Tiny $45 Cubic Mini-PC Supports Android and Linux 197
DeviceGuru writes "SolidRun refreshed its line of tiny 2 x 2 x 2-inch mini-PCs with four new community-backed models based on 1.2GHz multi-core Freescale i.MX6 SoCs. The CuBox-i devices support Android 4.2.2 and Linux, offer HDMI, S/PDIF, IR, eSATA, GbE, USB, WiFi, and Bluetooth interfaces (depending on model). All the models offer 1.2GHz clock speeds, OpenGL/ES 2.0 3D support, and video acceleration for 1080p video, while the two higher-end ones supply more robust GPUs that add OpenCL 1.1 support."
Re:How much RAM? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How much RAM? (Score:5, Informative)
File server - You could use the cheaper variant (RaspPi), but nevertheless, this one could do the job too. Maybe it will be able to run some more advance NAS server!!! To be seen...
Router/Switch/Firewall - you name it. The nice touch is that you could make/build your own server, instead of praying that the nice little toy you bought from Wallmart does not have toooo many backdoors in it.
Re:Pre-Order... :( (Score:5, Informative)
I'll be more impressed when I can actually buy a sub $100 PC
Here, for $89. [hardkernel.com] Helluva better CPU than these: 4*2.0 instead of 1*1.0 ($45) or 4*1.0 ($120).
Sadly, it has no eSATA (just some extra-fast eMMC), and 100Mb ethernet instead of 470Mb you get in the $95 and $120 CuBox models.
Other competition seems to be several times as expensive and have terrible specs.
Re:How much RAM? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Android is Linux dumbasses! (Score:5, Informative)
True. However, does Richard Stallman now seem so stupid for asking that everyone call "Linux" systems "GNU/Linux" systems? We now have Android/Linux as well as GNU/Linux, so the distinction actually turns out to be a rather important one to make. Everyone likes to joke about how RMS is a crackpot with bad hygeine, but it seems he's been right more often than not.
Check those numbers (Score:5, Informative)
I'm underwhelmed. The top end quad core device is $130, and they want another $38 for "shipping" (Stated as "$18 to $38). Clearly a 2x2x2 device, even well packed, should cost a lot less to ship. And on top of that, the Android microSd card is "optional". In that price range I can buy a damn nice quad core tablet with HDMI output. Might not have eSATA support, but will have USB support and will have a color touch screen, battery, accelerometers and position sensor (and maybe a Gyro or even GPS) and a lot more utility. Or if you want to go completely low end you can still get low end tablets for close to the base price of this device.
You would be much better off buying a Pi, or hacking a ChromeCast or ever a hackable Linux based router. This looks to me like another "me too" device to profit off the community funding model.
Re:How much RAM? (Score:5, Informative)
My problem with RaspberryPi for file server is the 10/100 ethernet. Gigabit is cheap and prevalent. I understand the keeping costs down aspect though.
The rPi has enough ethernet issues that Gigabit wouldn't make much difference (there are people who will sell you a 'gigabit' USB 2.0 NIC; but that's because there are bad people, not because it works all that well). The ethernet, and both accessible USB ports, are provided by a combo NIC/USB hub switch dangling from a single USB2 root port on the SoC. Since SD cards top out at fairly low capacities, that typically implies that the USB bus will be dealing with mass-storage chatter between the rPi and your external HDD enclosure and ethernet traffic for whatever file serving protocol you are using. Not Fast.
Re:How much RAM? (Score:4, Informative)
Not a cabinet like a kitchen cabinet, a cabinet like circuit breaker box mounted in the garage. It needs to be ruggedized so that it can deal with high dust, high humidity, occasional bumps, not ruggedized such that I can throw it off the rim of the Grand Canyon to be found in perfect working order by whoever comes next after humans are extinct.
I want people who are building small, moderate power computers to be thinking that I want a cloud in my home. I want to walk over to it periodically and replace some kind of failed storage device. But other than that I'd like the damned thing to be mostly hands off and not something I have to fit into the decor of my house.
You could buy something like this: http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7700# [embeddedarm.com]
This SKU: TS-7700-IND-800 TS-7700 with the industrial grade (-40ÂC to 85ÂC) PXA166 at 800MHz has the ruggedness you're looking for.
Re:How much RAM? (Score:5, Informative)
Same problem as this model. The Gigabit is limited to 480Mbps (USB 2.0 bus speed). Actually this Cubic isn't all that different from an RPi, they run the same family chips, the same type of RAM, the same type of I/O.
Not true. Ethernet does not go through USB here; it is connected to the SoC directly. See http://boundarydevices.com/i-mx6-ethernet/ [boundarydevices.com] . The Raspberry Pi uses a BCM 2835 from Broadcom, while the Cubox-i uses a Freescale i.MX6 , so they are not the same chip family, they aren't even made by the same company. Raspberry Pi also does not have eSata, while the CuBox-i.