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$39 Arduino Compatible Boardset Runs Linux On New x86 SoC

Posted by timothy on from the plenty-of-room-at-the-bottom dept.

DeviceGuru writes "DM&P Group has begun shipping a $39 Arduino compatible boardset and similar mini-PC equipped with a new computer-on-module based on a new 300MHz x86 compatible Vortex86EX system-on-chip. The $39 86Duino Zero boardset mimics an Arduino Leonardo, in terms of both form-factor and I/O expansion. The tiny $49 86Duino Educake mini-PC incorportates the same functionality, but in a 78 x 70 x 29mm enclosure with an integrated I/O expansion breadboard built into its top surface. The mini-PC's front and back provide 2x USB, audio in/out, Ethernet, and COM interfaces, power input, and an SD card slot. The hardware and software source for all the boards, including the computer-on-module, are available for download under open source licenses at the 86Duino.com website."

3 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Non-starter for me. by Capt.DrumkenBum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    More expensive than a Raspberry PI, with a slower processor.
    Add in the community that has grown up around the Raspberry and I know where my money will be going.

    --
    If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
    1. Re:Non-starter for me. by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Informative

      Far more GPIO (the Pi only has 8, which is rather pitiful), compatibility with Ardiuno (so lots of expansion modules readily available), built-in SATA/COM/parallel port support, etc. Not everything is about speed. Also, it's x86, so it's compatible with a totally different set of programs/OSes.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
  2. Re:wow its a vortex board by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Probably still better than Intel's Galileo board, which doesn't even have proper native GPIOs (they all go through a slow I2C I/O expander), is more expensive, and has worse power usage.

    Compatibility is worse on this board though - it's a 486 core. Most modern Linux is compiled for i586 (Pentium) ISA, so you can't even run a stock Linux distribution (even the "i386" distros usually assume Pentium and up). You'll need to basically recompile everything for i486 instruction set to get it to work.

    Last time I dealt with this, Puppy Linux was all that could run by default on it (I think it compiled everything i386 - though Linux needs 486 or better). Everything it didn't come with had to be recompiled from source as practically all binaries available were i586.

    Though it can probably run Windows - I think XP should run just fine on it.

    And yes, I've tried running i586 binaries on boards with the Vortex processor on them. You usually get a segfault or illegal instruction error sooner or later.