VIA bakes a fruitier Rock cake to rival the Brit Raspberry Pi
Computer electronics biz VIA has updated its Raspberry Pi rival APC - a micro-motherboard its maker calls a “bicycle for your mind” - which it brought to market last May. The new board sports a new processor, more flash memory, better video output and, VIA said, more expansion options. VIA APC Rock Rock'n'ruler: The new VIA APC …
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The CPU is mounted diagonally?
The RPi cannot possibly compete with this. I'm getting 3.
Re: The CPU is mounted diagonally?
Standard. You don't have to make the wires do awkward angles to reach The Other Stuff.
Now, if someone came up with the idea to open up wormholes on the mainboard...
Re: The CPU is mounted diagonally?
Most VIA's are hollow, depends on your definition of a wormhole I guess? ;)
Re: The CPU is mounted diagonally?
or put the connectors on the short end so you can PCI-bracket mount it?
Someone has to say it
Cheap price, HDMI out, running Android and easy enough to connect an old keyboard and mouse
2013 - THE YEAR OF LINUX ON THE DESKTOP!!!!
Cool...
...let's buy a couple, slap Debian on it and set up grid computing
An mk808 is less than half the price, runs a newer version of android and is WAY more powerful.
http://lightake.com/detail.do/sku.MK808_Android_4.1_Dual_Core_1.6GHz_1GB_8GB_Bluetooth_HDMI_1080P_WIFI_3D_Mini_PC___Black-58509
re: mk808
An mk808 is less than half the price, runs a newer version of android and is WAY more powerful.
I'd never heard of it, but the link you gave puts the mk808 at $58.99, which isn't "less than half the price" of either the Rock ($79) or Paper ($99).
Now the ODROID-U2, on the other hand, costs $89 (*), has quad core clockable to 2GHz (base 1.7GHz) and 2Gb of RAM. Also runs Jelly Bean and Linaro Ubuntu (no accelerated X yet, though it's expected in a few weeks). Its sibling product, the ODROID-X2 is very similar, except that it costs $135 and has a whole lot more ports.
(*) as with a lot of these boards, power supply, cabling, flash drive and shipping aren't included. A full U2 ends up costing about $150 (including a hefty $40 shipping fee from Korea), plus local customs clearance and VAT which brings it to something closer to $190. Definitely pricey compared to a Pi (which comes to around €72 all told), but the U2/X2 are are at least 12 times more powerful in my tests (thanks to 4x cores, 2x speed, step up from ARMv6 to ARMv7). So while the Pi definitely wins out on price/system, the ODROIDs definitely win out on performance/price IMO.
Re: ODROID
That looks interesting for a low power server project I have in mind... maybe it's not quite as economical with power as I'm after though. Amazing that they don't appear to be available on eBay?
I've got the original
One board computer, innovation:
http://www.vintage.org/special/apple-1/
Re: I've got the original
And that was the last time Apple innovated anything.
Off topic: Astroturfing
Amazing is the voting by users. Usually, a good number is on the sane side.
Today, here, until now, the reasonable ones (questioning how can this be, and Windows yet so expensive and big) being voted down.
Where can I apply for pocket money from astroturfing on El Reg?
Re: Off topic: Astroturfing
@Uwe Dippel - Astroturfing here is a huge problem. If you go to reviews of servers, the engineers will point out that Windows has massive downsides compared to a well-engineered system such as Linux. The shills get involved and downvote the engineers. Some of them post as AC (but a smaller number using genuine handles) and, instead of debating the facts, instead they post personal attacks.
Many of the pro-Microsoft commenters write extremely nasty insults, in their unpleasant desperation to smear the engineering guys.
Also, the completely clueless remarks made by the Pro-Microsoft shills, about windows being more secure, etc etc are voted up, as are the comments that contain nothing but ad hom attacks and straw man attack fallacies.
This comment will, of course, become self-fulfilling as everyone gamely votes me down :D (I am always right).
Re: Off topic: Astroturfing
An arrogant, unpaid shill bitching about his betters: shills which are being paid. The irony seems to be escaping you.
Re: Off topic: Astroturfing
@FrankAlphaXII - au contraire - the even richer irony has evidently escaped you!
Where's the market?
It seems bizarre to me that VIA believe people want to pay more than double the cost of a RasPi for something that's only fractionally faster. Both are essentially base model Android phones with no touchscreen, no cell interface, no battery, and a few cheap sockets, but at least the RasPi's only $35 for the equivalent model. I don't think the extra $44 for the VIA's VGA socket's good value!
I'm sure VIA has seen a market for this, because it's not that useful a reference design for anything that isn't being done better elsewhere, but I'm blowed if I can see it. If their sales volumes make it into four figures I'd be surprised.
Re: Where's the market?
So the RPi is a base model Android phone? Hmm, let's see.
As you say, no touchscreen, no cell interface, no battery.
On the other hand, LAN interface, 2 x USB Type "A" i/fs, micro SD card I/f, analogue video, 5V power socket in non-obvious location for a phone, GPIO pins, HDMI...
I would think there comes a point where you don't mod a phone card to make it into an RPi, you design from scratch. And I think that's what happened.
Re: Where's the market?
" I don't think the extra $44 for the VIA's VGA socket's good value!"
Ah, but for an extra EXTRA $20 you can have it without the VGA socket. Oddly.
Re: Where's the market?
The Broadcom BCM2835 used in the Pi is a SoC, but designed for use in set-top boxes, not phones.
Re: Where's the market?
>So the RPi is a base model Android phone? Hmm, let's see.
No the RPi is a very cheap Linux PC
This is just an Android phone without the screen/phone
If I want a cheap Linux PC to play with I get an RPi
If I want the identical hardware that a million other people have and are hacking on - I get an RPi
If I want a cheap Android to play with I get a $50 tablet or a $50 Android-on-a-stick
I can't see why I would buy this
Texas Instruments makes an ARM-based with 2x GigE ports and a crypto-accelerator for $199. It also has a touch-screen and some other goodies (no video-out though).
http://www.ti.com/tool/tmdssk3358
I've been using a couple of these for firewalls and VPN gateways for remote sites and built a very simple GTK-based UI for the office staff that just kicks off a couple of simple scripts.
Hmm this is tempting as it runs andriod unlike the rasberry pi
And yes I own a rasberry pi that I originally bought to watch videos till I found out that it sucked at that(EVERY video format I tried had video, and audio sync issues past 480p AVI's), then I had hopes of andriod from broadcom as it was announced on their main page which never materialized.
Have you tried omxplayer?
http://omxplayer.sconde.net/
hardware accelerated mediaplayer for the Pi; I was having the same problems with video using non-accelerated VLC, but with omxplayer I have no problem with high bitrate 1080p mkv files on my model B Pi.
Deja Vu?
Suspiciously like the OLPC story.
Someone comes up with an interesting niche idea, then all the vultures dive in with similar, but incompatible alternatives that are just a leeetle bit more expensive, totally confusing the punters and trashing the market.
I got an Odroid-x and the hidden Fedex charges put it to > £120.
X86 is still cheaper, look at atom boards, AMD's low power stuff and old PCs, if you forget about power usage.
I got an Odroid-x and the hidden Fedex charges put it to > £120.
Similar story for my X2, but I did what the hardkernel website suggested and called my local customs office before placing the order. They told me about the extra "customs clearance" charge that Fedex adds in. I guess that hardkernel could have done a better job on pointing out the surcharge that Fedex puts on it, but I can't fault them on their advice on contacting customs. I still went ahead with the order once I knew about the extra costs. Well worth it, I reckon.
As for Atom vs ARM systems, I actually did a bit of window shopping before ordering the X2. To be honest I couldn't actually find any Atom systems that were as good or as cheap. The one thing that the bare-bones Atom systems did have going for them was standard (mini) ATX and SATA ports for upgradability. They're still quite expensive compared to the ARM boards. Also, buying a cheap 2nd hand system was out for me because I was looking for something with low power usage and you don't get that with older Intel/AMD/Atom stuff.
I guess that in the next year we'll start seeing more ARM SoC with SATA, USB 3 and gigabit ethernet since there's definitely a market for it. Until then I can definitely live with flash/USB2 and 100Mbit ethernet.
hate couriers
I hate couriers for this reason, charging you 50 bucks to talk with customs when it would take yourself about 5 minutes to handle the matter online on the customs website..
The traditional post system works better, they ask you for permission to deal with customs, you tell them "No, thanks, I'll do it myself", and it costs you nothing. As a bonus shipping rates are a tenth of couriers, even with tracking and insurance added.
Why not buy an Android tablet?
With an android tab you will get all the cables and power supplies you need and of course a screen.
All the programming tools are free, eclipse and the SDK.
I reckon I'm missing the point with these motherboards. Why would programming for an android motherboard be better than programming a tablet? At least you can take the tablet with you and demo your programs to granny or whoever sits next to you on the bus :-)
Once again they miss the point
It is about the price.
At $35 (Sorry Canadian here.) if I break a Raspberry PI while working with it, I use some profanity, and go order a new one. At $100 I worry about breaking it and don't try to use it to build a heads up display for my car.
This is the same thing that happened with netbooks. the first one came out at a very good price, but every time a new model or competitor came along it was bigger, more powerful, or had new features, and of course the price went up.
I hope this doesn't happen. I hope people are smart enough to stick with the Raspberry PI, because it is the best bang for your buck. Plus the community that has developed around it is fantastic.
Waiting for....
a dual or quad-core version of this or the PI. Personally I prefer the Pi because it's smaller and less expensive. This is something to toy with for now and not worth tossing out more case than needed. Just need that extra bit of power, but my Pi has little issues streaming video to my tv from my WHS library.
Best Wishes,
Missed Trick?
Where's the VESA Mounting? Pop this in a case that can clip to the back of a TV or monitor, or better yet, a "passthrough" mounting (ie so that it can work with monitor arms & other mounting brackets), and you can turn any dumb TV into a smart device, and still keep things tidy.
I'll wait until a wee ARM board comes out capable of USB 3.0 or SATA 3.0 with 1GHz NIC.
Maybe a cute wee 4 core version as well?
Huge!
I may just be getting the perspective wrong, having not seen them together, but this thing looks *huge* compared to a Pi. Obviously whether that matters depends on how you plan to use it, but seems closer to a standard motherboard (admittedly with an Arm processor) than it does to a Pi...
It looks good. But, again, ARM
Chatting to a friend a month ago, works for an environmental instrument measuring company. They use the STAMP-2 board from Parallax, because it's relatively cheap, and they use PBASIC (does all they need - temperature, wind speed etc, then WiFi it to wherever).
I suggested the Pi - half the price, but no, for two reasons. 1) The tokenizer for pbasic is partly written in '86 assembly code - rewrite, if it's not proprietary - and 2) - their designers know pbasic. "Why move?" Plus, the STAMP's been around a long time.
ARM on little devices like this ain't that well supported yet, IMHO.
Article error?
Hang on.
"Rock is a $79 (£49) board with an additional VGA port while Paper is the same board minus VGA but supplied with a book-like cardboard case. Paper costs $99 (£62)."
$20 more for NO VGA, and a cardboard case? Must be an error somewhere in the article. Must've missed something. (Girlie's distracting me...)
Re: Article error?
Er, no, not an error. Their website says the same. Don't get it.
http://apc.io/specifications/
Re: Article error?
But it's not just any cardboard case...
Re: Article error?
Nope, its recycled, 15 lb edge test corrugated. The case at least is compatible with 80% of the other cardboard boxes on the market.
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