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Rhombus Tech A10 EOMA-68 CPU Card Schematics Completed
lkcl writes "Rhombus Tech's first CPU Card is nearing completion and availability: the schematics have been completed by Wits-Tech. Although it appears strange to be using a 1ghz Cortex A8 for the first CPU Card, the mass-volume price of the A10 was lower than other offerings. Not only does the A10 classify as 'good enough' (in combination with 1GB of RAM), Allwinner Tech is one of the very rare China-based SoC companies willing to collaborate with Software (Libre) developers without an enforced (GPL-violating) NDA in place. Overall, it's the very first step in the right direction for collaboration between Software (Libre) developers and mass-volume PRC Factories. There will be more (faster, better) EOMA-68 CPU Cards: this one is just the first."
My prediction: this will FAIL just the way linux on the desktop FAILED, the way Netbooks FAILED, the way the "OLPC" FAILED and the way the Raspberry Pi and all other "cheaper is better" open sores efforts have FAILED. You freetards just don't seem to get it. NO ONE WANTS YOUR CRAP SOFTWARE. You losers can't even GIVE IT AWAY. LOL. Time for the lot of you to go back to square one in your lives. Maybe take up knitting instead of trying to play "engineer" like the big boys.
Think different.
Think BETTER.
Think Apple!
invented anything.
Too many links... no intro telling me what this is.
For those who want to know... it is a PCMCIA (PC-card) sized integrated computer designed to compete with the Raspberry Pi... supposedly cheaper and faster. Raspberry Pi does have one major advantage though: it is in production and shipping whereas this is still in the schematics stages. So... nothing to see here...
It also bothers me to see "ghz" on a supposed tech site. It's GHz. Giga and Hertz.
Anyone care to provide a little background on what this is and why the hell any of us should care? Since, you know, the submitter/editors can't seem to grasp that old journalistic concept of letting the audience know why the fuck they should care.
I tried to read the summary, really I did, but my +1 machete of reading comprehension was rendered useless against the overpowering thicket of overused parenthetical asides and link-whoring.
I thought they might take me to V14GRA pages.
Wait, this wasn't randomly generated text designed to bypass spam filters?
Huh. Go figure.
An odd number of cores. Perhaps they have 4 cores, each controlling 16 CPUs. Or 4 cores set aside for other purposes?
Okay, so a company that works to 'serve the community' produces a CPU card in a PCMCIA form factor (though which is electronically incompatable) chose a very inexpensive Chinese processor for their first project. The CPU is 3x the speed of a Rasberry Pi. It has some GPL code provided by the CPU manufacturer--who seems very cool to the OSS movement.
The schematic and layout are out for this card. There is code coming. There will be boards coming. The BOM is $15, but who knows what the shipping cost will be? With shipping, it might not matter what the BOM and sales price will be.
This could be interesting, but we know way too little to make any meaningful statement at this time.
I guess having 2 other major manufacturers of chips is just way too many to keep track of or they'd have realized there's already chips called A8 and A10 from AMD. In fact, I think they just recently released A10 chips.
I think it's an interesting concept that could lead to developing usable low volume products tailored for a specific need at a low cost as long as the cost of the card ends up being under $20. It will give an architecture to develop hardware devices with an upgrade path for processor and peripherals. It's not for creating a desktop PC for the average user.
http://elinux.org/Embedded_Open_Modular_Architecture/EOMA-68
Lkcl xiÄ dÃo:âoeLÃngxÃng jÃshà de dà yÄgà CPU kÇZ shà jiÄ"jÃn wÃnchéng hÃn kÄyÃngxÃng: YuÃnlÇ tà yÇjÄng bÃi wÃnchéng de zhÃhuÃ, jÃshÃ, suÄrÃn tÄ chÅxiÃn qÃguÃi dÃo kÄyÇ shÇyÃng yÄ gà 1GHz de pÃzhà A8 de dà yÄ gà CPU kÇZ, de zhÃliÃng, liÃng jià de A10 dÄ bÇ qÃtÄ chÇZnpÇn. BÃjÇn zÃi A10 guÄ lÃi wÃi âoezÃgÃu hÇZoâ(zÃi yÇ'ngyÇ'u 1GB de RAM de zÇ"hé), dÃn Allwinner jÃshà shà yÄ zhÇ'ng fÄ"ichÃng hÇZnjiÃn de yÇ zhÅngguà wÃi jÄdà de SoC gÅngsÄ yuÃnyà yÇ" ruÇZnjiÃn (zÃyÃu bÃo) kÄifÄ rényuÃn méiyÇ'u qiÃngzhà zhÃxÃng (GPL, wéifÇZn)NDA dà dÃfÄng. ZÇ'ngtÇ Ã©r yÃn, tÄ de de dà yÄ gà bÃzhÃu zÃi zhÃngquà de fÄngxiÃng hézuà zhÄ jiÄn de ruÇZnjiÃn (zÃyÃu bÃo) kÄifÄ hé zhÃliÃng - tÇjÄ zhÅngguà gÅngchÇZng. YÇ'u jiÃng shà gÃng duÅ (gÃng kuÃi, gÃng hÇZo de)EOMA-68 CPU kÇZ: Zhà shà dà yÄ gÃ.âoe
OK, Joe?
...from how hard these guys are trying to ride them.
Some of the suppliers are shipping right now....others are playing games with ship dates.
but Allwinner Tech is one of the very rare China-based SoC companies willing to collaborate with Software (Libre) developers without an enforced (GPL-violating) NDA in place
C'mon, any volume production pretty much goes to China by default.
More succinct to elaborate only if it's going to somewhere other than China.
If they just completed the schematic drawings this tells me that they are at least half a year away from production - if they are super good designers and if their prototype works right the first time they power it up.
The schematic is often the easiest part of the design. An EMC compliant PCB is usually harder; passing FCC/CE/* EMI compliance is harder; setting up for mass production is not for beginners either. Those guys just made the first step on a long road. And that's exactly why it's so hard to build hardware these days; the progress is so fast that by the time you are ready to manufacture the key parts are obsolete and out of production. Even if the parts are still available your design may be already obsolete because newer, better parts became available. It's either "design it under 3 months" or "do something else with your life."
...for combining ignorance and assholery in one package.
Be an asshole about a ripoff -- just make sure you're not ridiculously wrong, as in this case.
Or make assumptions, taking a risk of being wrong -- and be polite about it.
But no, you gotta go for both. Asking for a face-punch, if you act the same way in person.
It's a schematic (actually, the picture shows a board layout) for an Allwinner A10 (which is a rather impressive ARM-type CPU with peripherals) board in a PCMCIA form factor. Big deal. There are many other Allwinner A10 boards. The Rikomagic MK802 is a small one, and it costs about $60 in quantity 1. It comes loaded with Android, but you can load Ubuntu. If you want this as a "media center" (it can do 1080p HDMI), it's available in various set-top box cases with power supply and remote for around $70. Those can run Ubuntu, too.
It's not clear why you'd want an Allwinner A10 in a PCMCIA form factor. The Allwinner A10 has a sizable set of peripherals on-chip. Ethernet, HDMI, etc. Usually, boards for this part have a whole row of connectors. Bringing out the pins on a PCMCIA connector means you need another board to fan out the peripherals.
The Allwinner itself is a significant product. (Boards for it, not so much.) At $7 in quantity, and requiring no US intellectual property, it's going into tablets, set-top boxes, and anything else that needs a CPU. This is a serious threat to the price points of Intel, Microsoft, and Apple.
It's an attempt to create a standardized form factor for open/modular highly portable inexpensive computing device CPUs. It intends to do for these markets what the AT/ATX motherboard/case design and ISA/PCI buses and Socket 3/5/7 did for the desktop computing market. Additionally, it is doing this with openness (libre open source software stack) clearly an important design criterion, besides the technical/performance ones.
Will it take time to mature? Yes. But less than one might think. It's farther along than might appear.
Will it therefore fail, by missing out on the window for Cortex A8? No. It's modular enough to continue even after the Cortex A8 CPU is obsolescent. The Allwinner A10 was chosen in part because it is currently available and cheap.
This will open up niche markets which the major manufacturers are not servicing. High-resolution debian ARM netbook? Can be done. 7" Netbook? Can be done. Pixel Qi Tablet? Can be done. Desktop ARM terminals? Can be done.
I've been following this project for a while now, and it is going in a direction which I believe in. I am getting tired of proprietary ARM hardware and software.
Chill out you fucking psycho Aspie.
... to forget about this post.
be kind, please! he made a mistake - it's ok. i've made enough, god knows... :) that's how you make progress.
Yeah I've been following this for a while as well. I was originally confused by the purpose of the PCMCIA card, but it eventually came through in my mind the idea that the PCMCIA card shaped object is just a REALLY EASILY replaceable motherboard that plugs in to a host device. Granted it's not a PCMCIA card, and it's not called a PCMCIA card.
I like the premise. Buy a barebones laptop shell, plug in the EOMA-68 card device, and boot up. Or plug it into some other type of form factor. Inside of a TV. Inside a media player device. Inside a tablet. So many options. This could be big.
Assuming this uses the Allwinner A10 chip, What is the status of decent hardware video decoding support?
Frankly the fact that they put gigabit ethernet on board is pretty awesome. That's not something that comes with the SoC.
If you did put it in a device shaped like a laptop, would you be able to add more ram, upgrade the wifi card, etc, like a normal laptop or are you stuck with what's on board? Not sure how the card deals with expandability.
Still, if this catches on, maybe RMS will finally be able to move up from his yeeloong lemote
Allwinner Tech is one of the very rare China-based SoC companies willing to collaborate with Software (Libre) developers without an enforced (GPL-violating) NDA in place
Allwinner Tech is the company behind the ARM-based SoC that have powered many many tablets and smartphones
And they only charge $7 per Cortex A8-SoC
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Lkcl xià dÃfo:ÃoeLÃfngxÃfng jÃfshÃf de dÃf yÃgÃf CPU kÃZ shÃf jiÃ"jÃfn wÃfnchÃf©ng hÃfn kÃyÃfngxÃfng: YuÃfnlà tÃf yÃjÃng bÃfi wÃfnchÃf©ng de zhÃfhuÃf, jÃfshÃf, suÃrÃfn tà chÃ...xiÃfn qÃfguÃfi dÃfo kÃyà shÃyÃfng yà gÃf 1GHz de pÃfzhÃf A8 de dÃf yà gÃf CPU kÃZ, de zhÃfliÃfng, liÃfng jiÃf de A10 dà bà qÃftà chÃZnpÃn. BÃfjÃn zÃfi A10 guà lÃfi wÃfi ÃoezÃfgÃfu hÃZoÃ(zÃfi yÃ'ngyÃ'u 1GB de RAM de zÃ"hÃf©), dÃfn Allwinner jÃfshÃf shÃf yà zhÃ'ng fÃ"ichÃfng hÃZnjiÃfn de yà zhÃ...ngguÃf wÃfi jÃdÃf de SoC gÃ...ngsà yuÃfnyÃf yÃ" ruÃZnjiÃfn (zÃfyÃfu bÃfo) kÃifà rÃf©nyuÃfn mÃf©iyÃ'u qiÃfngzhÃf zhÃfxÃfng (GPL, wÃf©ifÃZn)NDA dÃf dÃffÃng. ZÃ'ngtà Ãf©r yÃfn, tà de de dÃf yà gÃf bÃfzhÃfu zÃfi zhÃfngquÃf de fÃngxiÃfng hÃf©zuÃf zhà jiÃn de ruÃZnjiÃfn (zÃfyÃfu bÃfo) kÃifà hÃf© zhÃfliÃfng - tÃjà zhÃ...ngguÃf gÃ...ngchÃZng. YÃ'u jiÃfng shÃf gÃfng duÃ... (gÃfng kuÃfi, gÃfng hÃZo de)EOMA-68 CPU kÃZ: ZhÃf shÃf dÃf yà gÃf.Ãoe
OK, Joe?
What the eff is that?
I know slashdot doesn't support anything else but ASCII, but the above is absolutely, totally lame !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
imagine how many slashdotters heads would have melted if i'd done all their work for them by putting in some extra backstory links? :)
Don't worry, just list them all out here
I've been here for a long while, and my brain has yet been melted
List them here, so at least you'll provide us with melt-proof brains a trip to the search engines
Thanks in advance !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I'm so sorry to dredge up such a tired meme, but you know it has to be said here.
Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these!
In all seriousness, though, I'm really enthusiastic about the philosophy that seems to be behind this project. I'm all about replaceable parts. This would be nothing special if it was another "all in one" SoC, but the fact that it is explicitly a swappable *component* really appeals to me.
I love the open architecture, and I love the open hardware. The PCMCIA form-factor, along with the choice of "lowest-common-denominator" interfaces, give me the warm-fuzzies inside; the last thing we need is another homebrew data bus. I can think of tons of things that cards like these would be good for.
"Sure they're "twice the price", but for many people thats still spare change in reality."
for most people on this planet, $25 is a large amount of money
Too many links... no intro telling me what this is. For those who want to know... it is a PCMCIA (PC-card) sized integrated computer designed to compete with the Raspberry Pi... supposedly cheaper and faster. Raspberry Pi does have one major advantage though: it is in production and shipping whereas this is still in the schematics stages. So... nothing to see here... http://www.bollywudfunda.com/2012/08/crispy-tauntaun-epic-meal-time.html
There is a big effort in progress among well-known SoC manufacturers to work towards a unified ARM kernel, as a result of Linus Torvalds's crictics last year. Today, we see Texas Instruments, Freescale, ST/Ericsson and Samsung working to integrate their existing platforms into this new model, whereas the newer platforms - CSR's prima2 for example - are required to use all the new features: Device tree for ARM, the unified clock framework, pinmux, etc. must be used to get a new platform accepted in the mainline.
But for now, there is no sign of integrating the sunxi platform, supporting the Allwinner A10 chip, in the mainline. The available repository for the kernel is based on Linux 3.0.x with Android patches, before the implementation of many of these new features, and there were no attempts to submit the new architecture to the ARM Linux mailing list. This means that there is no chance of getting the A10 supported by Linus's tree before a long time.
Another problem is the sign-off for the commits that need to enter in the mainline. If the A10 support code was written by Allwinner employees, it will be necessary to get their sign-off, as it is required for any code integrated in the kernel nowadays. This means that no third party may commit their code until this is done, even if it is correctly marked as GPLv2. This was added in the wake of the SCO fiasco, to ensure that all source code lines could be attributed to their original writer, and thus have the author's word that it is not copied closed source code.
As long as all these issues are not resolved, the Allwinner based devices will remain second class citizens in the Linux world.
Sounds a little like a modernized version of the Rex5000 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REX_5000 )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Serious question. Why would vendors support such an approach? Especially in the consumer portable market which is growing every day and eventually will end up being most of the 'computing devices' we have in our homes and businesses.. Their revenue stream counts on devices being totally replaced every x months. If you could swap out inexpensive components like this instead they would be cutting their own noses off.
Nice technological idea ( and reminds me of some things done in the 80's ), but the marketing people will never let this get out in to the world beyond being a plaything.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Schematics are good for future developers and to get the ball rolling for fabrication.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Serious question. Why would vendors support such an approach?
we have one vendor who *is* fully behind it. it took them a long time, a whiteboard and a lot of hand-waving but they got it. it was an amazing meeting, after 2 years of them not getting it, where they suddenly got excited and went, "hey! we have an all-in-one PC product: we could... we could... convert that to a TV or upgrade it by just changing the CPU Card!" and it was a eureka moment - such a relief :)
but the key for them is that they are an assembly company rather than a manufacturing company. a whopping half a MILLION square metres factory space screwdriver / assembly company. the modularity of the approach we've come up is absolutely perfect for them. other companies supply the EOMA-68 PCBs (a million at a time); they put them into the cases. other companies supply them with the parts needed for a laptop (a million at a time); they put them together.
one absolutely jammy coincidence for us is that they'd *just* been asked to assemble 20 million+ PCMCIA 3G modems for a customer of theirs. note: PCMCIA modems. exactly the same size and form-factor and even exactly the same components (PCMCIA connector) as the EOMA-68 CPU Card.
the problem for them right now is that their "assembly" approach, combined with the well-known *insanely* low margins in the x86 laptop business, leaves them completely unprofitable. all their suppliers of the parts make the margins; they don't. this is the situation that has to change, and we're privileged to be able to offer them a solution that they've accepted.
ultimately, i see this approach empowering smaller 3rd party companies to be able to re-enter the markets that they've been squeezed out of by the ever-decreasing margins of the PC business. the hard part, technically is the CPU Card. the most expensive part is the casework. not exactly sure how to deal with that: 3D printers sort-of spring to mind... anyway, just a thought.
This sounds so great! Personally I would go for two boxes, since I may want to have the router running 24/7 but not the file-server/backup-server. I find all-in-one solutions also to be more and more a pain to administer. Maybe even three, since a media-client is also a need, though I backed the OUYA, so I will see. What about Linux? Is this simple? Possible at all?
It's great to see such a product targeting this at the home market.
What about video? I am not set up, yet, but I plan to use some networked DVB-receivers (you may know them, all they do is grab the signal from the antenna and offer them on some port for the network to get). I don't know the technical background, but I think this is not as simple as supporting the four major condecs in two major cotainer formats, like most Chinese boxes do. Also, they have performance problems with real HD, meaning bitrates >20Mb/s. I guess this is also one of the problems, the XBMC guys are facing for their Allwinner A10 port.
Am I right in the assumption, that, as a consumer, I could not simply order or even use your product, since it would still require some hardware work to be done, mainly the I/O and require orders >1 piece?
Hello?? Fred?! Is this you?