Linux on a stick

damian24 said:
see the bold section below... wasn't comparing to a company oracle DB... just a phone :whistle:

Alrighty, since this thing ais a complete machine in it's own right, how do the smart phone guys justify another R5000 to add a screen, case and battery?

Oh yes, crazy marketing budgets, dev teams and... dare I say... profit...

D
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Woops..... I blame my tag line :p
 
I think this is a great little device and I applaud the intention that it will expose learners to some of the nuts and bolts of computer hardware and software rather than how to do spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations (important skills though these are.)

This device is at prototype stage at the moment but I'm sure the developers also see the wide range of possibilities for applications such as embedded devices, robotics, control, thin clients etc. Provided the project is successful, I'm sure we'll see other interfaces such as ethernet and wifi that will enable this device to thrive in a connected world. A VGA video out might be better for developing countries where poorer sections of the population don't have access to HDMI monitors but USB as the primary interface makes sense given the range of peripherals that could potentially connect to it.

I also think that we shouldn't sniff at the 700MHz clock speed as ARM chips are based on a RISC architecture and the clock speed doesn't directly reflect their performance compared to most current PC processors. The ARM has always given quite a lot of bang for your buck and it is more than capable of performing useful work.

Nice little bit of kit. Hopefully Raspberry Pi will go from strength to strength.
 
damian24 said:
Alrighty, since this thing ais a complete machine in it's own right, how do the smart phone guys justify another R5000 to add a screen, case and battery?
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This thing is a charitable project so profit is probably not in the equation. And $25 is probably cost -- not wholesale, definitely not retail.

And a smart phone has a bit more to offer. GSM radios, Wifi radio, Bluetooth radio, GPS receiver, accelerometer, magnetometer, audio transceivers, distance, light, touch, smart battery sensors, never mind graphics chips, ROM, and whatever else, and then the other important stuff: a brand, software, and support.

The question that amazes me is: how do the smartphone guys do all that for just R5000 extra?

Watch this and imagine he is talking about a smartphone not a pencil :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Gppi-O3a8
 
InvisibleJim said:
Nice little bit of kit. Hopefully Raspberry Pi will go from strength to strength.
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It's excellent. I am loving this modular SoC approach. Got myself a WD HD TV Live recently for only about 3x the price of this (not bad considering WD is not a charity) and man it works great.
 
moer said:
What this would be awesome for is home projects, building prototypes (think security, control)... I'd love to see what can be interfaced on the visual side too... like colour e-ink etc for long lasting battery powered devices, etc. The main thing is that the OS remains open - drivers will be developed by the community and it will open up a whole new avenue for amateur electronics fundis and systems developers. Watch some big firm make a huge offer on the outfit to shut it down before it takes off.
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Exactly what I was thinking, imagine this + an Arduino type board and you could make almost anything yourself and it'd be SMALL. Even your own smart phone or tablet (after all, Android entry-level phones only run 400 - 600 Mhz)
 
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