Slashdot Mirror
SolidRun x86 Braswell MicroSoM Runs Linux and Full Windows 10, Destroys Raspberry Pi (betanews.com)
BetaNews has a report today about a company called SolidRun, which has announced an Intel Braswell-based MicroSoM. Unlike the ARM-powered Raspberry Pi, this is x86 compatible, meaning it can run full Windows 10. Plus, if you install a Linux distro, there will be far more packages available, such as Google Chrome, which is not available for Pi. Heck, it can probably serve as a secondary desktop, Brian with the site writes. From the report: At 53mm by 40mm, these new MicroSoMs provide unheard of design flexibility while also eliminating the headache of having to design complicated power-delivery subsystems thanks to its single power input rail design. SolidRun's Braswell MicroSoM also offers flexibility in RAM options, ranging from 1GB to 8GB configurations, and offers on-board support of eMMC storage up to 128GB. Its robust design and unsurpassed HD Edge surveillance, event detection, and statistical data-extraction capabilities makes it the platform of choice for mission-critical applications requiring guaranteed reliability," says Solidrun.It starts at $117, the website has more details on specifications.
It starts at $157 because you need a connecting board which is $40.
Would you not want to run a real RTOS on an embedded system?
Many embedded applications are not "real time". Even those that are, will often offload the RT functionality to an 8-bit AVR or PIC, or an FPGA, and then run Linux to handle the high level stuff on the ARM or x86. I have developed embedded systems, including mission critical hard real-time, for more than 20 years, and I have never used an RTOS in a final product. They raise the cost, reduce reliability, and are hard to debug.
Big difference: The RaspberryPi has TTL I/O. This makes it easy to do any of a wide variety of hardware interfacing. This new board only has UART ports, which means if you want to do an easy hardware project, you need another microcontroller, tool-chain, etc.
There is a definite market for prototype devices that talk Ethernet, WiFi, UART, SPI, I2C and hardware I/O too. The Raspberry Pi does that well, and inexpensively.
From the sounds of the article it doesn't include a case, RAM or storage in the price.
So basically it's a barebones mini PC, competing with Intel NUC or Gigabyte Brix and at roughly the same price as their entry-level models.
"Raspberry Pi" only adds to the clickbait.
Most embedded systems do not required a hard RTOS. Modern systems are fast enough, that you wouldn't care. Dishwasher, microwave, HVAC, watering system, solar control, home automation, entertainment systems, etc all do fine non realtime. Where that fails is in satellite/rocket guidance, autonomous driving/flying and low level robotic control
The board itself, which starts at $117, will not operate on its own. To make it a full-fledged usable device for projects and other uses, you must add the SolidPC Q4 single-board 'carrier' computer which is $40. In other words, you are looking at a minimum of $157
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
Looks interesting... I've pre-ordered two (both cpu models, 4G) for DragonFlyBSD, we'll get it working on them. Dunno about the SD card, but a PCIe SSD would certainly work. BIOS is usually the sticking point on these types of devices. Our graphics stack isn't quite up to Braswell yet but it might work in frame buffer mode (without accel). We'll see. The rest of it is all standard intel insofar as drivers are concerned.
My network dev says the Gigabit controller is crap :-) (he's very particular). But for a low-end device like this nobody will care.
All the rest of the I/O is basically just pinned out from the Intel cpu. Always fun to remark on specs, but these days specs are mostly just what the cpu chip/chipset supports directly.
I'm amused that some people in other comments are so indignant about the pricing. Back in the day, those of us who hacked on computers (Commodore, Atari, TRS-80, Apple-II, later the Amiga, etc) saved up and spent what would be equivalent to a few thousand dollars (in today's dollars) to purchase our boxes. These days enthusiast devices are *cheap* by comparison. My PET came with 16KB of ram and a tape cassette recorder for storage, and I later expanded it to 32KB and thought it was godly.
-Matt
Not quite true A.C. The instructions for those old 8-bit CPUs could be synchronized down to a single clock tick (basically crystal accuracy), thus allowing perfect read and write sampling of I/O directly. We could do direct synthesis and A/D sampling, for example, with no cycle error, as well as synchronize data streams and then burst data with no further handshaking. It is impossible to do that with a modern CPU, so anything which requires crystal-accurate output has to be offloaded to (typically an FPGA).
RTOSs only work up to a point, particularly because modern CPUs have supervisory interrupts (well, Intel at least has the SMI) which throw a wrench into the works. But also because it is literally impossible to count cycles for how long something will take. A modern RTOS works at a much higher level than the RTOSs and is unable to provide the same rock solid guarantees that the 8-bit RTOSs could.
-Matt
At $157 I can buy broadwell with ram and SSD. Like so: https://www.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-300-240-Desktop-Celeron/dp/B016K0AAFI
There is no excuse for "I cant buy one" except laziness.
You can even check if they are in stock in major suppliers here - http://whereismypizero.com/
Sure, you cant buy them in batches ( 1 per customer), but i got mine in Pimoroni and arrived in 2 days.