Pre Pixi memory swap

[SpCecil]

Hey I was just wondering if any has tried, or if it is even possible to swap the pre plus ram with the pixi plus to give the pixi more ram?

I"m sure it isn't however that would be super cool, especially with the new OC Kernel in development!

[Ottermatic]

Originally Posted by SpCecil

Hey I was just wondering if any has tried, or if it is even possible to swap the pre plus ram with the pixi plus to give the pixi more ram?

I"m sure it isn't however that would be super cool, especially with the new OC Kernel in development!

I was wondering about this myself, so I went searching through the forums to see if it had already been discussed; this was the only thread I found (that doesn't mean there aren't others, it just means this is the only one I found).

I switched from a Pre Plus to a Pixi Plus a couple of months ago after picking up a Pixi Plus on one of the crazy daily discount websites; I figured I'd use the Pixi for going out on the weekends -- less "pocket bulge," plus the incredibly masculine name "Pixi" is a hit with the ladies -- but I never ended up switching back to the Pre. I love the Pixi form factor, but the UI lag can be downright infuriating at times. I'm planning on giving overclocking a shot, but I figured the extra RAM would help a lot, too.

Depending on what they're using for memory -- a single IC, I imagine -- and how the OS identifies RAM, it could (?) just be as easy as replacing the RAM IC with a larger one (assuming they're pin-compatible). I haven't taken a Pixi apart yet, but I might soon. Has anyone else taken one apart or seen a tear-down that IDs the RAM IC used?

OM

[rwhitby]

The RAM is actually on a die which is flip-chip mounted on top of the CPU die.

Not gonna happen.

-- Rod

[Ottermatic]

Originally Posted by rwhitby

The RAM is actually on a die which is flip-chip mounted on top of the CPU die.

Not gonna happen.

-- Rod

Thanks for the quick response & the useful info; I was wondering if that was the case based on the tear-downs I've seen (only two chips visible, presuming other to be flash, not clear if anything's mounted on the other side of the PCB). Well, that makes things more difficult, but certainly not impossible.

Qualcomm probably made more than one version of the MSM7x27, and from hunting around some on the web, that appears to be the case. I found several smartphones built with the Pixi's 600 MHz/256 MB RAM variant, but then I also found mention of a 800 MHz/512 MB RAM version. Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of thing you can just order from Digi-Key or Mouser, so you'd probably have to buy some cheapo Chinese Android tablet that's got one, take it to a local rework house, have the part removed & reballed, and use it to replace the CPU in the Pixi. You'd also have to figure out what of the applications code, MODEM settings, etc. are stored in the processor itself, and find some way to copy them over. Again, it's not impossible, but it's certainly far more difficult than swapping a RAM IC. :-/

If only it were easier to find a data sheet for that part to see what exactly's available out there (and if they're actually pin-compatible)...

OM