Hello to all.
Do you know minnowboard ? It is an x86 dev board with Linux support.
Maybe Olimex also may build a dev board with E3825 ?
And do not forget battery charge capability as A20Lime, for example.
Thanks and best regards!
Quote from: gabrago on October 08, 2014, 12:08:36 PM
Hello to all.
Do you know minnowboard ? It is an x86 dev board with Linux support.
Maybe Olimex also may build a dev board with E3825 ?
And do not forget battery charge capability as A20Lime, for example.
Thanks and best regards!
I think the E3825 is quite expensive but there is the new Bay Trail Platform from Intel which is quite affordable with the Z3735F for example.
Unfortunately it's unclear whether any Bay Trail-T platforms are currently fully supported to install Linux.
After reading here http://news.softpedia.com/news/Petition-Started-for-Intel-Atom-Bay-Trail-Tablets-64-bit-and-Linux-Support-458872.shtml maybe will be convenient to wait some more time.
Quote from: gabrago on October 17, 2014, 02:06:35 PM
Unfortunately it's unclear whether any Bay Trail-T platforms are currently fully supported to install Linux.
After reading here http://news.softpedia.com/news/Petition-Started-for-Intel-Atom-Bay-Trail-Tablets-64-bit-and-Linux-Support-458872.shtml maybe will be convenient to wait some more time.
I´ve read the article and isn´t the problem here that e.g. Lenovo sells Bay Trail tablets with 32Bit UEFI where you can´t install a 64 bit Linux? Should Olimex not be able to ship 64 bit UEFI firmware? And there is also a Bay Trail Android kit so this should run as well. So you would have the choice between Android, Linux or Windows to run.
Tesco HUDL2 may help.
John
CompuLab recently announced the type of computer, that I would wish to see in an OSHW version: http://www.fit-pc.com/web/products/fitlet/ (http://www.fit-pc.com/web/products/fitlet/). In such a version, I would also hope to see a socketed boot flash chip and coreboot as boot loader. I wonder, is Olimex only looking at ARM or might we see some modern x86 hardware from here some day? After all, that AMD APU in the fitlet even contains an ARM Cortex-A5 core for TrustZone execution beside its four x86 cores, according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_accelerated_processing_unit_microprocessors#.22Beema.22.2C_.22Mullins.22_.282014.2C_28_nm.29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_accelerated_processing_unit_microprocessors#.22Beema.22.2C_.22Mullins.22_.282014.2C_28_nm.29)
P.S.: The basic model has been announced for 129 USD, including five (!) years of warranty. So, I guess there's room to make a cheaper product, for instance, without a case or reduced warranty or lesser margin than CompuLab's (in the past, they had pretty high-taxed products, so I wonder how they managed to get something out that doesn't look overprized the first instant you see it this time; maybe component prices have really reached an incredibly attractive low level by now).
Where is the $129 please?
Their site is awful in case you know how to tell them that.
John
Quote from: JohnS on January 20, 2015, 06:30:28 PM
Where is the $129 please?
Their site is awful in case you know how to tell them that.
It is mentioned on the product page for the fitlet-B model (see last sentence): http://www.fit-pc.com/web/products/fitlet/fitlet-b/ (http://www.fit-pc.com/web/products/fitlet/fitlet-b/)
About their "site being awful", if you could specify the semantics of that a bit more clearly, I guess you could tell them via the user forum (http://www.fit-pc2.com/forum (http://www.fit-pc2.com/forum)) or try to find some contact info on their main web site (http://www.compulab.co.il/ (http://www.compulab.co.il/)). For the user forum, if I remember correctly, I think you need to know that "IPC2" is their latest Intense PC model to solve the anti-bot captcha.
Regarding the 129 USD price, note that this is for the fitlet-B only, which is only dual-core and with no extras. The i- and X-models are more featureful and with quad-cores (see the Wikipedia link in my earlier post). Looking at their past product prices, I would not expect the better models to be as cheap. Still, the form factor is great (it literally fits in your hand and at 10.8cm x 8.3cm x 2.4cm, it is smaller than my home internet router).
However, they can't make them too expensive either. I expect the X-model still to be cheaper than, for instance, Jetway's JBC373F38-525-B, which costs 208 EUR here (I expect that CompuLab's 129 USD model would still cost close to or slightly more than 129 EUR here) for the 4-port GbE configuration (the 8-port GbE configuration costs 328 EUR though, mind you) despite the hardware being rather outdated. In the past, Jetway's barebones (http://www.jetwaycomputer.com/Barebones.html (http://www.jetwaycomputer.com/Barebones.html)) used to be much cheaper than CompuLab's for comparable configurations, but Jetway doesn't give you a 5-year warranty.
Fortunately, other manufacturers have started to offer compact, fanless barebones recently, which will hopefully lead to good prices due to competition. For instance, the DS437 from Shuttle (http://www.shuttle.eu/products/slim/ds437/overview/ (http://www.shuttle.eu/products/slim/ds437/overview/)), has a good number of ports, allows 16 GB of RAM and its CPU supports VT-x with EPT and was offered here for a little less than 200 EUR when it was released about a year ago. These kind of machines, I'd really like to see as OSHW. I wonder, how long we still have to wait for the first one to make a corresponding offer.
Thanks.
I followed the Buy links and never found $129. Swamped with far bigger amounts, but none at $129.
I'll probably stick to ARM h/w.
John
Quote from: JohnS on January 21, 2015, 05:31:48 PM
I followed the Buy links and never found $129. Swamped with far bigger amounts, but none at $129.
They're usually pretty expensive. Alas, no exception with the quad-core A4 Micro-6400T (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_accelerated_processing_unit_microprocessors#.22Beema.22.2C_.22Mullins.22_.282014.2C_28_nm.29) models fitlet-i and fitlet-X, whose prices have meanwhile shown up in the shop ($246 and $262 respectively; add another $68 for A10 Micro-6700T (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_accelerated_processing_unit_microprocessors#.22Beema.22.2C_.22Mullins.22_.282014.2C_28_nm.29) models).
Quote from: JohnS on January 21, 2015, 05:31:48 PM
I'll probably stick to ARM h/w.
Olimex should really have a look at AMD's "Project Skybridge (http://www.amd.com/en-us/press-releases/Pages/ambidextrous-computing-2014may05.aspx)", as it would allow a single board design to use either x86- or ARM-based SoCs (pin-compatible). Corresponding SoCs are expected this year. Maybe I should create a new topic for it.