

Allwinner A10: A GPL-compliant computer for $15 - bodski
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/allwinner_a10_gplcompliant_computer_15

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akavel
I have some issues with this whole affair at the moment:

Firstly, in the linked article we can read: "even cheaper computer [...] and
it's being sold in China for $7." Uhm? On the original Rhombus Tech page, it
seems that the Allwinner A10 is just the _CPU_ which is going to be used in
the computer, and it's the _CPU_ which they claim is sold at $7. So, the
computer's sure gonna be more expensive than that. Also, this sentence
suggests, that the computer is already built and being sold. Which is not the
case, and this brings us to the next point...

Secondly, from the original Rhombus Tech page, all I can read now (please,
show me that I'm wrong) is that the computer is only _being designed_ now. On
15 Dec 2011 all they had (at least according to what is reported publicly on
their page) was apparently a rough concept .png collage of overall layout of
elements, and contact to some Factory in Shenzen, China. And they immediately
started taking preorders! As of Jan 2012, they seem to be only selecting
components they maybe could place on the PCB, and designing parts of the
circuit in KiCAD.

Now, to contrast with Rhombus Tech, Raspberry Pi didn't _ever_ take preorders
(they specifically rejected such requests), and already had working and
demoable prototypes (with loads of hardware and software concerns solved)
several _months_ ago. And they still needed corrections, polishing of the
design etc. As much as I'd love to see a computer close to $15, RasPi's
process sounds much more trustworthy to me than Rhombus Tech's. Ok, I
understand Rhombus may need preorders, as they are probably not so solidly
money-backed as RasPi's owner, but for me they're clearly in a much higher
risk group.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
The pre-orders seem to just be commitments, like a less streamlined
Kickstarter, rather than an attempt to get money up front.

As for "computer" both projects seem to be using that term for a credit card
sized board without even a case. The core parts of both however are already in
use in mass-manufacture products. The article seems to talk about the core
chip and the Rhombus package containing it interchangeably.

The Rhombus idea seems to be putting the the chip into a modular package with
a standard interface from which you can build upgradeable tablets or
computers, as well as just use it standalone.

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rrrazdan
From Rhombus Tech preorder page, "Please note: this price excludes a case,
power supply, packaging, shipping, tax, customs and import duty." Add that to
$15 and Raspberry PI comes back into the comparison, not to mention better
chances of having a big ecosystem.

~~~
shimon_e
Unlike Raspberry Pi, this already has commercial success in China. Many
Chinese brand name tablets are using the A10. Allwinner has already reduced
the price to $5. The A10 is very successful in China because it offers the
best performance and power optimisations in this price range.

At $25 Raspberry Pi is a joke. If it actually sees a decent amount of sales,
you will be sure to see actual companies that specialise in this field
competing at lower prices and better performance. Raspberry Pi has realised
something that everyone in the industry knows: computing is cheap. It will not
take long for the competition to crush Raspberry Pi if there is a large enough
market for what they are doing. As for now they are chasing after the tablet
market and IMHO are going to do well.

~~~
talmand
Me thinks you labeling the Raspberry Pi as a joke is a bit, childish. The
thing is barely into production and you say it's already lost to products that
don't exist yet.

Then you say that if the thing is a success then other companies that
specialize in such hardware will come in and crush them. That's highly
possible but I thought you labeled it as a joke? If that situation happens I
would call them leaders in the industry as the "highly successful" companies
needed someone to show them the way.

At some point, one will be able to buy a RaspPi for $25 plus shipping that
requires power and a display; you're ready to go. Where's the comparable
product using the A10 and how much is it?

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ZeroGravitas
This looks pretty good. The powerful combination of Free Software, ARM chips
and Chinese manufacturing seems to have been ready to go for the last few
years but has been held up by culture clash, language barriers and suspicion
between the software and hardware manufacturing sides, and the lack of Free
Software friendly GPUs.

This could finally be the dam-breaker, particularly if some of the cheap
devices (complete tablets/phones etc.) produced by manufacturers uninterested
in GPL compliance could still be used because the chip manufacturer is on
board and providing the necessary support info.

edit: I was mistaken, the Mali GPU still requires proprietary code for 3D, I'd
got it mixed up with the OMAP in my Samsung Galaxy.

 _"Regarding Software Freedom: the caveat regarding this CPU is that it
requires ARM-proprietary libraries for the 3D Graphics (as does virtually
every single suitable consumer-grade embedded SoC on the planet with the
almost exclusive sole exception of the Ingenic jz4760 and some of the TI ARM
Cortex OMAP and Sitara SoCs). However, simply not using the proprietary MALI
3D GPU does not impact any other functionality in any way."_

Still one more step in the right direction.

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mvikramaditya
Do any of the similar low cost products actually have a success story? Or do
they all get hyped to death and end up failing?

~~~
moylan
well at the moment similar priced products are far lower specced. but of the
small list here ( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-
board_microcontroller#Se...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-
board_microcontroller#See_also) ) i've played with 3 of them. they are doing
well. now for the same price i can get a system that will do 90% of my
computing needs with the right addons? yes please!

there is a market for small systems like these, embedded, remote locations,
areas were space is a premium. it doesn't have to be a huge market to be
successful.

i like low specced systems. my main computer between 94 and 99 ran on 2 aa
batteries for a week at a time. i reckon it's more likely that people develop
wearable computing and other new technologies when building blocks like these
are commonly available.

just my 2c.

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6ren
specs <http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/>

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jgw
Am I understanding correctly that this is based on an ARM core, as in licensed
from ARM?

As an ASIC design guy, I have a hard time calling this "GPL-compliant
hardware" when the main non-trivial component is closed source.

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gnollr
I would treat this announcement as vapourware ...

"Rhombus Tech" parent company is "RH Technology Ltd", which is located at
"Wessex House, Oxford Road, Newbury RG14 1P". Wessex House is the location of
a services office company called "Inigo Business Centres"
(<http://www.inigo.co.uk/>)

... This does not look like a company with the resources for mass production
in the near future.

It's one thing for a group to tell you that it will sell you for $3 a quad-
core SoC with 16GB of RAM that will work on a watch battery, it is another
thing to do it. It only makes sense to compare this product to the rPi once it
has started rolling off the production line.

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felixfurtak
hmmm, think we've been here before

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xxiao
i was told this is a UK jobless guy that is trying to leverage some Chinese
factory/chip to stir up things. Too good to be true? save your time here, I
was excited when i first saw this too.

