Slashdot Mirror
Dual-Core Allwinner A20 Powered EOMA-68 Engineering Card Available
A year after the first schematics were completed and a few months after the first prototype board shipped, Make Play Live has released Improv, the first engineering card for EOMA-68 (EOMA-68 is a specification for modular systems that splits the cpu board from the rest of the system, allowing the end user to use the same core with several devices or upgrade e.g. a tablet without having to pay for a new screen shell). From Aaron Seigo's weblog post: "The hardware of Improv is extremely capable: a dual-core ARM® Cortex-A7 System on Chip (SoC) running at 1Ghz, 1 GB of RAM, 4 GB of on-board NAND flash and a powerful OpenGL ES GPU. To access all of this hardware goodness there are a variety of ports: 2 USB2 ports (one fullsize host, one micro OTG), SD card reader, HDMI, ethernet (10/100, though the feature card has a Gigabit connector; more on that below), SATA, i2c, VGA/TTL and 8 GPIO pins. The entire device weighs less than 100 grams, is passively cooled and fits in your hand. Improv comes pre-installed with Mer OS, sporting a recent Linux kernel, systemd, and a wide variety of software tools. By default it boots into console, so if you are making a headless device you needn't worry about extra overhead running that you don't need. If you are going to hook it up to a screen (or two), then you have an amazing starting point with choices such as X.org, Wayland, Qt4, Qt5 and a full complement of KDE libraries and Plasma Workspaces.
Improv takes advantage of the open EOMA68 standard to deliver a unique design: the SoC, RAM and storage live on one card (the 'CPU card'), the feature ports are on a PCB it docks with (the 'feature board'). The two dock securely together with the CPU card sitting under the feature board nestled in a pair of rails; they are undocked from each other by pushing a mechanical ejector button."
Check out the specs and pictures. The card is available now for $75. Improv is open hardware, with the schematics licensed under the GPL and available soon.
what is it with trolls and slashdot? anytime you see slashdot, there is always a troll there.
i would bet money that if you put slashdot on the internet, hundreds of hops from anyone and left it for a few hours, when you return there would be trolls in it. stereotypical trolls too. there will be an AC holding a mouse by the top, clicking submit. there will be a fat racist on his keyboard posting too much and laughing to himself about how clever he is. lastly there will be a 20-something virgin with sticky palms.
trolls and slashdot, it's a mystery.
Replying to myself, one last time, since I don't feel like arguing with a defeatist who thinks that everyone should be as incompetent or incapable as them. It is not a question of being able to do it. That's well established. It is a question of dedication, in time, effort, and money. I have bent over backwards and spent years of my life learning to do these things, to purchase and build the tools, to source the materials, to learn the necessary chemistry, and to actually go ahead and do it. It's marginally more complex than making your own PCB, and smaller processes require correspondingly more expensive equipment, different resist formulations, etc., but it is 100% doable for your average educated hacker to do this on his or her own. I'm really fucking sick of being told that I "can't" do something, because I'm not . It's just not true, and I strongly dislike people that produce these bald-faced lies.