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Intel Releases $99 'MinnowBoard Max,' an Open-Source Single-Board Computer
A few months back, we posted a video interview with some of the folks behind the Linux-friendly, x86-based MinnowBoard. TechCrunch reports the release of a more powerful version of the same all-in-one computer, now with a 1.91GHz Atom E3845 processor. According to the linked article, "The board's schematics are also available for download and the Intel graphics chipset has open-source drivers so hackers can have their way with the board. While it doesn’t compete directly with the Raspberry Pi – the Pi is more an educational tool and already has a robust ecosystem – it is a way for DIYers to mess around in x86 architected systems as well as save a bit of cash. The system uses break-out boards called Lures to expand functionality."
...considering the release of Novena. the Open Source Computer: http://dangerousprototypes.com...
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Even better, how come nobody ever thought about using "Sonboard"?
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Why is it that every time someone puts a new experimenter board they need to come up with some lame name for a daughterboard that adds capability?
I am partial to bustier, torsolette, corsolette, girdle, garter, stocking, etc. Imagine a mother board and daughter board dressed in Victorian Era undergarments?
There are plenty of other single or dual processor boards that will run Linux or Android, that are out already. Some are considerably cheaper. Unless the 64-bit Intel architecture is spectacularly more efficient than the A10, A13 and A20s we have access to already it's difficult to see what this board has that the Cubies and Olimex's don't already provide.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Seriously though, way to cripple the roll-out of a product with potential.
There's basically NO open source hardware out there. And if there were nobody would be in a position to do much with it, because it would take a fab to make any change.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
You are having deja-vu
You are having deja-vu.
You can implement ARM, MIPS, SPARC, x86 (if you're a masochist) and other architectures on FPGAs. You can modify them to your heart's content and have an absolute guarantee that it isn't backdoored. If you're really paranoid about the underlying FPGA being compromised, you can validate the contents in real time with another manufacturers device.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
For the most part everyone needs BT and WiFi on their boards, so they really need to be included. Sure, you can buy an add-on card, but i would rather have it on the board out of the box...
It would add what, 10 bucks at the most? ... just do it already.. geeesh...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Nobody said it was better. It " doesn’t compete directly with the Raspberry Pi – the Pi is more an educational tool and already has a robust ecosystem – it is a way for DIYers to mess around in x86 architected systems as well as save a bit of cash". Pi = 700 MHz ARM Minnowboard = 1.9 GHz x86-64 It's a really small x86 system for someone who needs a really small x86-64 system
1GB RAM, SATA interface and a 1.5GHz x64 core.
You can easily setup a cheap server or media center with tools you already knows, using a 2 or perhaps 4TB Hard disk and put the thing *INSIDE* the HD case.
One size doesn't fits all!
(and that 2GB RAM with dual core sounds yet more interesting)
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
It's probably a hell of a lot more powerful, and being an Intel x64 chip you have a larger variety of operating systems you can run on it.
For most of the FPGAs I've used complete documentation for the clbs and different slices is available.
In fact if you open up the design tools you can manually place hardware macros which means that you have exact information about the organizaiton of the FPGA.
The parts that are hidden are mostly the software tools and bitstream format which they don't like people reverse engineering. But it's certainly possible.
MIPS IV is nice, because it's a 64-bit ISA that's over 20 years old (the magic number for patents). FreeBSD 10 runs on it out of the box with the BERI kernel config on the Altera DE4 boards and in simulation and 10.1 should include a kernel config for the NetFPGA 10G board. These boards are pretty expensive, but we have a couple of configurations that will let it run on smaller FPGAs. Removing the FPU makes it a lot smaller and you can also build a microcontroller variant (simple static branch predictor, no MMU) that's even smaller. The simulator is slow, but just about useable (it takes about an hour to boot to single user mode, but it's enough for testing).
It's only in the last couple of years that FPGAs have become interesting for this kind of thing. There are a few high-level HDLs appearing, because hardware is sufficiently complex that the traditional approach of throwing it all away and starting again every CPU revision is increasingly impractical. The devices themselves are now fast enough that they're useable for prototyping and getting a reasonable feel for behaviour. We can get 100-200MHz with 4 cores in a single FPGA with the latest generation - not competitive with an ASIC, but fast enough that you can actually use them. I gave a demo that ended up being more compelling than I expected because I was showing people some things running on the UART console and I'd left the network cable connected so the screen kept being spammed with messages about invalid ssh connection attempts. Nothing I was doing said 'this is a real computer' quite as much as people on the Internet trying to attack it...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Or for a ready-to-populate and run system at $129:
Intel Bay Trail NUC Kit DN2820FYKH:
http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-bay-trail-nuc-kit-dn2820fyk-arrives-just-128_134400
-- kjh