
ODROID-X is like a quad-core Raspberry Pi for $129 - ukdm
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/odroid-x-is-like-a-quad-core-raspberry-pi-for-129-20120712/
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stevenleeg
I like where we're headed with these sorts of devices coming out. There
appears to be some serious demand for powerful and tiny computing devices that
are cheap enough to almost be considered disposable. This makes them perfect
for weekend projects that require a little more umph than a typical Arduino
can handle (and in some cases, like the Raspberry Pi's, they can even be
cheaper).

I'm excited to see what the future brings in this nook of the
technology/hobbyist industry.

~~~
themgt
I think a way to bridge Arduino shields up to a normal general purpose
computing environment at a reasonable cost (e.g.
<http://omer.me/2012/05/introducing-ponte/>) will be the true killer app for
hardware hacking. Being able to write lua/python/ruby/etc to talk directly to
hardware & sensors will be incredibly powerful

There's no way long-term Arduino is going to stay at it's current specs &
environment, any more than TI-89 calculators could

~~~
ballooney
Don't underestimate the usefulness of hard real time io that's easy to
implement. It's nice being able to be able to guarantee that some function
will run exactly 0.2 microseconds after a voltage hits a pin, for example.
Simple micro controllers where you program the bare metal will always have a
place for this kind of thing. Doing that kind of thing in python on Linux is a
can of worms. But, abstracting away comms between a python script on a pc to
an arduino talking to sensors is definitely someone worth perusing, though one
is basically there with pyserial and some glue code.

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outworlder
It is nice that there are more development boards cropping up. But in this
case, it is not such as big deal as the Raspberry is.

What is a big deal is the price of their LCD modules. They are very cheap
compared to what most development kits offer. It is strange that in this
'Retina' world, there are still crappy LCDs being sold by more than $200
(assembled monitors, no matter how small, costing many times that amount).

Granted, these lCDs only seem to work with ODROID-X. Anyone knows of a decent
LCD module that will work with a Raspberry Pi and doesn't require sacrificing
your firstborn? That's for mobile applications (like a carputer), otherwise
I'd just hookup an old monitor.

~~~
joezydeco
LCDs are generally cheap...if you buy them in large quantities. Small
quantities are a bit harder, especially when they go in and out of production
on short notice like they do.

The other cost factor is building the interface between the LCD and the CPU.
Usually you're designing a custom flex ribbon and interface board along with a
power supply for the backlight. Not many of these cheap LCDs use LVDS, they're
all still on old-school parallel TTL.

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yardie
Yes, just like a Raspberry Pi except without GPIO headers, and 4X the price.

A great Nettop PC but a RaspberryPi it is not.

~~~
wmf
4X the price for 8X the performance could be a good deal for some people.

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nzjames
I think one of the great things about the Raspi is that it is not competing on
being powerful, it's got an community aiming at an accessible and fun
experience.

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whyenot
This is a long shot, but in one of the videos on the hardkernel.org site they
show the ODROID-X working with four miniature web cams. Does anyone know what
brand of webcam they are? They look like they would work very well for a
project I'm working on to record pollinators visiting flowers.

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joshu
I think they are normal sized cameras.

Look at the opencv hardware list for stuff that is highly linux compatible.

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yuvadam
Hmm, no obligatory info on how the "quad-core" affects power consumption vs.
the Raspberry PI.

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gcb
[http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.ph...](http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G133999328931&tab_idx=3)

"Normally ODROID-X consumes about 1A [at 5V] in most cases. But it can go up
to 3A if you use some USB hard disk drives in parallel."

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ChuckMcM
Nice, looks like a fun little box. Although its another data point in the
'how-the-heck-is-ouya-going-to-cost-99-dollars' question. I wonder if Samsung
is more forthcoming on how to program the GPU than either Broadcom (RPi) or TI
(Panda/Beagle) are.

~~~
wmf
No, Mali is just as closed as PowerVR.

~~~
bronxbomber92
Are there any boards out there that have an open GPU?

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chj
Wait, isn't that Nexus 7 only selling at 199$ with same cpu cores plus a nice
touch screen?

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nl
Funny how this gets a great reception, but people think the Ouya will fail.

The Ouya is roughly the same power as this, $30 less, in a nice case with an
out-of-the-box consumer experience.

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zerohp
This is a real product that has been built. The manufacturer is shipping at
the end of July and has several other arm boards to their credit.

Ouya doesn't have anything more than some marketing.

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joshu
are there any arm boards that are supported by ubuntu/debian/etc out of the
box?

i bought a couple of boards and they all run their own minor variants.

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rektide
Sure, Openrd/sheevaplug/dreamplug/&all, the marvell series, run Debian with
ease.

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joshu
straight up? direct from the debian repos?

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nivertech
Does ODROID-X ARM Mali GPU supports OpenCL?

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mtgx
This one no, but the next-gen Mali T604 one, does, as well as OpenGL ES 3.0, I
believe.

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nivertech
I looking for ARM-based boards/computers for OpenCL development. Any
suggestion?

~~~
mtgx
I suggest you wait until the new GPU architectures come out at the end of the
year or early next year. They all have OpenCL 1.1 support, including Mali
T604, Adreno 320, Tegra 4 and PowerVR 6200.

Mali T658 coming out late 2013 will have 4x the performance of Mali T604, I
believe thanks to the shared cache between the CPU and GPU, which should
increase the compute performance.

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rektide
Four times the cores, four times the cost!

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duaneb
Is there no link or am I just blind?

~~~
stevenleeg
Nothing a quick Google search can't solve:

<http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/main.php>

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drivebyacct2
Not to be a sour-puss but there are a large number of these boards available
now. It's exciting, but there really are quite a few of them. I think XBMC may
be entering an even newer phase of awesome with the ubiquity of these.

edit: How does one find out what video codecs are supported accelerated by the
Mali 400?

Also, wow, that's a cheap wifi module.

~~~
j-kidd
Yea, I am not sure if "quad-core Raspberry Pi" is that much of a selling
point. CuBox is much more interesting with:

\- gigabit ethernet

\- e-sata port (with port multiplier)

\- infrared receiver

\- out of the box, already comes with a box

\- comprehensive wiki for a development platform

By the way, a 150 Mbps wifi dongle is sold for about 5 USD here (I too was
surprised by how cheap the wifi module is, and went to check the price list).

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voltagex_
Any idea what bus the eSATA port is attached to? the DreamPlug is similar to
the CuBox but the eSATA is hooked up internally via USB2, limiting its speed
dramatically

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j-kidd
It says 3Gbps here:

[http://www.solid-
run.com/mw/index.php/CuBox_hardware_specifi...](http://www.solid-
run.com/mw/index.php/CuBox_hardware_specification)

I am just about to place an order. They finally have stocks, though the
current price is 10 USD more compared to the pre-order price.

~~~
drivebyacct2
They do finally have stock? There was a thread just earlier this week where I
mentioned this but there was a linked forum post where they've not been
fulfilling preorders, etc.

Plus there's some straight up weird stuff on their Word doc exported "Spec
Sheet".

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gcb
put that into a ms natural keyboard, a LCD screen in the center, call it Fuchi
Cyberdeck I, and sell it to me for 10x more!

