I recently embarked on a project that involves some graphics to be displayed on a LCD TV. I posted on the forum about it and was led to the fact that the Arduino is not capable due to memory/processor limitations. I was pointed to the raspberry pi. Seems cool but in my research I came across several other boards as well, one being the gertboard or gertduino which from what I understand combines the pi and the arduino. This led me through a whole wormhole of thoughts and I was thinking...
A shield for the arduino that includes an SD card slot, additional on-board memory, a GPU, and an HDMI out.
obviously there will be other hardware needed on the board but I really am a novice and would have no clue how to even begin such a thing but in theory this would allow playback/display of high quality video/images on bigger tv screens with the arduino.
my question is not "how", This is simply a thought and am just wondering if you think its possible and why or why not.
i think, and again this is pure speculation, That adding a GPU would suppliment the arduinos limitted clock speed similar to when I added a Numeric CoProcessor to my 80286 back in the day. I also think that it would be similar to the gertduino except the "Pi" portion of the board would be the shield that dropped on top. also it wouldn't be a full blown single board computer.
I'm sure it would be possible to do, if you were determined enough. However, I suspect you'd end up with the tail wagging the dog - rather than an Arduino with a graphics card, what you'd really have would be a computer with an Arduino stuck on the back. By the time you're doing a project complicated enough to need a big graphics display, an Arduino is probably not the right platform for it anyway.
I am actually working on a project right now that is really quite simple but does require a large HD display. I am using a raspberry pi to power the project but and arduino to handle the basic I/o stuff. The Pi does have its own GPIO header but It is limited in its ability.
You are right however that it would certainly be the hard way around, my hang up is using a piece of equipment that can do A though Z and only ever using it to do B. Once I let my head simmer for a bit I realize that the amount of work and time it would take to build a dedicated device to do just B for exceeds the cost for the A though Z device.
twelch:
my hang up is using a piece of equipment that can do A though Z and only ever using it to do B. Once I let my head simmer for a bit I realize that the amount of work and time it would take to build a dedicated device to do just B for exceeds the cost for the A though Z device.
But that is the very point of the microprocessor/ general-purpose computer/ microcontroller/ FPGA since their inception; you are almost always doing that. One device can do an incredible number of different things; the possible permutations of a few K of memory (though only a minuscule proportion are in any way meaningful) easily dwarfs the number of quarks in the universe. It was long ago realised that it was immeasurably easier to mass-produce one device capable of programmability to perform many tasks, than to manufacture purpose-designed devices for each task. I suspect ASICs are nowadays but a small proportion of the market, a "niche" (such as bit-miners :D).
And this is what an assembled Arduino - or a pi - is. It is a module you use to perform your function, whatever that is, rather than assembling your own. You simply select the big-enough module. For your purpose, an Arduino (UNO) is simply not "big enough" so you step up to one that is, and the Pi is in that category. There are Arduinox that would probably be suitable for your present project but I myself have little or no reason to be interested in them for the very same reason you have found - UNOs or equivalent and Pi's are cheapest and best supported.
Paul you are certainly a deep individual, you are correct though and that is why my Arduino projects always go "off-board" when they are done. Rather then pack my UNO board and all it usefulness away in a box I build a PCB for the need task and leave off anything I don't need. On one of my earliest projects I used the same ATMega328 from my Arduino to complete the project and latter learned I could have used a little ATTiny to do the same thing and even though it really isn't a big deal it still bothers the heck out of me...