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DreamPlug ARM Box Brings Power To Plug Computing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the it's-so-adorable dept.

Blacklaw writes "UK GlobalScale distribution partner New IT has announced its latest ARM-based plug-top computer, the DreamPlug — and it's a major improvement over its predecessors, packing some serious hardware into a tiny case. The DreamPlug packs some serious power in its tiny case. The Marvell Sheeva ARM-based processor at its heart runs at 1.2GHz — a significant boost over the 800MHz version found in the SheevaPlug — and while 512MB of DDR2 memory might not sound very generous, if you need more then your project probably isn't suited to the plug computing model. Unlike the SheevaPlug, the DreamPlug goes all-out to impress, packing integral Bluetooth, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, a 3Gb/s eSATA port, two USB 2.0 ports, a pair of gigabit Ethernet ports, and even analogue and SP/DIF digital audio ouputs. ARM developers will be pleased to hear that the JTAG-over-USB feature of the SheevaPlug has been replaced with full hardware JTAG and UART connectivity — although the breakout board is an optional extra."

182 comments

  1. Interesting that the price is in pounds by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

    but the picture has a US power plug pins

    --
    Nullius in verba
    1. Re:Interesting that the price is in pounds by hedwards · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's apparently the US version, if you click the link to buy one, they give you the option of the UK version or the EU version. But oddly enough use the picture of the one for the US. It does look like there's a way of changing the prongs.

    2. Re:Interesting that the price is in pounds by monkeyhybrid · · Score: 1

      I've got a SheevaPlug (the older New IT offering) and the integral power connector on the unit is an IEC C8 (figure of 8) socket, so any UK / US matching cable will work (and was included). A US moulded slide-on adapter is also supplied which can be clicked into place over the C8 socket, turning it into something like you see in the picture from the article.

  2. sounds sweet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    sounds sweet to me. two nics, nice.

    1. Re:sounds sweet by gmack · · Score: 1

      Indeed. I have been waiting forever for something I can build a firewall with for under $200 that has low power requirements.

    2. Re:sounds sweet by e9th · · Score: 1

      Have you looked at the ALIX line? Under $150 w/ case. I use them as firewalls (OpenBSD/pf), among other things. A pair of 2D13s would make a pretty nifty pf/carp load balancer/failover system, too, if you don't need gigabit ethernet.

    3. Re:sounds sweet by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I was going to say the same thing. I'm using a WRAP, the ALIX's predecessor and it works pretty nicely (with FreeBSD/pf, in my case). I think the WRAP's CPU will struggle with more than about 20Mb/s, but my Internet connection is only 10Mb/s, so there's some headroom left. When I upgrade to 50Mb/s, I'll probably replace it with an ALIX.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    4. Re:sounds sweet by halltk1983 · · Score: 1

      Mikrotik RB750 or RB493. 5 Port or 9 Port firewall / router.

      --
      Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
  3. Edition required by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 4, Funny

    DreamPlug — and it's a major improvement over its predecessors, packing some serious hardware into a tiny case. The DreamPlug packs some serious power in its tiny case.

    Slashdot, brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department!

    1. Re:Edition required by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 4, Funny

      Naturally I misspelled "Editing" in my Subject line.

    2. Re:Edition required by Panspechi · · Score: 1

      You need to pack some serious power in your editing skills.

    3. Re:Edition required by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Perhaps he could use the arm for that?

    4. Re:Edition required by realityimpaired · · Score: 1

      No you didn't, you just put it in French. :)

    5. Re:Edition required by noidentity · · Score: 1

      And don't forget that unlike the SheevaPlug, the DreamPlug goes all-out to impress, packing integral Bluetooth, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, a 3Gb/s eSATA port, two USB 2.0 ports, a pair of gigabit Ethernet ports, and even analogue and SP/DIF digital audio ouputs. All for only $PRICE! Order yours today!

  4. Serious Hardware in 1997... by Colonel+Korn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I spent a fun five minutes looking through linpack results a few days ago and was amused to find that today's ARM superchips are comparable to the pentium 2. Sure, it's only one benchmark, but it's enough to be amusing.

    --
    "I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
    1. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the other hand, they run on 1/100th the power, 1/10 the size, and no cooling equipment. If you want a high power device there's plenty of processors available, but that isn't what the ARM chips are designed for. It's like complaining that your new 60 mpg hybrid doesn't have as much power as a 40 year old Corvette.

    2. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It'd be interesting for someone to do the shifting necessary to do an apples to apples comparisons to clock cycles in the ARM line, vs. that of the x86 series. If I recall, some of the gain from the x86 is a lot of the under-the-covers tricks it does, such as branch prediction. Hopefully someone can explain the differences between the two chipsets that can help with the comparison.

    3. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not that many Pentium 2 PCs were small and light enough you could hang it from the wall socket.
      And good luck getting Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GigE, eSATA, and DDR2 working in it.

    4. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by robot256 · · Score: 1

      That partly explains why the 1.2ghz arm is equivalent to a 300Mhz pentium 2. Still impressive given the size and power footprint.

    5. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by lastman71 · · Score: 0

      Good. I wonder why Steve jobs don't ask you first. He should use a Pentium II for the iPhone. Doh. And nobody expect to use a sheeva plug for number crunching. Expecially becouse it comes without a floating point unit ...

    6. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by Bert64 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The linpack benchmark focuses on floating point, whereas most ARM chips don't have hardware floating point units...
      ARM chips tend to do much better at integer benchmarks, and most code you would run on a server is integer code.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    7. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by x0ra · · Score: 1

      'you kidding ? That thing suck 3.0A 5V DC (http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx#component), that's fraking 15W, same as my core2-based laptop in low-power mode, without the LCD turned on. It just has an ARM926EJ-S core [on the market for *years*...] on steroid, previous model required fan-cooling and had heat dissipation issue. Not to say that it uses a 16bits bus to access the RAM ... If I got $200 to spend, I'd rather prefer an OMAP4-based board featuring a Cortex-A9, ala http://pandaboard.org/.

    8. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by the+linux+geek · · Score: 1

      ARM's aren't fast on FP, but are pretty similar to a P4 or low-clocked Intel Core at integer workloads. They do okay on vector-heavy stuff too, if your compiler is good enough to optimize for NEON and VFP. The Marvell chip in the DreamPlug is a known slow processor - moderate clock, but no FPU, an older microarchitecture, no NEON, and in-order. Yuck.

    9. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Linpack is a floating point benchmark, and the Marvell chips are much better at integer arithmetic. These systems are hardly going to be used for number crunching. Server tasks are typically not too heavy on the floating point math side.

      That said, the previous attempts at more featureful products based on the Marvell SoC have had thermal problems and since there is a low end device available for less than $50 (1.2Ghz, 128MB RAM, 1Gbps Ethernet, 4 USB), a $200 price point seems a little ambitious. That's almost in Intel Atom territory.

    10. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      There is no such comparison, because those differences mean the relative performance is dependant upon workload. Some calculations just give one architecture or the other a clear advantage. In general ARM performs substantially worse than any modern x86 at the same clock speed, but does so at such a tiny fraction of the power requirements the loss of performance is easily justified.

    11. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by LWATCDR · · Score: 2

      linpack is floating point heavy but still if it can match a P2 then that is pretty impressive for a wall wort.
      Truth is that they tend to be around a P4 in interger performance for the most part which again for what they are is fantastic. I think you are a little spoiled when you dismiss a wall wart with enough power to run Linux.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    12. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      The Panda board looks very interesting, but keep in mind that's the bare board vs. a finished product with a sleek case and power supply for the same price, and a case can be a serious expense with low volume products like these. It doesn't look like there is a case available for Panda, first or third party, and that might be a consideration, depending on what you plan to do with it. Sometimes mounting it in a generic project box works, but sometimes it's not acceptable on the fit and finish.

    13. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by commodore64_love · · Score: 0

      Yeah but my Pentium 2 laptop didn't run on 5 watts power. That's equal to how much my TV's digital-to-analog converter box uses.

      Think of all the money saved if I used this ARMplug to bittorrent movies/shows instead of my regular computer! (24/7 on time * 1 year * ~100 watts savings == 72 KWhr or $7.20 per month.

      Okay not so much but it does add up over time.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    14. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That think don't suck that unless that you attach to it some hardisks powered by USB .

    15. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by willy_me · · Score: 1

      They look like two very different devices. The OMAP4 lacks gigabit ethernet and SATA. Other then that, it looks great - but an option for a plastic case / power supply would be handy. If I were building a device to drive a display, I would pick the OMAP4. But this other plug computer looks like it would be better suited for applications that lacked displays. Dual gigabit + SATA connection make it suitable as a hardware firewall / NAS / NAT device. The optical audio is also very cool - it could nicely replace an Apple Airport Express.

      Anyway, my point is that they appear to be designed for two different applications. They are both interesting, thanks for the info on the OMAP4.

    16. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by Fishead · · Score: 1

      But no RS232 port... That makes me sad. I love RS232.

      We were short one RS232 patch cable once while setting up a field demo for a customer. All us tech's had a tense moment when we realized we had used the same cable for testing each component as we loaded it into the crate. Fortunately we had some spare PC power chords (3 conductors is 3 conductors right?) and one of the guys had some spare DB9's in his tool kit. Some fancy solder work and we had a patch cable before the management types knew we screwed up. Kept that 14awg com cable around for quite some time after that.

      When all else fails, swap pins 2 and 3.

      And don't try to tell me to use a USB adapter kuz it's never the same!

    17. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by RobbieThe1st · · Score: 1

      Erm... Thatms max possible requirement, not normal working requirement. And includes at least 1a for the 2 USB ports, plus whatever the wifi, ethernet, bluetooth, etc. take. I mean... My Nokia N900 has a 1A wall-charger - Doesn't mean it needs that much to run. In fact, it can run just fine off of half that, even with the screen on, and I suspect the same thing here with our dreamplug here.

    18. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      you are not an embedded guy.

      thinking this was a modern cpu (host-class) is YOUR error.

      for embedded, this is kick-ass. truly it is.

      been using seagate dockstars for a while for semi-embedded (usb thumbdrive debian) use. the new systems look so much better, too!

      hoping the spdif and even I2S might be usable, too.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    19. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      I paid $189 new for my first generation Acer Revo. I believe it is an Atom N270 processor. That was with a matching keyboard and mouse included. It is plenty powerful enough to act as an XBMC/HULU media center.

    20. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by washu_k · · Score: 1

      Except this specific ARM CPU is not similar to a P4 or low-clocked Core at all in integer or anything. "ARM" is not one CPU anymore than "x86" is. There are some pretty fast ARM chips out there, but not this one. The specific Marvell ARM in the DreamPlug/SheevaPlug/GuruPlug is not fast at all, Benchmarks put it at a mid to low end P3 in integer. Slower than most Atoms by far. A cheap atom netbook would have significantly better performance without much more power draw, plus you get a screen an hard drive as well.

    21. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Most recent ARM chips (except the very low-end ones) do have hardware floating point, and even vector units. There are two issues, however:

      The first is that most ARM Linux installs use a completely braindead ABI designed for to allow you to mix FPU and softfloat code. An ARM chip with no FPU traps on all FPU instructions, including loads and stores, so you can save a lot of overhead by passing floating point values as arguments in integer registers. Unfortunately, on ARM chips that do have an FPU, copying from an FPU register to an integer register causes a pipeline stall for each parameter. You can speed things up a lot by storing the floating point values on the stack and passing them by a pointer to work around this.

      I find it somewhat ironic that a Free Software system would default to using an ABI that exists for the sole purpose of making binary-only distribution easier.

      The second issue is that it is only 32-bit that has reasonable performance. 64-bit float (which LINPACK does a lot of) is very slow - typically a factor of seven or more slower than 32-bit - while it's close to the same speed on x86 (exactly the same speed on a P2, because both are done in the 80-bit x87 unit, may be up to half as fast in the P3 if you're using SSE instead of x87).

      The reason for this focus is that most ARM chips come with a GPU and DSP on die - if you're doing anything really floating-point intensive, you're probably going to want to run it on the DSP or maybe the GPU. The FPU is just there to avoid floating point code from becoming a bottleneck in general-purpose code.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    22. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by horza · · Score: 1

      FTA "the device still only draws a minuscule 5W under load"

      Phillip.

      --
      Property for sale in Nice, France
    23. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by symbolset · · Score: 1

      It'll do as an anchor for a mesh network, and also for media sharing.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
    24. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Other then that

      THAN. Other THAN that. Come on, this is not difficult. Different words with different meanings.

    25. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The original Sheevaplug can run from solar, even in with the shitty British weather. 15W is the max under load, i.e. 2x USB powered HDDs, wifi on, BT on, CPU at 100%, both NICs maxed out at 1GB/sec. In fact I doubt that the hardware could even get there due to performance limitations.

      I currently use a low power Atom board to serve files, download, backup and upload sensor data to the internet. I have a weather station and house energy monitor that update regularly. The backup drives are on relays so draw zero power when not in use. It averages 21W from the wall. I could get that down quite a bit using a Sheevaplug, and I am tempted to go the solar route but the requirement to have a constantly on HDD for the OS and downloads pushes the power requirements too high. Maybe some kind of solar with mains backup might be possible.

      There Atom is quite quick though. The newer ones (D510) are dual core and hyperthreaded so are actually very responsive. Encoding video takes forever but if you want your server to do any serious work the extra performance over an ARM CPU could be worth it. ARM cores really suck for many server/desktop type tasks, which I think is why it isn't until this latest generation that they have been seriously considered non-embedded systems. Well, that and the lack of good PC chipsets for them.

      On the other hand if you want a cheap router get a commercial one and load up Tomata/DD-WRT/etc. I use Buffalo routers because they are designed for the Japanese market, i.e. they can route 98Mb/sec to meet the requirements of 100/100 fibre optic net connections. You can pick up a basic router that will do maybe 40Mb/sec for £10 though.

      If you want to go the pfSense route (it is awesome) then old thin clients make good low power/low cost embedded systems. Old laptops can be used too. The only real issue is that most only have a single ethernet port but sometimes you can fit a second one via PCI or CardBus. Stay away from USB ethernet adapters, their performance is pathetic. Spec wise a 486 with 128Mb RAM will route about 20Mb/sec with good NICs, half that with shit ones.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    26. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by jabjoe · · Score: 1

      This ARM doesn't have a FPU.

    27. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Next time you post, you might consider actually checking your facts first.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    28. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Next time you post, you might consider actually checking your facts first.

      That would certainly be one way to stand out from the crowd here.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    29. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by jabjoe · · Score: 1

      LOL! Dude, check yours. This is the same processor as the SheevaPlug. I own a SheevaPlug, no FPU. Just google "SheevaPlug FPU". This might help: $cat /proc/cpuinfo Processor : Feroceon 88FR131 rev 1 (v5l) BogoMIPS : 1192.75 Features : swp half thumb fastmult edsp CPU implementer : 0x56 CPU architecture: 5TE CPU variant : 0x2 CPU part : 0x131 CPU revision : 1

    30. Re:Serious Hardware in 1997... by commodore64_love · · Score: 1

      >>>ARM superchips are comparable to the pentium 2.

      Yeah but my Pentium 2 laptop didn't run on 5 watts power. That's equal to how much my TV's digital-to-analog converter box uses.

      Think of all the money saved if I used this ARMplug to bittorrent movies/shows instead of my regular computer! (24/7 on time * ~100 watts savings == 72 KWhr or $7.20 per month.

      Okay not so much but it does add up over time.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  5. Windows... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes. But will it run Windows?

    1. Re:Windows... by RotateLeftByte · · Score: 1

      Who cares? Well Balmer Boy seems to want to get in on the act (or is that the 'arm'?)
      The longer it doesn't the better it is (IMHO).
      I'd love to see how Windoze 7 runs on a P2 equivalent. Pretty abysmal I'll bet.
      If there are 5billion ARM Cpu's shipped a year then who needs Microsoft to ship a few thousand extra units at a cost for the software alone that will probably be at least triple the H/W costs when you can get Android or half a dozen other Linux based distros at zero cost.
       

      --
      I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
    2. Re:Windows... by Chapter80 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes. But will it run Windows?

      Your question was probably a joke.

      Microsoft announced that they are developing Windows for the ARM chip, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011. So I think the answer is no, not yet.

  6. Wait, what? by jabjoe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The SheevaPlug has always been 1.2 GHz and had 512 DDR2 RAM.

    Port wise, this seams like like GuruPlug version of the SheevaPlug. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GuruPlug

    What would be much bigger deal is a better power unit. One less prone to melting. That is the biggest issue with the SheevaPlug family, other then that major failing, they are already pretty good.

    1. Re:Wait, what? by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

      That brings up a good point - does this have better thermal management than its predecessors?

      They had enough problems with overheating with a single gigabit port.

      And some sort of I/O expansion header would have been nice. If it broke out a high speed SPI port I would've gone right for it.

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    2. Re:Wait, what? by gman99 · · Score: 1

      Maybe I've just been lucky with my SheevaPlug.
      I installed debian + squeezeserver on it; plugged in a 1Tb drive and I haven't need to mess with it since. That was about two years ago (OK, I do update it occasionally, but as it's firewalled off The Net and just plain works; I'm relucant to mess too much :)
      Absolutely wonderful little box, and couldn't be happier with my Plug

      Two USB slots, eSATA & WLAN are all nice additions. Bur I'm still struggling to see the point of bluetooth (it's mostly going to be used as a headless server -- not much point for mice/keyboards; can't see the point of an A2DP headset connection) -- Plus, any usecase that could do with Bluetooth is probably better served by the Beagleboard
      Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough :)

    3. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Indeed. I have a GuruPlug. It overheated because the heat from the processor (and Gigabit PHY) was not properly vented (at all, essentially). Most of the ports highlighted here are also already on the GuruPlug (WIth the exception of audio). I'm guessing this is just another shot at putting together a GuruPlug that doesn't have serious heat issues. What would be good, is if they had increased the internal Flash Memory, as that was also only 512MB. However, this was not mentioned in the article.

    4. Re:Wait, what? by jabjoe · · Score: 1

      They are great, but I've had two power units fail on me. Rather then get a third the same, I've got it wired to a old router external power unit. There are so may pictures of melted power units, it's a very common problem. Maybe it is fixed now, but at least part of the problem was the air slots in the plastic case aren't always clear, sometimes completely seamed. That and cheap capacitor from what I've read. Great boxes let down by little things that matter.

      Anyway, Beagleboard is old hat now, Pandaboard is the way forwards now. ;-)

    5. Re:Wait, what? by david.given · · Score: 5, Informative
      I run my home server off one --- SMTP, spam filtering, IMAP, a web server, my internal DHCP, DNS, SMB, NFS... it all works beautifully. Even when I become briefly famous and my web server received 80000 hits in one day it didn't even wobble. It's running off a home made SSD made up of four 16GB USB keys and it's dead silent and reliable, running Debian.

      But it's not perfect: the USB chipset is a bit dodgy. I have five hard disks, an ethernet widget, and a few other devices hanging off the SheevaPlug's one USB port and it's not happy --- I had to spend some time fiddling with it before it ran reliably, and there's still a nasty bug where every now and again the USB ethernet adapter stops processing packets (although the internal ethernet port is fine). (Replugging the USB ethernet adapter fixes it.)

      I've been looking at the GuruPlug with great interest; real eSATA and two USB ports would make my life much easier, but I've held off getting one because of the heat problems. Maybe this DreamPlug will be the solution.

    6. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Putting things in perspective, this thing is also $200+ USD.
      And, they appear to have slimmed down the PSU while packing in even more hardware. I'm not feeling too optimistic about this.

      I'd rather buy an NAS like Network Space 2 or DNS-323 or one of those Buffalos, root it, and put Debian on it. Or get something like the PogoPlug or DockStar. If I need audio I'll just buy a USB audio chip cheap for like $5 and integrate it. It would come out cheaper and not have PSU meltdowns.

    7. Re:Wait, what? by initjh · · Score: 2

      The power brick appears to be detachable now and is housed in its own space. http://www.newit.co.uk/shop/prodimages/dp_5.jpg I guess in theory that should alleviate the melting problem, or at least make replacing melters easier.

    8. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "They had enough problems with overheating with a single gigabit port."

      Wait, what? I'm not aware of any heat problems with the SheevaPlug, and the GuruPlug Standard (1 x GbE). Only the GuruPlug Plus has problems with overheating. It has dual GbE, and recently had a 20x20mm fan crammed into the case to help with the heat issues. Until this solution they were recommending people only run one of the ports at gig speeds, and run the other at 100Mbps.

    9. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Port wise, this seams like like GuruPlug version of the SheevaPlug"

      Globalscale are the people who "designed" the guruplug.

      This seems like a redo of the GuruPlug, but this time with more engineering than marketing.

      I also note that it is ~$30 more expensive than the GuruPlug Plus at release.

    10. Re:Wait, what? by Nursie · · Score: 1

      Just what I was thinking. At first it sounded like were going to get one of the long-promised next gen plugs, with dual core at 2.0GHz and more RAM.

      But no, this is just an inaccurate press release. My sheevaplug arrived two years ago with this much RAM and this clock speed.

      BORING. Let me know when we can get something that really has better hardware.

    11. Re:Wait, what? by jabjoe · · Score: 1

      BeagleBoard or better still the A9 PandaBoard? CompuLab's TrimSlice (also A9)?

    12. Re:Wait, what? by Nursie · · Score: 1

      Is the trimslice on sale yet?

      The only problem I could forsee with it is that there's apparently no open driver for the tegra 2 yet, so you might be stuck with whatever OS it arrives with. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

    13. Re:Wait, what? by jabjoe · · Score: 1

      Don't think so, but I think it's not going to be far off. The lack of open drivers is a big BUT for the tegra 2, because you know it's not going to come with anything Debian based, and that will be what I want.

  7. Price £135 - Meh by billstewart · · Score: 2

    Sure, 5 watts for a low-power miniserver is cool, but it's almost as expensive as a low-priced netbook which would have almost the same specs plus a screen.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
    1. Re:Price £135 - Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can get a low-powered netbook with wifi plus 2 integrated gigabit ethernet ports, and eSATA? Please, tell me more.

    2. Re:Price £135 - Meh by xaxa · · Score: 1

      For my server (family photos, websites etc)
      5W * 24h * 365 = 40kWh a year.
      150W * 24h * 365 = 1300kWh a year.

      At £0.10/kWh it looks like I could save £120 a year, or a little less if I have to use a hard drive rather than just SD storage.

      Or maybe I should just find an old netbook on eBay...

    3. Re:Price £135 - Meh by icebike · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

      And the laptop doing all the work (instead of sleeping) would draw more power.

      This thing is great for a firewall/router and even a web server if you wanted to hang that stuff on it.
      I wounder how well maintained the software is. It says Linux 2.6.3x Kernel, but from who, and
      how well is it kept up to date. Is one expected to cross compile this?

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    4. Re:Price £135 - Meh by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      The ION nettop I have on order isn't much more than 135 pounds.

      It has it's own storage and a video output should I decide to use it.

      The fact that it has two Ethernet ports is somewhat interesting. Although the speed is not such a big deal. Either way it's a feature with pretty limited appeal. Otherwise any other roughly similar device would have that feature already.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    5. Re:Price £135 - Meh by afidel · · Score: 1

      You have a PC that uses 150W idle? What does it have 8 HDD's and SLI video cards? My HTPC uses about 150W max (maybe a bit more now that I have a 5750 instead of the GSO 9600)

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    6. Re:Price £135 - Meh by xaxa · · Score: 1

      It's old, I don't know how much it really uses. It's actually at my parent's house, because it's backed up to my desktop PC (in my house) in case of disaster.

      Since posting that comment I've been looking at alternatives, although the power bill has been at the back of my mind for a while. These plug things seem a good idea, with an external HDD (SSDs sufficiently large to store all the photographs are too expensive). The only alternative is a netbook (perhaps a used one from eBay, e.g. with a broken screen), but I'm not sure they'd withstand being on 24/7.

      I'll look at eBay until the UK version of the DreamPlug is released, and get it if there isn't a cheap used netbook by then.

    7. Re:Price £135 - Meh by afidel · · Score: 1

      For a lot less money buy a router with a USB port that supports your protocol of choice for file transfer. Probably same or lower power draw and it can just replace the existing router so very little net power draw.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    8. Re:Price £135 - Meh by jvin248 · · Score: 1

      Get a kill-a-watt meter and actually check the computer; running and idle. You'll likely find 50W when full-on and 25W when sitting (unless you've got a screen-saver running...). And don't be fooled by pc age ... I've checked Pentium-2s that ran in 45-55W (idle 25W) and Pentium-4s running 65-75W (idle 30-35W). Best to check.

    9. Re:Price £135 - Meh by shaiay · · Score: 2
      1. I have an eepc 701, 2Gb SSD + external 2TB disk. It's running lenny, and It's been on for about two years, doing an rsync backup every night. I'm not sure what the power usage of this setup is since the eepc 701 is a celeron machine, which is not very energy efficient, and the the 2TB external disk has it's own power supply, but it does show that it can withstand being on 24/7

      2. For a really cheap alternative, try buying an NSLU unit used (called SLUG by it's affectionados). it should be ~$20. It takes 5W! I run squeeze on it. I have one connected to an external 500GB 2.5" unit,. It uses only the 5W power supply. It's on 24/7 doing backups from gmail, and photo backups, and serves multimedia files via SAMBA. It is quite slow, but it does the work

      3. Slightly higher power -- pogoplug at ~$50 on ebay. This should be fast enough and very low powered.

    10. Re:Price £135 - Meh by thsths · · Score: 1

      If it uses only 5W, why does it get so hot and blow up? Something does not add up here.

      And my PC, even with a DVB-S card, only uses 55 watt during light use, probably less once the GPU powers down. A laptop/netbook would use even less.

    11. Re:Price £135 - Meh by xaxa · · Score: 1

      I have a whole-house meter (this one, I think, "free" from the electricity company). My own desktop PC uses about 180W.

      The server is at my parents' house (two hours away). They have a similar meter, and they said the server seemed to use 150W.

    12. Re:Price £135 - Meh by marcosdumay · · Score: 1

      Bad dissipation, maybe.

      --
      Rethinking email
    13. Re:Price £135 - Meh by awshidahak · · Score: 1

      The only alternative is a netbook (perhaps a used one from eBay, e.g. with a broken screen), but I'm not sure they'd withstand being on 24/7.

      I've got a T91MT that can withstand being on 24/7. At least it has so far...

  8. Sheeva Plug by hansamurai · · Score: 2

    I've got a Sheeva Plug, and as long as this doesn't have the same power supply issues that the Sheeva Plug is notorious for (mine is currently blown and collecting dust), this is probably well worth looking into. Too bad it costs twice as much ($200) than what I paid for my Sheeva Plug a year and a half ago.

    --
    Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
    1. Re:Sheeva Plug by Thad_Floryan · · Score: 1

      Replacement PSUs for the SheevaPlug are US$9.95 each from GlobalScale. The replacements are redesigned and cooling is better. Here's how long one of mine has been up since its PSU replacement:

      root@lanserv1:~# date
      Tue Feb 1 22:38:48 UTC 2011
      root@lanserv1:~# uptime
        22:38:50 up 158 days, 18:05, 1 user, load average: 0.29, 0.17, 0.10
      root@lanserv1:~#

    2. Re:Sheeva Plug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just fixed mine, took out the old power supply, added an external switchable wall wart and soldered the old cables to the new input. plugged it in and the whole thing came back to life like it had never been away. It is running with Ubuntu and currently it is serving movies(mediatomb), photos, music(Squeezebox server), documents(Samba) as well as running MYSQL, Apache web server, and subversion. My only issue with it is that I cannot load Java onto it to use as a build server to for home projects.
      For it's price and power consumption, I think it was running on under 3 volts and 1 amp draw, It was still functioning perfectly, until I unplugged it (I only found out the ps was shot when I plugged it back in after moving house).
      I think it cost me about US$30 to get it back running again. and it would have cost me US$45 to get a new ps from the states, for the same form factor ps as has previously blown.
      I hate sounding like a fanboy, but I fear I may be already.

    3. Re:Sheeva Plug by butalearner · · Score: 2

      I was looking at SheevaPlugs a couple months back (the Guruplug power supplies were still horrible, IIRC), and then I found out I missed Amazon's sale on the discontinued, PogoPlug-based Seagate Dockstar by a scant few days. $30 for a Plugbox (Arch) Linux server! Unfortunately now it's $80. The pink PogoPlug itself is $50 at the moment, which isn't bad for the upgrade to 256MB RAM, but I have a hard time spending the extra bucks when I know I could have had a better deal. It's not a wall wart and wasn't made to run whatever you want, but it has similar power draw and is cheaper.

    4. Re:Sheeva Plug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's quite simple to replace the power supply with an external adaptor, as long as your handy with a soldering iron

  9. Get serious by HalAtWork · · Score: 3, Funny

    Alright, enough bickering. All I really want to know is, does it pack some serious power into a tiny case?

    --
    Twinstiq, game news
    1. Re:Get serious by MyGirlFriendsBroken · · Score: 1

      Alright, enough bickering. All I really want to know is, does it pack some serious power into a tiny case?

      Yes. And yes, Also to be sure to be sure, yes.

      --
      If you read a speed reading book, does it take you less time to read the second half?
    2. Re:Get serious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think so. But there's also some serious hardware in that tiny case!

  10. Direct Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/c-5-dreamplugs.aspx

  11. That's just the UK reseller by Animats · · Score: 3, Informative

    The US version is supposed to ship this month. The developer kit is $149, and $179 with a JTAG interface (recommended for development.)

    The production version will probably be cheaper.

    Hopefully they've fixed the overheating problem they had with their previous GuruPlug.

    1. Re:That's just the UK reseller by mob)barley · · Score: 1

      Ditto that. The SheevaPlug sounded like an intriguing and novel way to have a low power, always-on server, but until I see evidence that the overheating issue won't cause a premature failure, I won't be buying such a thing. It's a cool idea though.

    2. Re:That's just the UK reseller by IceFox · · Score: 1

      Ouch, There was something special about the $99 price tag. The price was so low that it made it worth while over its other limitations and was why I bought it.

      --
      Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
    3. Re:That's just the UK reseller by dcherryholmes · · Score: 1

      I randomly choose you to hop in and reply to the overheating thing. Of course my experience is as anecdotal as anyone else's, but I guess I've been lucky. My sheevaplug has been running under pretty high load for a couple of years, and I've never had a problem. Just wanted to leaven "it's asplode!" reports with a good one.

  12. bad times on Woodward avenue... by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    dunno, a hybrid might give a 36-year-old Corvette a run for it's money...

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:bad times on Woodward avenue... by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      And just 5 years earlier, you could have gotten the same 15mpg on a car with more than double the horsepower. Lousy government emissions regulations...

  13. Marvell gets a lot of press on /., but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just did a survey looking for some lab hardware, and their stuff really isn't that competitive with TI. (And I'm not going to even get into the thermal engineering / power supply issues that have popped up on some forums)

    F.ex., you can get a dual-core, A9-based board with similar features for $175.
    http://www.digikey.com/us/en/ph/texas-instruments/pandaboard.html

    Admittedly, it doesn't have "a plug" (or a case for that matter), but are those things really worth that much? If you're coding on one of these... you're probably not Joe Sixpack taking a break from the Superbowl.

    (Would love to hear dissenting opinions and/or link! I'm not trying to shill TI's stuff here, but it does seem there's a lot of price disparity in the embedded protoboard / SBC market. And that's not even getting into all the companies still selling previous generation hardware for full price...)

    1. Re:Marvell gets a lot of press on /., but by gmack · · Score: 1

      It doesn't have two ethernet ports either so it rules out using it as a firewall.

    2. Re:Marvell gets a lot of press on /., but by Amouth · · Score: 1

      router on a stick?

      might not be as easy to setup with only one port instead of two but is perfectly doable.

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    3. Re:Marvell gets a lot of press on /., but by allanw · · Score: 1

      The Pandaboard has to be heavily subsidized by TI. There's no way it can cost $175, since it's an 8-layer board, manufactured/tested partly in the US, and has 1GBytes of RAM using package-on-package technology. I don't think it's fair to compare.

  14. But what's it for? by 91degrees · · Score: 1

    It's cool and all, and it's nice that it doesn't take up any office space at all, but what do people use these for?

    Does anyone actually have something like this and use it for a serious purpose?

    1. Re:But what's it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That depends. Does "hacking around with Linux servers" qualify as serious?

      As a light home s

    2. Re:But what's it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's cool and all, and it's nice that it doesn't take up any office space at all, but what do people use these for?
        Does anyone actually have something like this and use it for a serious purpose?

      You use things like these for low-powered servers which you keep running for long periods of time.
      You know, web servers, mail servers, routers ...

    3. Re:But what's it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It has wireless, so you can efficiently add wireless to any cabled device.

      A very low power not-so-dumb terminal.

      An intelligent USB charger.

      Too expensive for #3 but not bad for industrial uses where floor machinery use all kinds of different interfaces.

    4. Re:But what's it for? by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      I see.

      So do people use them for this?

    5. Re:But what's it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm probably going to use it for a print/disk server and mp3 player.

    6. Re:But what's it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't have one but if I did I'd use it for:

      Saving power
      Always-on Internet router/firewall/NAT with remote access to my home network
      Web server
      SSH server
      Download server
      DistCC cluster node for faster compilation
      Other distributed computing experiments

    7. Re:But what's it for? by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      But you don't have one. And you clearly don't see a device like this as worth the investment otherwise you'd have bought one.

      Even if you did have a need for something to do those jobs, is this device really in any way more convenient in the real world? If so, why isn't everyone using them? If not, what is the extremely specific niche where someone has a need to run a server but only has 30cm^2 of office space and a plug socket to dedicate to it?

    8. Re:But what's it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a Seagate DockStar at home which has similar insides, though with lower specs (128 MB RAM, only USB and ethernet connectivity).
      It's easy on the eyes, quiet and uses little power.
      I have Plugbox Linux installed, and I run Samba, IRC, torrents, a webserver and a DynDNS client on it.

      The main draw was being able to shut down all my machines when I'm not using them without interrupting torrents and IRC, and to have a central media repository for all my devices.

    9. Re:But what's it for? by Risen888 · · Score: 1

      I'm using my SheevaPlug mostly as a file server. It's also running rtorrent and my one almighty Emacs session which contains my org-mode agenda, IRC client, and various and sundry other services. I've had it for less than a year, and by my estimation it's paid for itself already in reduced power consumption (compared to the clunker old desktop machine that had previously been serving that purpose).

      I've got some other plans for it, which mostly seem to involve messing around, drinking beer and reading man pages at 2 AM. And I figure that in itself is a use, right?

      --
      Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
    10. Re:But what's it for? by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      I'm using my SheevaPlug mostly as a file server. It's also running rtorrent and my one almighty Emacs session which contains my org-mode agenda, IRC client, and various and sundry other services. I've had it for less than a year, and by my estimation it's paid for itself already in reduced power consumption (compared to the clunker old desktop machine that had previously been serving that purpose).

      Thnaks. This is the sort of answer I wanted. What people are actually using it for rather than could possibly use it for.

      I've got some other plans for it, which mostly seem to involve messing around, drinking beer and reading man pages at 2 AM. And I figure that in itself is a use, right?

      Sure is. Just somewhat specialised as a niche.

  15. PogoPlug by MattBD · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've got a PogoPlug, which is apparently based on the SheevaPlug platform, and it was a real bargain. I picked it up in the sale for £50, and I've installed Plugbox Linux (an Arch-based distro - I'd prefer Debian but I can't get that working on it) and it works really well. I've set up Postfix and Dovecot on it and I use it as a mail server, and I also have Apache, MySQL and PHP on there for testing purposes. Fantastic device.

    1. Re:PogoPlug by shaiay · · Score: 1

      debian on pogoplug

    2. Re:PogoPlug by MattBD · · Score: 1

      Already tried that this weekend gone - didn't work, couldn't log in via SSH after the install was done so I went back to Plugbox. Still, it's a good opportunity to push the boat out a little and try an Arch-based distro, and I can always try again once Squeeze is released.

  16. What's Wrong with 512 RAM? by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 1

    ...and while 512MB of DDR2 memory might not sound very generous, if you need more then your project probably isn't suited to the plug computing model.

    Hey now, my primary desktop PC is still running with 512 MB of DDR ram (not even DDR2). What's wrong with that? Hell, my primary laptop is running with 128 MB RAM so suck on that!

    Then again, that may explain why firefox crashes all my computers and my N900 has become my favored internet browsing device. But hey, 512 is enough for Arduino projects, Matlab, Ubuntu 10.04, perl hacking, home network management. =)

    --
    Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
    1. Re:What's Wrong with 512 RAM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you're not a chrome user, are you?

    2. Re:What's Wrong with 512 RAM? by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 2

      I had a fling with Chrome, but it made me feel like I was being bukake'd by internet advertisement companies, so I switched back to Firefox. Firefox may be a bit curvier than she used to, but at least she doesn't dress me up in a garter belt and stockings and put me on display for the old boy's club of the internet data mining community.

      --
      Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
    3. Re:What's Wrong with 512 RAM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing is wrong with 512 RAM.

      f you have access to a fast local disk for filesystem (and maybe swap). If all you want to access is "out there" (i.e. at the other end of a slow USB disk or even a net connection) then you'll want as much caching as you get.

      Personally, I'd find those plugs extremely attractive at 2..4 GB of RAM.

    4. Re:What's Wrong with 512 RAM? by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      Uh, I'm very skeptical that any recent version of Ubuntu will work well on 512MB of RAM. Maybe Xubuntu would be fine.

      I ditched KDE once my distro dropped 3.5, because while I didn't mind KDE4 it was way too slow on my system, and it has 2GB of RAM (but runs a ton of services). When I switched to xfce it was like getting a whole new box. I'm slowly working on upgrading the thing...

    5. Re:What's Wrong with 512 RAM? by jittles · · Score: 1

      Hey now, my primary desktop PC is still running with 512 MB of DDR ram (not even DDR2). What's wrong with that?

      NO wonder you didn't get first post...

    6. Re:What's Wrong with 512 RAM? by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 1

      A) I don't use, and have never used, KDE.
      B) You can be skeptical all you want. I've had it running 10.04 for about 3 months now. It chugs along just fine. (I will acknowledge that GIMP takes a long time to open).

      --
      Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
    7. Re:What's Wrong with 512 RAM? by marcosdumay · · Score: 1

      I don't know how you managed to run Mathlab on it, but try m-a-d-n-e-s-s, that will fix that problem you have, thinking something less than 16GB is enough.

      --
      Rethinking email
  17. Overheating? by MostAwesomeDude · · Score: 1

    I wonder if this iteration will be less prone to overheating. I have an original GuruPlug which still gets too hot to use for long periods of time.

    --
    ~ C.
    1. Re:Overheating? by freakasor · · Score: 1

      I doubt it. I won't be purchasing from global scale technologies again. I ended up with two GuruPlugs that are useless due to overheating.

    2. Re:Overheating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, I read about your problems and added heat sinks and I have a perfectly functional guruplug. I haven't seen it break 40 C on the main IC Thanks!

    3. Re:Overheating? by Sancho · · Score: 1

      For what it's worth, they were quite willing to refund my money when I complained. Even after the warranty had expired.

  18. I'm skeptical that they'll ship on time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    GlobalScale Technologies is sketchy. It took many months for my GuruPlug Server Plus order to arrive, and when it did, it arrived DOA. It then took an additional few months for GlobalScale to ship my RMA unit (RMA #003). The delay was because they modified it to add a fan to address "heat issues." They then sold this fan kit separately as a "Professional Upgrade Kit." They were extremely slow in acknowledging an overheating problem, and my replacement unit is now LOUD and distracting due to the included fan. The CPU simply couldn't handle 2x1Gb Ethernet and wifi simultaneously.

    I've been very dissatisfied with my entire experience dealing with them, and dissatisfied with the product. They ignored repeated requests for status updates via the web form, and only after I tracked down the email for Mr. Henry Chiu, the VP of sales and marketing, did I get a response.

    I'd give 2:1 odds that nothing ships in Februrary like they're promising, but let's hope that this time they got it right.

  19. Heat Issues by troylanes · · Score: 2

    I hope they've resolved the heat issues. I had a SheevaPlug that I used as a space heater for about 8 months until it finally burned itself out. Other than that, it was a great little box.

  20. Needlessly useless. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would it have been so hard to have a video output?

    A solution like this would make the perfect desktop for a lot of people I know who need little more than browsing the web.

    However, such a thing doesn't exist. Why?

    1. Re:Needlessly useless. Why? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Maybe you could add an USB graphics card?

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    2. Re:Needlessly useless. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The existing DisplayLink stuff is still expensive and doesn't work as well as native. It also leaves the user with just 1 usb port, so some arrangement would be needed for having a keyboard and a mouse at the same time.

      At the end, it becomes not worth the effort.

  21. Great Marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...and while 512MB of DDR2 memory might not sound very generous, if you need more then your project probably isn't suited to the plug computing model."

    That sentence is just missing a "so fuck off" on the end. Also, DreamPlug sounds so much like a sex toy, I'd be nervous to Google it.

  22. Media player? by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

    It would make a good wireless media player with the right software. It's a shame there's no video output at all. I suppose there are some USB monitors both dot matrix and LCD.

    1. Re:Media player? by alexandre · · Score: 1

      Indeed, it'd be a perfect gateway with an HDMI out ! :/
      Do USB video solution permit bios access and all?
      I don't want to debug/install my server over a serial port ...

    2. Re:Media player? by Jenming · · Score: 1

      no way it could decode high bitrate video.

      --
      Morpheus, God of Dreams.
    3. Re:Media player? by batkiwi · · Score: 1

      It would make a good wireless media player with the right hardware. It's a shame there's no accelerated video decode chip at all.

      FTFY

  23. Will probably evaluate one, but by jimmyswimmy · · Score: 3, Informative

    I bought the Sheevaplug and the Guruplug for some engineering applications, and was sorely disappointed. The Sheevaplug was a decent box, just needed more native IO. The Guruplug was a piece of crap. I had more issues with that box than any embedded box I've ever worked on, including some I've designed (which is saying something when you factor in initial debug time). The Guruplug had major heat issues, even when run from an external 5V supply. I removed the heat spreader (a thin piece of steel) and replaced it with a thicker copper spreader, and that made a big difference, but the unit was never completely stable and could not handle running two GigE interfaces at the same time. And they also had the niggling little problem of selling something different from what they advertised - the sale product did not have an I2C port (I think they finally changed the block diagram to reflect the truth).

    By sticking with the same form factor I fear that the Globalscale product will continue to be plagued with heat issues. And based on the history of Globalscale's products, if you need a stable platform that does what the specs say they'll do - look elsewhere.

    I'll probably get one to evaluate it, but this time I'm waiting. Someone else can be the early adopter.

    --

    Just my $0.55 (US inflation, 1774-2008, for $0.02)
    1. Re:Will probably evaluate one, but by limaxray · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I got a Guruplug for a project for work and quickly realized it was a pile of garbage. I have relegated it to be my home router and it does serve pretty well - granted the enclosure is removed since the original design clearly didn't even begin to take heat dissipation into account. I was planning on fabricating a heat sink for it, but its been going for a few months now without one without a problem - I'm at 44 days of uptime now, and the last time it was down was intended.

      I haven't had stability problems like many have reported, but I compiled the kernel and built the RFS myself, so IDK if the factory image was broken or what.

      What I would REALLY like to see is them upgrade to a modern version of the ARM ISA. The Marvell Kirkwood processors are all stuck on ARMv5 and not ARMv7 like everyone else with beefy ARM based application processors. While I'm not limited by the performance of the device, it is annoying that I'm limited to Debian or older versions of Ubuntu since most people are compiling for v7 these days. I don't have the patience to compile everything myself. Of course, if performance was a concern, it would be really swell to have high-tech features like the bigger pipeline and NEON that are in current devices.

      Whether reasonable or not, the Guruplug has put a bad taste in my mouth with Marvell's products - while this isn't a Marvell implementation, it is endorsed by them. I find it very unlikely that I would consider them over Freescale or Ti in the future largely because of this product.

    2. Re:Will probably evaluate one, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here, here. I was super excited by the Guruplug and bought two of the "Guruplug+" models as soon as they were available... with dual GigE ports it seemed like the ideal router if you want something with a little more legroom than an OpenWRT box.

      What a mistake.

      One of the thermaled itself to death within a couple days. The other one still boots but if you do anything slightly demanding (like "apt-get upgrade") it reboots within a few seconds. What a waste of money.

      It's a shame because it would be a decent box if they just put it in a larger case that wouldn't run so ridiculously hot. The same components on a mini-itx board would be fantastic at the GuruPlug+ price point.

    3. Re:Will probably evaluate one, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The panadboard is a MUCH better option and i think about 150 GBP. Google for it.

  24. Redundundundant by mahoney.d.82 · · Score: 1

    Yea, but does it pack anything serious in its tiny case?

  25. This is not really news just marketing. by faulteh · · Score: 1

    This Dreamplug doesn't deserve it's top billing on slashdot - it's just a Guruplug in a new case.

    5W you say?? I call BS.. The Guruplug said it was only 5W but when I plugged a wattmeter into it was pulling 7W when idle (old firewall P4 computer was pulling 70W constantly so that's a decent power save anyway). Running both ethernets at gigabit and having the wifi turned on was the major cause of heat problems in the guruplug (so they crippled it so only 1 could run gigabit. Now I see the Dreamplug has 2 gigabit ethernet ports again.

    Then I had to install additional airflow elements (drilling holes in the case, replacing heatsinks, replace internal power supply with external one), to turn it into a decent box that could run as my firewall. Not that I mind doing it myself - I'm from the "if you can't open it you don't own it" crowd, but it means you can't recommend this device to other less technical people without voiding their warranty too.

    There are no thermal sensors on the board so trying to use lm-sensors package on Linux to get things like CPU temp will fail. The Marvell ARM in the Guruplug is ARMv5 so no XN or No-Execute page protection - that comes with ARMv6. If they haven't been addressed in this new Dreamplug it could very easily turn into a Nightmareplug *groan* especially for it's price.

  26. Imagine... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Imagine a power strip cluster of these!

  27. Overheating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Globalscale have a similar product out there that's not so great (not my site BTW). I wonder if they've addressed the overheating issues and poor h/w quality (just look at those solder joints) this time round.

  28. Designed for Windows? by Alex+Belits · · Score: 0

    Am I being paranoid, or there is suddenly huge increase in ARM-based consumer products announcement right after Microsoft promised that THIS TIME their ARM-based product will be good?

    Are we looking at another Itsy (that became a Windows-CE-only iPAQ)?

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
    1. Re:Designed for Windows? by Narishma · · Score: 1

      Yes, you are being paranoid. Stuff like this has been around for ages.

      --
      Mada mada dane.
    2. Re:Designed for Windows? by dave562 · · Score: 1

      Maybe you're only now noticing it because you pay more attention to Microsoft than anything else? ARM has been gaining traction for the last couple of years. I think the big push that initiated a lot of the momentum that ARM has had was the netbook craze. Intel tried to join the party with the Atom processors, but those seem to have fallen by the wayside.

    3. Re:Designed for Windows? by dmiller · · Score: 1

      You have cause and effect swapped. MS announced Windows for ARM because of the huge number of ARM products coming to market.

    4. Re:Designed for Windows? by Alex+Belits · · Score: 1

      And yet most netbooks produced now are Microsoft/Intel, despite being pioneered by Linux/ARM and at some extent Linux/Intel. Android (a pretty shitty branch of Linux, to be honest), became a king on devices that either Microsoft can't take over (smartphones, TV) or that no one really cares about because their functionality does not justify their physical size, leave alone price (tablets).

      So I am afraid of repeating the same pattern that happened before -- companies' management decides to start development on a Linux platform, fully expecting to abandon it at some point, and shift to REAL, SERIOUS BUSINESS PLATFORM THAT EVERYONE LUUURVES -- Windows. This is what destroyed first generation of OLPC, this is what wiped out first wave of handhelds (when they were called PDA), etc. Before Microsoft announcement, if a company decided to produce an Intel-based small device, it was likely that they expect to support Windows, and if it decided to produce an ARM-based one, it was reasonable to expect that decision-makers are not planning to pull a switcheroo to Windows once Linux developers picked up all hardware bugs and produced reference implementations for all required drivers.

      Now things are not so clear. Not that it is reasonable to expect that Windows-based device will be more successful. I fully expect all "Windows on ARM" devices to destroy the companies that placed their bets on them, just like it happened with each and every version of Windows CE before smartphones. But companies' management can keep their faith in Windows just long enough to drive those projects into the ground while reducing Linux support to the status of "unofficial firmware", similar to iPAQ.

      --
      Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
  29. GuruPlug by chroniclinux · · Score: 1

    Looks like a rehash of the Guru Plug that was incredibly unstable and overheated if it was plugged into Ethernet...

  30. Packs some serious power. by angus77 · · Score: 0

    The DreamPlug packs some serious power. It packs some serious power. It also packs some serious hardware which packs some serious power. Seriously.

  31. Good for Distributed Social Networks? by agrif · · Score: 2

    I know people like to hate on Diaspora around here, but this would be an ideal platform for it. Run your diaspora seed for you and a few friends on a wall-wart server. You could even pre-install diaspora, and sell them online for the non-tech-minded. Just unwrap, plug in, and setup through a web browser.

    This isn't a new idea, but I think it's a good one (that is, if Diaspora ever takes off...)

    1. Re:Good for Distributed Social Networks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think few people would pay more than $50 for something like that. It's not doable at the moment unless you sell millions of units.

      If I was starting a distributed social network today I would try to target smartphones as a server platform. It might be doable on the smartphones that we will carry around a couple of years from now.

    2. Re:Good for Distributed Social Networks? by yeshuawatso · · Score: 1

      Diaspora is DOA. No one wants to run a social network server, few would understand the concept, and without Zynga, it's a waste for the rest of the non-tech oriented world. I get you guys idea and your concern for privacydecentralization, and consumer control of private data, but I'm with Schmitt when he said if you don't want the world looking at something online, maybe you shouldn't share it online (paraphrasing).

    3. Re:Good for Distributed Social Networks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (that is, if Diaspora ever takes off...)

      It won't if you have to do stuff like that.

    4. Re:Good for Distributed Social Networks? by knarf · · Score: 1

      An even better spot to host Diaspora (et al) would be the ubiquitous ARM/MIPS based router. Most networked homes already have one. The newer models have USB and thus the possibility to access flash storage. The thing is generally always on so the hosted content would be continuously available.
      If the protocols used by Diaspora get some good documentation it would be possible to implement them in a sensible language instead of the all-singing-and-dancing-framework-hog the Diaspora developers chose so it can actually run on these small systems.

      --
      --frank[at]unternet.org
    5. Re:Good for Distributed Social Networks? by agrif · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's my only major complaint with Diaspora so far. I'm a developer that's interested and would love to contribute, but I just do not have enough time to learn a whole new framework. Just installing all the stuff you need to run it takes almost too long for me, although it looks like it's gotten a lot better (smaller) since I looked at it last.

    6. Re:Good for Distributed Social Networks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is actually the concept that sparked the Diaspora project: each person storing their own social data in a plug computer inside their homes, where no-one can touch it (without a search warrant). See the original talk by Eben Moglen.

  32. Blocks too many outlets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WHY? Why can't they build these with a bit of cord so you can put them in a power strip and only use 1 outlet. The way this is built it's going to block at least 3 sockets. Good job, idiots.

    1. Re:Blocks too many outlets by asdf7890 · · Score: 1

      It is the same as some wall-warts: they are just wide enough to block the socket to the site (so block two extra sockets if installed in the middle of a strip). The plug for my speakers is currently in one of those cube shaped 3-way adaptors: I don't use it as a three-way, just as a riser so that wart doesn't get in the way of the plugs either size.

    2. Re:Blocks too many outlets by Lupulack · · Score: 1

      I have a SheevaPlug ( dead, oddly enough not a PSU issue ) and it comes both with the wall-wart plug and an interchangeable extended cord. If only it were reliable I'd buy another, more's the pity.

      --
      The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
  33. Smoothwall and Zentyal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd like to get a couple devices in this form factor to run Smoothwall (or IP Cop) as a firewall, and Zentyal as a PDC. Does anybody have either of these distros running on wallwort? Any difficulties or problems installing/configuting/maintaining them?

    1. Re:Smoothwall and Zentyal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll take that as a "no."

    2. Re:Smoothwall and Zentyal by gravyface · · Score: 1

      Why not just grab a fit-PC2? http://www.fit-pc.com/web/

      --
      body massage!
    3. Re:Smoothwall and Zentyal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's about exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you. Porkchop Sandwiches.

  34. "And don't try to tell me to use a USB adapter..." by PaulBu · · Score: 1

    ... kuz it's never the same!

    Agreed! Last time I really needed to talk over RS232 to some "really expensive box", none of readily available USB-RS232 adaptors were even recognized by a (reasonably modern) Linux box... :(

    So, I ordered a bunch of these: http://www.lavalink.com/dev/index.php?id=42 , and they have been quietly sitting there, passing control commands to 3 "really expensive boxes" for the last 4 years, or so... ;)

    And yes, when I fire up minicom to debug something, I do have to tell myself *not* to press ATDT right away... :)

    Paul B.

  35. VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by Kosi · · Score: 1

    Somehow they forgot to mention which connector is used for video output. Can anyone help out?

    1. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by Agronomist+Cowherd · · Score: 1

      It's USB.

      --
      -DwS
    2. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by asdf7890 · · Score: 1

      That would be because these things don't tent to have video out at all. It is not their purpose to display anything. The RS232/USB/what-ever port will allow a route to a serial console or other such control method for your initial setup. After that just SSH in over the network or what-ever your preferred remote control method is.

    3. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by Kosi · · Score: 1

      Fine, that means if you screw up the network config, the thing is bricked. :-)

    4. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by Kosi · · Score: 1

      If it had a proper video output, this would make a fine thin client. The USB displays that I know only have drivers for Windows.

      So I see the danger of bricking it just by screwing up the network config. :-) Or can you change the internal microSD?

    5. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by asdf7890 · · Score: 1

      The serial console would probably allow you to boot it to do repairs, assuming that your linux setup supports serial consoles. If it won't boot at all, you could try the same thing bit booting from an OS setup on a USB drive.

      Or you could have a boot disk setup on a USB stick that would start with the network adaptor(s) configured via DHCP and SSHd running so you can remote in to sort the problem out - just shutdown, pull out the USB stick and restart when done.

    6. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by Lupulack · · Score: 1

      the SheevaPlug at least did have a serial port interface via the included USB cable.

      --
      The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
    7. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by chefmonkey · · Score: 1

      The USB displays that I know only have drivers for Windows.

      Really? Because the ultra-cheap USB display I picked up off of woot.com a while ago just kind of automatically works when I plug it into my netbook running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Perhaps you should do a bit more research?

    8. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by Kosi · · Score: 1

      OK, I admit, I have done no actual research. I just remembered reading a product review now and then, and it always was Win only. Must have changed since then.

    9. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by ledow · · Score: 1

      The touchscreen displays that I use for electronic signage throughout the school I work in have only Windows drivers, if you read the blurb.

      Plugged it into Ubuntu. Detected both the touchscreen (which *ISN'T* just mouse emulation over USB) and the screen no problem at all, and I didn't have to change a single option anywhere.

      Just because it says "Windows-only" doesn't mean it's true by a long-shot. I've seen mice that say "Made for Windows 7". Doesn't mean you can't plug them into an XP machine.

    10. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by ledow · · Score: 1

      JTAG port.

    11. Re:VGA, DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort? by scorp1us · · Score: 1

      There is no video out, which is my big problem with it. In the end you're better off with a nettop anyway, because for $275 you a 1.6Gz dual-core atom and some 2d and 3d acceleration.

      If you want "video" out, you have to use the linux vfb (virtual frame buffer) and connect to it from a computer over the network with a display using a network vfb client. Think VNC.

      --
      Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
  36. Better wait for this one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This announcement was on Linuxfordevices.com a few days ago:

    CompuLab announced a 5.1 x 3.7 x 0.6-inch computer built around the dual-core, 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, designed as an open platform for ARM software development, among other uses. Claimed to run on only three Watts, the "Trim-Slice" features 1GB RAM, dual SDHC slots, a SATA SSD, dual-head HDMI/DVI, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, plus gigabit Ethernet, USB, and serial connectivity.

    Link:

    http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/CompuLab-TrimSlice/

  37. Pandaboard: more memory & costs less by AmicoToni · · Score: 1

    As a further alternative, there is always the Gumstix. But, overall, the Pandaboard looks like a much sweeter deal: for $174 you get a dual-core ARM A9 board with 1GB, DVI output, Bluetooth, and all the goodies. I think I'll get one really soon now.

  38. Re:"And don't try to tell me to use a USB adapter. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > none of readily available USB-RS232 adaptors were even recognized by a (reasonably
    > modern) Linux box

    Huh? Any PL2303-based adapter will work a charm. You can buy them for $5 on Amazon.

  39. Hear, hear... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We ran into the exact same problem. I managed to make a Guruplug stable by gluing a 5V Delta BFB blower fan to it and powering it from one of the USB ports. It's a ridiculous looking hack but it got the job done.

    And it's a shame, because the Guruplug is almost a perfect fit for the particular application we wanted to poke it in - VPN. Plug it into the wall, plug broadband into one GbE port and the LAN into the second. The CPU has plenty of guts for running encryption, etc. We ordered one with the plan of doing exactly this with it, but the heat issue completely ruined the concept. Globalscale fucked that one up. Hopefully the "Dreamplug" doesn't suffer the same fate.

    That being said, Globalscale didn't mess everything up - I'm running an OpenRD-Client at home as a low power Linux box. Couldn't be happier with the thing - it does file sharing, torrent downloading, etc. duties and pulls next to no power. And with a separate AC adapter box and a big aluminum case, overheating isn't an issue.

  40. You are reading too much in a pattern by marcosdumay · · Score: 1

    Let me bring you another situation...

    1 - You invent a device that is great. You can't deal with the strings that come attached with Windows, you also don't thing that it is a serious OS (AKA your reputation will suffer if you ship windows), and it would be too expensive to make your device run Windows anyway. So it runs Linux.

    2 - Your device is a success. You improve it a couple of times, with time it becomes quite serious at computing power, while keeping the price. All this time lots of people tell you that they'd buy it, but it doesn't run Windows (some even buy, and return because it doesn't run Windows).

    3 - You realise that your product just need a little upgrade (that will make it just a bit more expensive) to run Windows. At the same time, your competitors are starting to anounce products that are just a little more expensive than yours, and run Windows. The press is running wild, covering your competitors, and telling people to not look into your product, since it doesn't run Windows.

    4 - Now, do you make that small upgrade, and add Windows products to your portifolio? Or do you risk being displaced by those Windows products? If you choose Windows, soon you'll discover that the strings that come atached to Windows will take away all the lucrativity that comes from selling the non-Windows products you have. Only the Windows based ones will be lucrative.

    --
    Rethinking email
    1. Re:You are reading too much in a pattern by Alex+Belits · · Score: 1

      Except that it doesn't work that way. Sure, someone (mostly Microsoft marketing people) will complain about each and every device that does not run Windows and try to coerce everyone into turning everything into a Windows-based computer. But the results of stuffing Windows into anything other than commodity desktops/laptops were always disastrous, and Microsoft always claimed that THIS TIME they have a platform that users will love.

      --
      Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
    2. Re:You are reading too much in a pattern by marcosdumay · · Score: 1

      Are you complaining about step 3? Yes, those are mainly paid MS people (not all, mind you, people are strange), but that doesn't make it less sonore. The press do run wild about what MS pays it to run, and everywhere there are people repeating the MS song.

      --
      Rethinking email
  41. SATA by PipsqueakOnAP133 · · Score: 1

    So it has a Serial ATA port... can this act as a SATA device instead of a SATA host?