Development of the Pandora began when Craig Rothwell, Michael Weston, and Michael Mrozek teamed up and planned a portable system that would excel in the areas where the GP32 and GP2X systems (from Gamepark and Gamepark Holdings respectively) were flawed. Feedback from the GP32X community on those products heavily influenced the entire Pandora design process.
The Pandora will have fully open source software, with a complete Linux distribution as firmware. As a device, it will share the same goals as its spiritual predecessor, the GP2X.
The exact date at which development of the Pandora began is not publicly known. There has been clear evidence of activity since at least March 2007, with the release of photographs of the first printed circuit board.[1] In addition, concept renders and near complete specifications have been released on the official website.[2][3]
As with the GP32 and the GP2X, one of the main uses of the Pandora will be emulation of older computer systems and video game consoles, which will be possible through efficient use of the resources made available by the Texas Instruments OMAP 3530 SoC. The Pandora has the potential to emulate the Sony Playstation and most, if not all, older machines. Other systems that the Pandora will have the resources to emulate at full speed include, but are not limited to, the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the 3DO. The Pandora's keyboard and touchscreen should allow interaction with Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and other early home computer emulators.
In addition, the powerful processor and GPU may provide the potential to enable development of emulators for the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo DS at playable speeds, making it the first hand-held device to achieve this task.
The Pandora will used standard libraries such as OpenGL ES and SDL freely available, allowing anyone who wishes to the ability to develop for the system. Many developers from the GP2x community have publicly stated that they will be developing applications for the new system.
The Pandora will have an existing software base due to having a package manager that will accept Debian ARM packages.