

Ouya Android game console gets VC-funded, torn down - nikai
http://linuxgizmos.com/ouya-android-game-console-gets-vc-funding/

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kayoone
This is slightly offtopic but i really like the funding road theyve taken,
after going through a Startup Accelerator and ultimately failing with the
original product after 2 years (a game) myself.

If i was to try again sometime in the future, id certainly do it like this.

1\. Build a good prototype and evaluate if the product works and if there is
demand on a really small scale

2\. Try to raise money through crowdfounding.

3\. If it works, you have proven to everybody (including yourself and
potential later investors) that there indeed is a market for your product(s).
You dont have to step in front of investors and try to sell an unproven idea.
Try to make a hit product and get VCs on board after this stage (if you need
to)

4\. If it doesnt you can quit or try it out on your own in bootstrapped
fashion.

Never ever again would i take outside money for equity in a very early stage,
but this is just my personal view and the lesson i learned in the last years.

This approach can work great for games/products, it wont really for your next
social web startup/app project mind you. In that case i would go the
bootstrapped route directly and try to prove my product before going for the
stars.

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jd
The teardown iFixit link, hidden in the last paragraph:

<http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Ouya+Teardown/14224/1>

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networked
I'm surprised to see a fan inside the console. This is the only NVIDIA Tegra 3
device running Android I know of to use active cooling. Why did they choose to
have it, is Ouya's CPU/GPU running at a higher clock rate than similar
devices'?

A tiny fan like that reminds of the one inside my PS2 Slim, which is loud
enough that when I have the inclination to game on it again I'll seriously
consider doing a hardware mod to replace it (with a non-stock fan -- just to
be safe). I have to wonder by how much this defect (which is apparently not
_very_ common with the model) has made me play my PS2 Slim less over the time
I have owned it. If the Ouya itself is not sold at a profit this may be a
problem. I'm not a hardware professional, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd
be wary of including a small fan in a consumer product if it were at all
possible to avoid it.

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DannyBee
Maybe they are trying to avoid the fate of the first generation xbox360?

There is no official info on the technical cause (some people say wrong type
of solder that would get too hot and develop hairline cracks, some say the
graphics chip dissipated more heat than expected, etc) but it was definitely
related to heat.

People often put these devices inside mildly enclosed spaces (media cabinets,
etc) with poor natural airflow, etc.

This tends to work okay if you have active cooling (since it's not totally
enclosed), but gets amazingly hot otherwise.

This is not normally how tablets are used, and maybe after testing it (or
thinking about it) they realized the safest bet was active cooling?

~~~
joezydeco
I'm using an i.MX6 development system that uses a similar processor (Quad
CortexA9 w/GPU) and has a aluminum cap/heatsink on it:

<http://imgur.com/1bJEqLU>

The thermal cutout in the Anatop driver defaults to 100C, which seems to be
driven by the ratings of the on-board voltage regulators. Perhaps the Tegra
has the same requirements.

