Slashdot Mirror
Linaro Launches an Open-Source Spec For ARM SBCs
DeviceGuru writes: Not content to just standardize ARM-based Linux and Android software, Linaro has just launched 96Boards, an open-source spec for ARM-based single board computers. Along with the spec's rollout, Linaro also announced a $129 HiKey SBC based on a HiSilicon 64-bit, octa-core Kirin 620 SoC, and compatible with the 96Boards Consumer Edition (CE) spec's 85 x 54mm 'standard' form factor option. The 96Boards initiative plans to offer a series of specs for small-footprint 32- and 64-bit Cortex-A boards, including an Enterprise Edition (EE) of its spec in Q2.
Does this give us anything Raspberry Pi didn't? Just wondering, even if not more choice of open boards is obviously better
> Why does that annoying popup [...]
Stop whining and disable Javascript already. Popups? It's years since I've seen one!
If successful, it would give the ARM world a PC-like, vendor-neutral standard architecture, and so it would counteract the horrible balkanization of ARM communities by every manufacturer's boards being different.
Even if this doesn't succeed, standardization is a very worthwhile goal for ARM (just as it was for x86 PCs), and it's quite important that a broadly funded organization has recognized the need. It will also usher in the days of ARM64, at last.
There is one glaring omission in the spec though, the lack of Ethernet. No Ethernet means extremely limited sales outside of mobile, and at the HiKey's price of $129 it has to be gigabit Ethernet at that.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
> including an Enterprise Edition (EE) of its spec
Can it run Windows 10 RT :)
And of course it would fail, because every OEM claiming to support the spec, in cost-cutting attempts, would cripple their implementations.
ARM is all about being cheap. And Linux is cheap too. Sadly that also attracts manufacturers who are cheap too. With all the consequences.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
xkcd.com/927/
This sig left unintentionally blank.
i'm the author of the EOMA standards, including EOMA68, so i have spent something like two years developing and refining hardware standards that will not confuse end-users. http://elinux.org/Embedded_Ope...
the 1.0 (i.e. final and absolute unchangeable) version of the 96boards "consumer" standard from 96boards will be going on the list of alternative standards, as, sadly, another example of a standard that will result in end-user confusion, annoyance, product returns and, ultimately, failure.
the reason is incredibly simple: an end-user standard MUST NOT have optional interfaces. i do not understand why people developing standards do not understand this. page 7 of the 27 page v1.0 specification states, clearly, "1 OR 2 MIPI CSI-2 ports MAY be provided on the expansion bus interface" and "From 1-2 lanes MAY be implemented on the CSI1 port interface". now whilst the latter is absolutely fine (because negotiation takes place at the hardware-level, so either host or client will correctly negotiate 1 or 2 lanes), the former most definitely is NOT.
let's think it through. here's a simple scenario. an end-user buys a 2-lane box, and a lot of expensive camera equipment. they then find that the box is too slow, and need to upgrade. so they go out and buy another box, and, BY MISTAKE, when they get it home, they discover that they only bought a 1-lane box. as there is NOTHING WRONG with it, they may NOT return it as faulty under warranty.
additional confusion results from page 8, over the options that the 3rd USB port MAY be a USB-OTG port. again, people will buy a system and a set of peripherals, relying on the USB-OTG capabilities... and then upgrade at a later date and make the mistake of not knowing what the hell is going on until it's too late. they investigate further and find "whoops, i bought the wrong system: this one doesn't have USB-OTG power damnit".
DC power requirements, page 8: again, more confusion when upgrading.
2nd (optional) UART, page 9: more confusion results.
a summary is given on page 12, where the moment you see the word "optional", count them. that becomes a permutation of the number of possible things that an end-user has to check when first selecting and then double-checking on upgrading the device. i count (if you include the USB confusion and the power options) at least *SEVEN* possible "options", giving... someone else can do the math here, it's what... over a hundred different permutations at least.
and then, when you get to the end of page 12 only then do you discover that the expansion board connections may be used as GPIO!
*sigh* i have to say that this really does not look like a very well-thought-out standard, at all.
'cos your machine is riddled with shit?
NB: I'm not expecting Core i7 performance nor Windows compatibility.
I recently replaced a noisy home desktop with a fanless Intel NUC - which based on energy usage, should save me around $AU65 a year on power bills, with a payback within Intel's 3 warranty, assuming I don't trade-in for the latest NUC or Brix in the meantime. (NB, I'm not a fan of laptops, having gone through 3 in 6 years - broken screen connectors and power supplies plus preferring full size keyboards and multi-monitors)
Some have mentioned lack of ethernet - thus requiring a usb dongle for office use.
So I guess what i'm asking is, where is the octo-core ARM box with user upgradeable RAM to challenge Intel NUC and Gigabyte Brix for the femto-pc market?
Also, the lack of Ethernet in the 96boards standard ensures that it's a complete non-starter except in mobile.
Hopefully it has SATA and Gigabit Ethernet.
I need something decent to replace my Cubietruck board.
multiple manufacturers and clones. raspberry had just one clone company and they only managed to buy chips for one test run... raspberry doesn't really like competition and broadcomm is working with them to that end.
raspberry pi(2) is really engineered to be manufactured by one company to make money for one company.
more expansion pins as well, it seems. how many of them are usable as gpio pins, I don't know and possibly remains to be seen(there's several dedicated to that use but if the i2c pins etc can be repurposed to that remains to be seen I suppose.
it also has io level shifters, making it easier to use 5v expansion chips.
also octacore variant.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
everything has to be specially compiled by vendors and always manages to be outdated! ARM! When OS upgrades are only available on TOTALLY new machines! ARM! It's like a PC stuck in the early 80s! ARM! Moar coars!