with Valve, so I sincerely doubt they are heading into a legal battle with them.