Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

This passage:

[...] Bebop Drone navigation computer features a Parrot P7 dual-core CPU, quad-core GPU and 8 GB of Flash Memory[...]

was intriguing. I really don't believe that they really have a custom "Parrot P7" CPU since that makes very little sense considering their use for the CPU. Also, even if they had designed their own CPU, why would they include a quad-core GPU for this application? That doesn't make any sense, either.

Does anyone know more about that CPU? I don't follow Parrot closely so perhaps I'm misjudging them.



I worked on the development of the P7, and yes, it is a dual core CPU powered by ARM cores with a quad-core GPU. The CPU is meant to be used for other projects too, so a quad core GPU makes sense.


OK, cool. Thanks!

I guess I kind of assumed it was an ARM, that does make it feel a lot less magic since (from my understanding) designing a SoC based on ARM is quite far from the same as designing a CPU from scratch in terms of complexity.

I wish they had included the word "ARM" in their description.


They've been releasing SDKs for their drones for many years. Although the PR material doesn't make it obvious if you get a chance to download the SDK it becomes very apparent.

My last AR.drone was ARM based with RTLinux as the kernel, not sure if it is the same now. You could SSH directly to the onboard OS and into Busybox. I was able to modify the wpa-supplicant so it could connect to the house wifi and be controlled from my PC, instead of using the crappy iOS client. From the SDK I wrote a small .Net app that used my Xbox controller, gave me telemetry, and recorded video.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: