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VIA Unveils $79 Rock and $99 Paper ARM PCs
Don't yet have one of those million Raspberry Pis, but you're in the market for a tiny, cheap ARM computer? An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from geek.com: "VIA has decided it's time to update the APC (ARM PC) board with new components and the choice of two configurations. The new systems are called APC Rock and APC Paper. The hardware spec for both boards is exactly the same except for the fact the Rock ships with a VGA port whereas the Paper doesn't. The Rock also costs $20 less at $79, whereas the Paper is $99. The reason for the price difference is the fact that the Paper ships with a rather novel case whereas the Rock is a bare board. The Paper's case is made from recycled cardboard attached to an aluminum chassis to help with strength, meaning it will keep the dust off the components and make it easier to carry while keeping weight to a minimum."
scissors?
this seems a far better product.
you mean the CMOS battery?
Oh hai. I'm posting this from an EEE PC netbook, about 4 years old, running Mint... something. I dunno, it Just Works. I ruse it regularly for intardtubes, watching things and also stuff, and even some casual programmorzing. Pew, pew.
Small, cheap general purpose devices - especially with real keyboards - do have a point, and that point is to make it easy to debunk your "spunked from my iPad" chucklehead rant, kthnxbye.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Have they fixed the memory controller yet?
The biggest performance bottleneck for graphics on ARM systems has not been the GPU; I've used Mali-400 systems (like this one is supposed to be), and I've used the nVidia system. Graphics performance sucked on both.
Part of this has to do with the fact that the graphics architecture in standard Linux penalizes you for not GPL'ing your drivers, but the Android graphics stack gets around this by duplicating some kernel interfaces with slightly non-GPL'ed versions - yet the performance is still terrible.
The blame rests squarely on the memory copy speeds, which comes down to the memory controller. Apple has completely addressed this in their ARM chips (but are not sharing), and Samsung has partially addressed this in their ARM chips (and are also not sharing). Has VIA addressed the memory controller bandwidth issues in the WonderMedia, or does "WonderMedia" actually mean "I wonder when they will get media support in their ARM chips"?
If its a capacitor from Japan, it might come with enough free MOX to give you a lab quality flux capacitor.
With the right code you could be sending particles back and forth in time from your basement.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Wow, I haven't read so much focused hate in a single post in a while on Slashdot. Did a netbook run over your kitten or something?
"Or the RaspberryPi in my truck hooked up to a bumper-cam and 1TB hard drive is something my safety conscious family doesn't care about."
yikes, a safety system cobbled together by a hobbyist running on a platform that was designed by people who seemed to learn a EDA during the pi's development all running open source software?
sign me up
Shortly before the malpractice lawsuit.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
I keep seeing on eBay these days you can get an Android tablet for about $40. And it has a screen, a touch screen at that. Presumably internally it is some kind of ARM PC with storage and everything. So why is a bare bones ARM PC, especially at these prices good? And what can you realistically do with the damned thing anyway?
These boards don't seem to be worried about emitting radio frequency interference (RFI). That "paper" system case is slick but I don't think it effectively shields RFI.
Is RFI somehow not a problem with these? Is it because they are very low-power, or is it because they are somehow not regulated by the FCC for RFI, or what?
Would operating one of these make the amateur radio enthusiasts down the block from you curse you?
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Sometimes less is more. I have a tablet hooked up to a monitor, but Android constantly gets confused about the two screens and their resolutions. That means you keep having to fiddle with the touch screen. A dedicated device like this always uses the connected monitor for its output, and the mouse and keyboard for its input. Also, this has better specs than low-end tablets; in different words, at the same price, you get better performance for not paying for a screen.
Do companies really have to design these project platforms when there are android cell phones that can be had for under $50? They come built in with a small touchscreen, wifi, a low res camera, battery, accelerometer, vibrator, mic, a weak speaker, and possibly a small physical keyboard. Virgin Mobile almost always has a no contract phone for $30-$50.
There is also an overabundance of bad ESN phones on ebay for $15-$30. While there are issues with supporting thievery, not all bad ESN phones have been stolen, some are really just lost and found by others. Either way, the phones have been branded bad and unless re-purposed, represent a waste on society. Do companies really need to design/build these platforms when there are so many used phones that already litter the world?
Most of what I'd use the Pi for doesn't need a screen, but does need I/O ports, so I'd choose the PI just for the GPIO ports (and I2C, SPI, CSI, etc). Plus there's already a large developer community around the platform and they are all using the exact same hardware, while if I buy a random phone off eBay, it would be harder to find help.
You're kidding, right? Are you actually trying to imply a mere bumper-cam can't be cobbled together by a hobbyist?
I guess you're the reason we need to warn everyone that pencils are sharp, coffee is hot, and every building contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer.
Thats not it at all, its a combination of poor everything that honestly can be accomplished with a composite video signal and a monitor, but knock yourself out, just hope grandpa or whatever mistakes a frozen image for live and backs over the dog
I'm posting this from a 1.5 year old EEE PC, which replaced my previous EEE PC of 4 years ago (which met an unfortunate end).
I say this to highlight that not only are we netbook users still happily out here, but they're still available in the shops and we're still buying them. I have a Kindle Fire tablet, and I barely use it compared to my trusty netbook; there's no contest between a flippy laptop form factor with real buttons and a little slate which I need to jab at the screen with my finger. I also have "real" full-sized laptops, and my netbook still comfortably fills the niche it was bought for- light, portable, long battery life, low cost so I don't worry about it being lost or broken.