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Ubuntu Android Linux Business Portables Linux Hardware

Quad-Core Stick PC Runs Ubuntu 72

Posted by timothy from the these-are-getting-awesome dept.
New submitter asola writes with this cool piece of small (ha!) news from Liliputing: "This Freescale i.MX6-quad based stick will officially support Ubuntu in addition to Android. This is a first among the newfangled category of ARM-based stick PCs. This Ubuntu may very well have the hw accelerated Gstreamer plugins created by Freescale for the i.MX6 so full HD video playing will be available under Ubuntu as well."
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Quad-Core Stick PC Runs Ubuntu More

Quad-Core Stick PC Runs Ubuntu

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  • I can almost see the product behind the watermark (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 03, 2013 @10:41AM (#42462295)

    ...in the picture.

  • Wondering if anyone has tried making a mini render farm out of these small scale units, for 3D rendering, video effects rendering or even cracking passwords.
    The only reason I see doing it is price point, GPU's these days kick ass on all of the above but typically can be more expensive.

    • I had been tinkering with the idea of implementing HPC tasks in Javascript so that the compute nodes can be anything with a web browser. It wouldn't be the most efficient thing in the world, mind you, but I think it would be an amusing way to structure distributed computing. A popular enough site might be able to overcome not using GPUs just by sheer brute force of its viewership.

    • You'll probably get much more bang for the buck, for the watts, and for the physical space, if you use GPUs.

      There are video cards with 4000 processing cores available for under $400, look for HD7970x2. That is $0.10 for each core. No way a cluster of small computers will beat that.

    • I'm waiting for these SoCs to be packaged a dozen at a time on a DIMM-style board. Slap a hand full of these on a motherboard for flexible expansion.

      There's minimal demand for this. It's just my prediction of how computers might evolve as power and price drop to levels that make adding computing power as simple as adding RAM.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Why wait? See if you can come up with a rendering solution that's effective but cheap and market it, there is more demand than you might think.

  • a new connection format (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Charliemopps ( 1157495 ) on Thursday January 03, 2013 @11:27AM (#42463053)

    What these stick PCs need is a new connector that carrys full HD, 7.1 audio, power to the stick, mouse, keyboard, and remote control commands. Then TVs could include this format, you plug in your CPU stick and viola... your TV can run anything you want. Anyone could write their own TV OS or whatever. Ok kickstarter, kickstart this.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      And I want a pony. Wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which fills up first.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jedidiah ( 1196 )

        You can already do this with low profile machines and have been able to do so for quite a long time already. The idea of extending that to a PC on a stick is not really that far of a stretch really.

        The main problem is that your USB ports will take up more volume that what's taken up by one of these thumb PCs.

        • That's my point. It should have a single connector that the Stick PC plugs into and then you're done with it. The TV would have its own controls, and maybe USB hub. The TVs remote could have buttons that affect the PC via USB... etc... Monitor/HID/Audio should be in the TV realm and then whatever processing power you want to plug in should be your own. Apple TV sucks? unplug it, plug in Google TV... dont like that? Go with a media portal stick. Etc...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by afidel ( 530433 )

      Nah, having used one of these you just plug it into HDMI and USB for power (both are on the back of most TV/displays today) and use Bluetooth for keyboard/mouse and WiFi for networking. We got a couple to use as the drivers for a digital signage project, plug it into the back of any tv and turn it into a digital sign that you can update over the web. The things we found missing for that application were GPS for inventory management and cellular for updates at sites that lack WiFi coverage. We could have use

    • Well, it's my understanding that MHL (on the newer Android phones) already has specs for all of that.

    • You're proposing to plug the mouse and keyboard into the TV .... instead of the stick? It sounds like you want to have the TV act as a KVM switch, which seems a bit odd unless you plan on having multiple sticks installed... I'm guessing you're in the very far minority that would want that.

      Aside from that, TVs really do need a new connector. HDMI already supports full HD, 7.1 audio, ethernet, and CEC. There's enough there to let the stick control the TV, and get network service from the TV.

      The power want i

      • Screw the keyboard and mouse. Someone needs to take this and integrate it with LeapMotion's motion control sensor. Mount it to your coffee table or put it on your couch and just control the TV with your hands. That's a bit of work, and the controller hasn't shipped yet.... Small set back. Maybe an app for your phone or tablet even would be far better than a keyboard or mouse for a TV interface.

        Even cooler would be to (in addition to an app or motion controller) add voice control, maybe something that i

      • Aside from that, TVs really do NOT need a new connector.

        FTFM.

        Epic fail completely changes post intent.

    • Any new connection standard that's limited to the paltry "full HD" resolution should be aborted before it sees the light of day. It's okay for movies, but not for computing displays.

    • I've been doing this for years. My TV is a 30" Planar touchscreen monitor. Plug it into the HDMI port on my laptop: Instant touch screen home theater system. Plug it into my Galaxy S3: Instant giant Android tablet. Plug it into my Roku: Instant Netflix box. I predict that eventually televisions and monitors will merge into a single appliance because there's really no point in having a TV with its own internal logic components that will be outdated in a year. Oh yes, Sony and other manufacturers are fi

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by n7ytd ( 230708 )

      What these stick PCs need is a new connector that carrys full HD, 7.1 audio, power to the stick, mouse, keyboard, and remote control commands. Then TVs could include this format, you plug in your CPU stick and viola... your TV can run anything you want. Anyone could write their own TV OS or whatever. Ok kickstarter, kickstart this.

      How about an HDMI connector with Ethernet? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Version_1.4 [wikipedia.org]. The connector is the easy part.

  • Elimination of clutter? (Score:5, Funny)

    by asylumx ( 881307 ) on Thursday January 03, 2013 @12:25PM (#42463871)
    What a great idea! Let's get rid of the machine and JUST have a nest of cables!
  • Netflix supported Ubuntu.

  • Usage Scenarios, Retardation of Linux Community (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ilikenwf ( 1139495 ) on Thursday January 03, 2013 @02:58PM (#42465867)
    Were it me, I'd want one for a media center on the TV, running Android for the native Netflix support and XBMC, and then I would keep the other in my backpack or pocket or something for a go-anywhere backup machine. That said, it would have Debian or Archlinux arm installed, since Ubuntu is a steaming pile.

    I really wish that bloggers and promoters would stop saying something "runs Ubuntu" without regard to other Linux distros. No device is exclusive to Ubuntu. If it runs a Linux kernel, it can run any Linux distro compiled for it's given architecture. This blind devotion to Canonical's sub-par distro is why we have so many retards clogging up Slashdot, various mailing lists, and forums with stupid questions beginning with "my Ubuntu is broken," or "Help me fix my Ubuntu." These people think Ubuntu is the end-all, be-all Linux without having tried anything else.

    These ignorant people need mentors and education so that they can grow and evolve, trying other distros, and maybe even go back and improve Ubuntu to make it a bit less of an abortion than it is now. If you're a Linux vet, you've already gone through that circle, and need to pay it forward by helping educate the n00bs so that we don't get so many retarded questions - or over simplified crap - from Ubuntu and it's users.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by afidel ( 530433 )

      Just run Debian under chroot on Android, that way you only need to maintain one image and you can use it for both purposes. The only downside is X is a little lacking running that way so Linux GUI tools aren't it's forte.

    • +1 I could not agree more. I wanted to barf when I saw this article and comment:

      "Gosh, I just wish it would run Linux instead of Ubuntu"

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