I demo ARC on an amd c50 with 4 gb ram. It's a pretty slow machine.

It's a very optimize software program - but the more you do with it, the slower it will get. :)

If you get a netbook at least at the minimum get a 1.6 ghz atom or like dj said c50 amd cpu and 2 gb + preffered. For the price you can get a new netbook you can get a 13 to 15 inch c50 dual core or E350 laptop with 4 to 6 gb ram and im sure you will appreciate the slightly larger screen.

Interesting point from DJ. As you add more processes your mini itx will get bogged down. I bought a 1.8 ghz mini itx, and it's sitting in a box at home. As I sit here in my hotel room, I am wondering if I could find a mini itx that would take a second generation intel CPU. Interestingly, I found a Zoltac mini itx that did. It's a bit pricier than the atoms ,amd mobo and CPU combo, but I can start off with an i3 sandy bridge(dual core 3.2 ghz) and work my way up in CPU power if I need it later ( i5,i7) the mobo also can take upto 16 gb of ram. Mobo and CPU about $270.

Yup I myself did a Asus motherboard mini itx Amd Am3 processor I started with a dual core 2ghz cpu but I have room to expand to a black label 3.4 ghz duad core Amd Am3 as I need more power. So im already starting out with much more power than the atom 1.6 or amd E350 1.8 processors.

i am using a stripped down windows xp with 1ghz and 1 meg ram (pico-itx) and its doing good so far

It would take a lot to slow ARC down... The most expensive processing control is the Camera - it is heavy on CPU. Even though it is really really optimized, the camera has to process a bunch of data.

All other controls are pretty light on the CPU. I am a very effecient programmer because I also program in microcontroller hardware. Due to limited memory and cpu of a microchip, i'm taught to optimize code.

On this subject, I should state that there is an interesting compromise you must make when programming. You have one of two decisions to make: Memory or CPU... But never both! If you want a FAST program, you need to use more memory. If you want a low memory program, you must use more CPU.

Here's an example. If I wanted a program to be very memory effecient, i would do something like this...

internal void MyFunction(){ 

  Object obj = new Object();

  for (int x=0; x<10; x++) 
    obj.DoSomething();  
}

And to be CPU effecient but use more memory, I would do this...

Object _obj = new Object();

internal void MyFunction(){ 

  for (int x=0; x<10; x++) 
    _obj.DoSomething();  
}

In the two examples, one only declares the object within the function when it is needed. The other example declares the object globally, so it always exists. It may not be a gigant noticable CPU saver normally, but when you're looping through Video Data, it is!

Here's another example... Let's speculate that the object can't be global because it needs a parameter when created, like so..

internal void MyFunction(){ 

  Object obj = new Object("Some special Value");

  for (int x=0; x<10; x++)
    obj.DoSomething();  
}

Looking at that code, you'll see there is no way to make the object global. Now this is interesting, if i'm running that function on a video frame 19,200 times (one per pixel), and at 10 times a second (192,000 times per second)... Doing something like this actually saves quite a bit of cpu ticks on 192,000 per second executing.

Object _obj;

internal void MyFunction(){ 

  _obj = new Object("Some special Value");

  for (int x=0; x<10; x++) 
    _obj.DoSomething();  
}

Yes, declaring a variable globally within the scope of a class a downfall. It generally looks terrible and makes your program code not as portable - because object oriented programming is all about portable code.

What programmers forget sometimes is we create Software for People... We don't create Software for Programmers. Yes, i understand having portable code is important, but my Users Experience is MORE important - so I sacrifice portable code for speed.

Many programmers have too much trust in the "compiler optimization" also. The compiler does attempt to optimize, and through .Net there is object caching - but it is only the data structure that is cached, not the allocated memory and object itself. So each time an object is created, the .Net runtime needs to do a bunch of work to prepare the object to exist within the scope, and define the scope, etc.. Giving the compiler a helping hand is a very good idea when possible :)

This means the code within ARC and EZ-SDK is very specific - but that is also why we are the only robot software that is fast enough to run smoothly on an AMD-C50 processor :)

its funny that AMD-C50 code name is ONTARIO ,witch is a great place to visit in CANADA

what is more available ram or cpu how about 2gb of ram and dualcore atom 1.66ghz 1.67ghz(mine) how about 4gb of ram and quadcore core 4.5ghz 4.6ghz 4.5ghz 4.6ghz(my father) how about 32gb of ram and quadcore core 8ghz 10ghz 12ghz 14ghz(future manually made) how about 64mb of ram and singlecore crebellem 0.5ghz(old)

On windows xp most ram you will get is 3gb,i have also 2 computers using a dual core 2 ghz and 2 motherboard boards using a atom 1.67 ghz with 3 gig ram for my omnibot projects all using EZB SOFTWARE and working great

So on yours i would get 1 gig of ram more also a couple of ideas to get more speed from your computer,resources and programs take up alot of cpu power and ram (easy test is bring up windows task manager )it will tell you how much memory is used and cpu load

Now for the fix one is easy use a program like XPLITE OR OVERCLOCK THE CPU on overclocking is very hard need to watch the temperature of cpu to not over heat it or like i use is cooling system for my cpu,can overclock some until temperature is ok

On XPLITE it removes programs not needed and resources (can also use programs in windows xp to cut down on resources) but XPLITE does it better and safely Can also be done on windows 7,but i found out by much testing that windows xp is faster if using the same cpu and ram for both.64 bit windows yes is much much faster,but uses more wattage (battery current) ,just about all robot companies willonly use windows xp or linux in thier robot design none use windows 7 at all for that reason

what is the lightest os ez_builder could run on(~100 mega bytes of hdd size)

@kudo48pa that isn't a question i would like to guess at answering. The operating system is your concern, not ARC. the OS determines how the software will run. There is memory management using virtual memory and physical.

harddrive you want to use is about double of your programs you have on it like operating system so you need to keep your harddrive only half full to get full use of virtual memory virtual memory is when the main memory is used up and it uses part of the harddrive to add memory to your program

i mean i would use ez_builder in a virtual box so i need an iso image of an os that would run ez_builder don't mind interface at all

are you running virtual box on a linux machine

yeap

for the ISO image you need about 50 mb or more for EZB ,then the operating system maybe a gig ,for system ,drivers and VBNET and other stuff plus about 1gig of hard drive for virtual memory so i go with atleat 3 gig to 5 gig of hard drive space for the ISO IMAGE more the better

Yes I have the same question I. Have a lap top and it seems to have a hard time running

@David what's your machines specs and are you running win 7? I've found Win 7 has been the best even when running on older machines like 1.78ghz CPU and 512 mb ram , I still get a better experience than with xp.

Josh, I don't know too much about this. I have a little 10" Acer Netbook that I was given. It was upgraded to Windows 7. It has an Atom 270 processor, 1.6GHZ. I tried Ez-B on it. It works all except the camera tracking gets lost. Right now it only has one gig of ram. It can be upgraded to four. Is it worth upgrading? Will that be sufficient for EZ-B? I would like to put it on board. The small size will be convenient. Thanks.

What OS is it @Danger!

Windows 7 32 bit can have up to 4Gb (3.25 usable) Windows 7 Starter is limited to I believe 4Gb from the top of my head, it may be 2Gb 64 Bit allows for more, depending on the OS.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit can use more memory than is physically possible to install.

It also depends on the motherboard and how much it can take. Crucial have a great tool to tell you what you can and can't do. You needn't buy their brand of ram to use the tool either.

As much as possible is the answer. 4Gb should make it work great going by the information to hand. My 2Gb HP laptop works fine but 4Gb would make it better than fine... Fine isn't good enough for me but that's me :)

@danger , your netbook is upgradable to 2gb , you must replace the chips already there which are two 512mb. You will need to dissasemble the netbook to get to the second chip under the keyboard. This will help a bit , also you NEED to download drivers and graphics accelerators. I believe that netbook has a intel 945 graphics chip set and when processing video this is used a lot , if it is not installed or the Intel graphics accelerator is not on the performance is poor. There is a great driver and Accelerator for them. I believe it made the clock for graphics run at 400mhz instead of 233 , a good performance increase.

Here is the windows 7 version official driver https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&DwnldID=18223

This is GMA Booster , brings the clock up to the chipsets default 400mhz from 233 , I used this and was able to play Wow on a netbook at 10-15 frames , DJ is taking advantage of the graphics processor to process the video which is more efficient use of your Pc hardware. http://www.gmabooster.com/download_win.htm

You can disable certain features of win 7 like shadows , transparency , AERO , and things like that can add performance. Also uninstall ARC and reinstall after you make the changes I suggested do the diver updates and media accelerator and try again and tell me if it fixes your problem.

Thanks for the quick replies Josh. I am away from home now, so I can't look at it right now. The drivers might have been updated already. I' m not sure. I know that when I connected to the internet it downloaded 38 updates. I' ll be having the shop down the street add the ram. I just wasn't sure if it was worth the money if it still will not be fast enough.

Sure no problem! Of FYI updates are for windows not specific drivers for your hardware every time you install a new OS or reload things from scratch you need to download drivers for hardware

My desktop is pretty fair hardware wise, and I have to constantly force close ARC with task manager keep freezing on me. my PC Specs I7 2600k overclock to 4.05 GHZ, 8 GB ( tripple channel DDR3 ram) ARC is installed on my 256gb SSD, dual 550 ti in SLI, water cool, window 7 64 bit

I think it's a bug with the latest software, I'll played with it tomorrow and see if i can find the main source of the conflict.

Try uninstalling ARC and reinstalling it. Maybe that will resolve your random freezing.

What's it doing when it freezes? Is it the same thing every time? It could be a problem with the project.

it happen when i load the Robosapien examples

I've had this freezing problem when I close ARC for a long time now. It's not just with the latest upgrade. It's random and I cant really put my finger on what is causing it. Seems to useually happen after I have made changes to the project. I've gotten in the habbit of manualy saving before I exit. If I wait to save after I exit when it asks me sometimes it will freeeze half way through shutdown with half the project gone off the screen. The the next time I open the project only half the project will be restored. Luckly I also keep a current copy in the EZ Cloud so I havent really lost anything I couldnt redo.

You know what they say , save often or be sorry